Co-authored by Dave Logan and Steve Zaffron

In our research and consulting work, we’ve found that some human resources professionals are setting a new standard in inspiring workers to perform beyond predictable levels. HR is accomplishing this result by partnering with line management to create new futures for their organizations. A future goes beyond a strategy or vision, and is a palpable expression of what people are committed to creating.


Principles for Generating New Futures

Generating new futures is a radical departure from how executives usually lead change. Normally, top decision makers decide on a new strategy, often in concert with consultants. The executives then travel around and attempt to achieve understanding and buy-in. Even with their passion and persuasion, this usual approach doesn’t gain acceptance. Instead, people talk about the strategy. Nothing fundamental has shifted.

Before a new future can be created, the “default future”—what will happen if nothing unexpected comes along—has to be identified. Unless confronted, the default future overwhelms the best intentions and efforts from HR and line management.


Principle 1: Futures Inspire Action

Creating a new future with a large group of people takes a radically different path; more important, it starts with a different intention: to displace nonproductive conversations with conversations that establish a future so vibrant that people are eager to bring it about. That future creates a sense of urgency, and people’s actions correlate to it. People find themselves
doing things that formerly would have occurred as impossible. All of this comes together in extraordinary performance.

The following question is at the heart of designing applications for generating new futures: What conversations in the organization are missing that, if created and implemented, would leave people with new pathways for action?

Every organization, like every person, is unique. The artistry is in knowing where to begin, so as to accelerate the spread of a future that pulls people toward it, one that contains new possibilities, new levels of results that can be achieved, even new levels of fulfillment and self-worth.

Several years ago, Northrop Grumman, to continue its growth, needed to enter new markets—such as reusable launch vehicles and space exploration systems. But the company’s contemporary track record and expertise was in delivering technology for defense programs such as bomber and fighter aircraft. The last major Human Space Flight contract had been the Apollo Lunar Module in the 60’s. How were the executives with this commitment going to get people on board for a plan requiring a shift in skills and technologies, especially when they had no guarantees it would work?

70 key managers, scientists, and engineers, using the ideas in our book, The Three Laws of Performance, identified the default future—that the company would never make the shift to space exploration, and would drift without direction or strong new sources of revenue. People then asked if this default future is what people wanted. The answer was a resounding, “no!” People then explored what future they could commit to. They then sought specific projects that would express this new future. Among those projects was to be a viable NASA Human Space Flight prime contractor, which they achieved.

While the work itself took time and effort from the entire team, it began with a commitment to creating a new future for themselves individually and for their organization.


Principle 2: Futures Speak to Everyone in the Process

Doug Young, a Northrop Grumman vice president, is one of the new leaders of the effort to get vehicles into space. His face conveys deep intellectual curiosity. With his precise gestures, he demonstrates the kind of exactness that’s required to manage the millions of details his work requires.

Young recognized that there needed to be a future that would inspire and elevate his group’s ability to take on this new challenge.
Using the Three Laws of Performance, with his 70 key employees, Young was surprised — the outcome went beyond his expectations. In his words, not only did people ‘‘move through a difficult time’’ and ‘‘create a real team,’’ but more surprisingly, ‘‘we defined our role within the company and the new marketplace. We suddenly found ourselves being a credible prime contractor for the next Apollo . . . a very positive experience.’’

During the session, one of the participants came forward at a break and said, ‘‘I came [to this facilitated process] because I had to. However, during our discussion, I remembered why I got into this business, which was space travel.’’ For him, that mission was bigger than any company or competitor. ‘‘Now I’m turned on again,’’ he said. ‘‘We are going to travel in space!’’

One of the things that made this effort successful is that people felt that the new future satisfied their concerns. Aerospace engineers, like everyone else,
enter into their profession seeking to make a difference. A new future that is compelling offers the opportunity to make a difference, individually and collectively. The aerospace engineer who said ‘‘I’m turned on again!’’ found that opportunity. When everyone finds themselves in this situation, people pull together for the realization of that future and for each others’ success.

Over time, the motivation that inspired the people at Northrop Grumman would ebb and flow, but the future was there to stay.


Principle 3: Futures Exist in the Moment of Speaking

Future-based language doesn’t describe anything in the current reality. Rather, it creates a possible future to which the speaker is giving their word in the moment of speaking. For example, when a justice of the peace says, ‘‘I pronounce you husband and wife,’’ a marriage is created in the moment of speaking, and a new future is established for the couple. When people signed their names to the Declaration of Independence, the possible future we came to know as the United States of America was created.

Take a moment and speculate about a future for yourself and others that would:
• Inspire action for everyone involved
• Fulfill the concerns of everyone involved —yourself, your family, those you work with
• Be vibrant and compelling in the moment you say it

As with Northrop Grumman, crafting a future takes time. It needs ideas and
creativity from you and many other people. It’s ready when everyone involved says, ‘‘This speaks for me!’’ and they give their word to make it happen.


Building Companies and Lives Around Futures

There are specific actions that leaders can take to construct a future that causes themselves and others to live into it:
1. Commit to the discipline of completing any issues that surface as incomplete.
2. Articulate the default future — what is the past telling you will happen?
3. Ask, do we really want this default future?
4. If not, begin to speculate with others on what future would (a) inspire action for everyone, (b) address the concerns of everyone involved, and (c) be real in the moment of speaking.
5. As you find people who are not aligned with the future, ask, what is your counterproposal?
6. Keep working until people align — when they say ‘‘This speaks for me!’’ and they commit to it.





Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan are the authors of the best-selling book, The Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life, part of the Warren Bennis series published by Jossey-Bass. www.threelawsofperformance.com

Steve Zaffron is the CEO of the Vanto Group, a global consulting firm that designs and implements large-scale initiatives to elevate organizational performance. Zaffron has directed major corporate initiatives with more than three hundred organizations in twenty countries.

Dave Logan is on the faculty at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and is a former associate dean. He is also senior partner of CultureSync, a management consulting firm and has written three books.