Having one person who is explicitly keeping an eye on a particular future event increases the likelihood that whatever knowledge is in the organization has somewhere to go and will be seen holistically. And remember to incorporate feedback from people who may not be sitting in the executive suite. Go back to the periphery for information and insights about these events.
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1.4. Donât (Only) Look Down
âYour executive team and managers are supposed to be looking out for roadblocks. Theyâre supposed to warn you so you can adjust course, or at least grab a helmet.
But sometimes they donât.
So 20 percent of the time, individual contributors need to look up. And they need to look around. The sooner they start, the faster and higher theyâll advance in their career.
Eight practices can help you make sure you are seeing what is going on along the edges.
- Ensure direct connection between the people at the edges of your company and the people making strategy.Â
- Go out of your way to include diverse perspectives in thinking about the implications of the future.Â
- Use deliberate decision-making processes for consequential and irreversible (type 1) decisions. Use small, agile, empowered teams for reversible (type 2) experimental decisions. 4. Foster little bets that are rich in learning, ideally distributed across the organization.Â
- Pursue direct contact with the environmentââget out of the building.âÂ
- Make sure your people are incentivized to hear about reality, not the reverse.Â
- Realize when your people are in denial.Â
- Expose yourself and your organization to where the future is unfolding today.
Seeing around corners is about broadening the range of possibilities you consider paying attention to. Your ability to look into the future is only as well developed as the set of possibilities you are prepared to entertain.
Empowering individuals to take action broadens the amount of experimentation an organization can undertake, increasing its odds of seeing the early warnings of an inflection point in a timely way.
By learning to pay attention to whatâs happening in front of us, we gain more than the sensations of life; we also increase our ability to act. Weâre not thinking about whatâs already happened, about what might happen, about what we have to do later; we are alert to the moment, which is where any action must take place. If our intention is to connect with other people, being present is what makes that possible.