Ready for the future?

I’ve been giving some thought to the issue of leadership in organizations and have come to the conclusion that although leaders have lots to do right now, their ultimate responsibility is to prepare their organization (team, department, business, church, government) for the future.

The past is history, from which we should learn.

The present is a mix of problems to be resolved and opportunities to chase.

However, the future is where all of us and our organizations are headed. Some of us will make it and hopefully thrive. Others of us will falter and never arrive.

Leaders need to intercept the future. They need to tackle problems before they get big and grab opportunities before others do. To paraphrase the late Peter Drucker, you cannot make decisions in the future, you can only make decisions today that will affect the future. (Confused? Yes, you will make decisions a year from now. But when you make them, it will be the present.)

Don’t spend too much time thinking about what you will do – spend time thinking about today’s decisions that will shape your future.

How will we respond to ….?

Here are variety of things that “someone” better think about and plan on intercepting. All are real and “hiding in plain sight.”

• Gen-Alpha: Generation-wise, Boomers are history, Gen-X is getting ready to retire, Millennials are understood, and Gen-Z are the topic of today. But Gen-Alpha is in school as you read this. They are your future customers and workforce. Will your HR department be ready for them in five years, or will your HR professionals have to understand them “on the fly?”

• Electricity: I grew up in the 1950s and electricity and cool things like TVs and air conditioning took advantage of our wonderful grid. My gosh, even my uncle’s farm in Wisconsin had all the modern conveniences. And we just knew that we would never run out of power because of the new nuclear plants being built.

Times have changed. The grid and the generating stations are old and ill-maintained. Solar is wonderful, but the sun sets every day. Wind is free, but not always reliable. And, at the same time, the auto industry is shifting from internal combustion engines to battery powered motors. Bottom line – greater need but weaker system.

• The next pandemic: We, collectively, were foolish and not prepared for Covid-19. People got sick, people died, businesses closed, and we spent (and sometimes wasted) a LOT of money dealing with this global event. I guess leaders around the world thought that the problems were “over there” and that viruses would never get on an airplane! We were nuts!

As I write this the H5N1 virus has wiped out chicken flocks around the world and, more alarming, has jumped to mammals. It hasn’t jumped to humans – yet.

We will have another pandemic – and we will just wait for it to hit us. “Somebody” should get ready.

• Civil war: We have government officials who have alluded to a coming civil war in the United States. Red vs. Blue. Conservative vs. Liberal. Whatever. Frankly, I’m frighted of the prospect of a bunch of gun-toting knuckleheads yelling at each other because they refuse to compromise. Hopefully, we’re smarter than that.

However, I’m convinced we’re already deep into a domestic version of the Cold War. The USA and the USSR had a war of words and diplomatic “moves” based on differing ideologies. We thought it would subside when the Berlin Wall came crashing down, but Putin has managed to heat it up again.

We are in a global and civil cold war today and our so-called leaders need to keep it from getting hot.

• Food supply: Crop failures + H5N1 + climate change (yes, Virginia, its real) + availability and cost of imported fertilizer + supply chain weaknesses + political instability = shortages. (My UK friend Robert is growing tomatoes because he can’t buy them at the local supermarket.)

I remember when there were defined seasons for fruits and vegetables. We may be going back to that.

• Artificial Intelligence: ChatGPT is the fastest growing computer app of all time – it went to 100 million users in just two months. Will it become Microsoft’s “Clippy” from the Windows 97 days or HAL 9000 from A Space Odyssey? All we know for sure is that popular technology gets more sophisticated as it grows. My first cell phone was a Motorola bag phone with an antenna and a wired handset.

Isaac Asimov postulated the Three Laws of Robotics back in 1942. I wonder if they apply to ChatGPT?

• Aging population: I’m a leading-edge Boomer and when I was born in 1946 there were about forty workers for each Social Security retiree. Today the ratio is about 3:1. We, and all industrialized nations, are aging. And, yes, that includes China.

We all age a day at a time. Will our social safety nets be adjusted to reflect the population reality of the coming decades.

Your turn

I hope you’ll give some concerted thought to the issues that will impact you and your organization in “the future.” Our upcoming course will provide some practical tools and techniques you might want to use to intercept your future.

By the way, I’d REALLY like to hear what’s on your mind about the future. Please send your thoughts about the future.

BTW, this is a version of out MindPrep publication. If you’d like to get on our mailing list click HERE.

Thanks,

Bill