Let Foresight Be The Foreground

Reframing your future

The key to mining for development diamonds demands individuals and leaders alike explore, discuss, and embrace the opportunities that this unique time offers. In our book, Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Organizations Need and Employees Want, we offered a framework for doing this through dialogue focused on:

 

 

When we developed and introduced this framework, we believed that the Hindsight, Foresight, Insight sequence made sense. Developing a rich understanding of the foundational inputs to a person’s career (Hindsight) felt like the most appropriate entry point for meaningful career conversations and development. Add an understanding of evolving needs (Foresight) to the mix and opportunities for development (Insight) will become clear.

But the events of 2020 have caused us to rethink this operating assumption. The magnitude, scope, and pace of the changes business are facing today have moved the need for Foresight into the foreground. Research from the Institute for the Future of Work suggests that 85% of the jobs we’ll be doing in just ten years have not yet been invented. So, while certainly Hindsight’s backward and inward look remains vitally important, increasingly this must be viewed through the lens of Foresight.

The past months have screamed at us to pay attention to foresight. We watched as 2020 ushered in a level of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity that feels like VUCA on steroids to many. 
 

Not surprisingly, all of this has inspired new levels of insecurity and uncertainly within the workforce. Seeing many jobs lost or furloughed, those who are left are handling an expanded workload as they wait for the other shoe to drop. And many are juggling this stress in the workplace with compounded responsibilities on the home front.

As a result, it’s no wonder that employees are looking around and wondering what – if any – role career development can play during these trying times. And, while it would be easy to throw in the towel and just wait it out, this is actually the time when careers can be developed most powerfully. Current – frequently crushing – challenges act upon professional abilities as pressure does upon coal, leaving both more precious, multifaceted and valuable. 

Reading the tea leaves and anticipating what’s next has never been more challenging – nor necessary. Unfortunately, the constant stream of change can be immobilizing to employees and leaders alike. Both report a sense of disorientation and confusion about the business and their personal careers. And this can leave leaders reluctant to engage in dialogue about what’s happening within the organization, how big picture factors are impacting the landscape, and what the future might look like – at just the time when they need to most.

The good news is that dialogue is a two-way street. And leaders don’t have to have all the answers. In fact, in Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go, we recommend a strategy that takes pressure off the leader and engages many minds in a thoughtful consideration of the future. We call them Foresight Forums. They are as valid in 2020 as when the book was first published – perhaps even more so.

Nobody can be an expected to be expert in all of the forces and factors shaping the world, business, or the organization. That’s why it’s critical for leaders to help employees develop the sensibilities and habits associated with scanning the environment and considering the implications. And they can do this as they bring teams together in Foresight Forums, conversations specifically designed to jointly explore:
 

The most effective leaders know that when it comes to these heady issues, two (three, four or more) heads are better than one, so they enlist their teams to gather information, research issues, and engage in direct experiences that allow them to begin recognizing and riding waves into the future.

With foresight firmly established as the foundation, leaders and employees can take that hindsight glance. They can consider the strengths, skills, interests and experiences that employees have cultivated to date – and want to cultivate in the future. And when viewed through the external lens of foresight, this internal understanding will generate new insights that will promote growth that’s not only satisfying but relevant today and beyond.