The Future is not a destination

The future is not a destination. The problem we face in a world that demands absolutes is that people think that they're looking for a specific answer to the future, that it's possible to have a forecast, a single answer, one prediction. Their typical response is to go looking for that single answer. They're looking for someone to give them a soundbite, a trend report, a single industry forecast that will tell them exactly what to do, what steps to take next, almost as if somebody can give them a paint-by-numbers approach to the future. But the problem is nobody knows exactly what the future is. It's not a single destination that we can reach. So what is the futures thinking move? Let me introduce you to the Futures Cone. The Futures Cone helps us to realize that Going into the future, there's a whole range of possibilities. We find ourselves here at the beginning, and it's easy in this point to make decisions that will change which direction we go into. But over the years, it gets more difficult to walk some of those decisions back. The entire cone outlines all of the possible ways that the future could unfold. Within that cone, there are things that are a bit more plausible than some other alternatives. But right in the middle is where we are probably going to end up if everything keeps moving in a specific direction. So your futures work is to get to know what that range of possibilities is. But when you look at that probable future, if it's not one that you want, you might discover that you've got a more preferred future in mind. You do need to know what that preferred future looks like, and for many people, that is a very difficult step to get to themselves. Going back to the present moment, if you see that things are working in a specific direction, you know that you need to make a change now when that change is a little easier to make so that you can aim closer to your preferred future. What are the benefits of this thinking? In doing this exercise, you get to develop some flags or indicators that will show you if you're moving more towards one direction or another, and then you can respond to that. It's a great way to help your team to cope with the uncertainty of the future by giving them a language and a landscape to work within. And lastly, it helps you to make those decisions of things you want to avoid or things that you want to pursue in order to actually have the successful future, the preferred future that you're aiming for. My name is Charlotte Kemp, and I'd love to help you to explore this landscape of possibility for yourselves and your organization.