By Susan K. Furness, Edgewalker Senior Associate
If there is one thing I have long-since known, it is that you cannot know the future. So, when Dr. Judi Neal named “Sensing the Future” as one of the five Edgewalker Skills I was immediately drawn to the conversation.
The notion of Sensing the Future speaks to me in a number of ways.
- Sensing the Future speaks to both the creative and logical me, reminding you don’t know what you don’t know and you definitely don’t know the Future until it is has moved through being Present, to become the Past.
- Sensing the Future stirs my sixth sense of Intuition into play to power-up other ‘sense intelligences’ (hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, tasting. When I combo the embodied knowing of intuition with what I (perceive) I know, I notice how graceful ‘movement’ becomes.
- Sensing the Future offers me comfort as I give myself permission to stay present, to vision what could be next, but not labour on, or yearn for, what is next now.
I am nudged to consider the difference and/or relationship between Knowing and Sensing. The author Mark Nepo suggests its common to confuse plans with planning, dreams with dreaming and love with loving. Mark also shares that every book he has written has been discovered on the way to unplanned destinations.
This sparks a smile, as my legacy career has me ‘labelled’ Marketing Strategist. Indeed, my 30-year old company, Strategic Solutions bears the responsibility of its name in a (business) world I now know to be more fun, much more real and much less worrying in un-strategic surrender, especially as we navigate to AC (after corona).
I am not mooting the absence of the age-old stalwarts of the Strategic Plan – Mission, Vision, Objectives. Rather, I am appreciating the exchange of vocabulary to ignite a ‘different’ felt shift, or movement, in myself, the team, the client, the customer, the marketplace, the reader, the community …..and some.
Try these vocabulary exchanges on for size and shift :
- Mission becomes Purpose which becomes Reason which becomes…
- Vision becomes Reality which becomes New Reality…
- Objective becomes Intention which becomes Sense…
The best part is you get to choose the Vocabulary Energetic that works for you and for your Sense of the Future, or perhaps your Sense of a New Reality.
Here’s some to practise as we make ‘quantum leaps’, noticeable or not :
- Timeline becomes Pulse which becomes Rhythm
- Strategy becomes Method which becomes Recipe
- Tactics become Tasks which become Rituals
According to Dr Neal, the Edgewalker definition of Sensing the Future is ‘the ability to understand and embrace the future’.
Let’s take the last bit first.
Embracing the future is an ability we all have, as each breath we take carries us forward. However, it may not be an ability we recognise or enjoy.
I wonder, is this because the future is always just ahead of the point of arrival?
As I ponder, I am aware that understanding the future, especially one we don’t know, is where turmoil can kick right in. Enter the Edgewalker archetypes of change – Hearthtender and Guardian.
The Heathtender – or Heart-Tender – looks kindly at me and says, para-phrased from Anthony De Mello : ‘Find truth in observation, not opinion….’ I take this as embodied observation by listening to the intuitive heart first, before asking my head.
The Guardian or Doomsayer steps forth looks me squarely in my knowing eyes and states : ’It will be alright in the end, and if it is not alright, it’s not the end….’.
I chuckle. That appeals to my sense of play, as well as my feel for the future, as tomorrow shows up, right here and now. Please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Dear Susan, I was puzzled to see mission as the start point of mission, vision, objective, so let me explain why. Whether we appreciate it or not, the future is ours to create, and our intentions are crucial to whether we succeed or not. Years ago I trained in NLP and was fascinated by the process of future pacing where you identify what you want to be doing some years ahead and then check whether it is consistent with you. I have used the process to evaluate a company when I am asked to help them improve. The steps are to first notice how you experience the environment they create, then notice how they behave, what skills and capabilities they utilise, the beliefs and values that underpin these and finally discover their identity. The impact just doing this can achieve is amazing because it can expose their true challenges, but that is not where it stops for an individual as I discovered when I had to model this as the subject for a training exercise. The trainer then said that if you know the person well you can ask another question, and because we knew each other well she asked, what sense do you have of being a part of something greater than you that enables you to be fully who you are? For me having answered all the previous questions I was in a state of heightened bliss, but as I reflected on this last question it transcended anything I have every known or experienced as my mind seemed to open up to the universe and the only way I could describe it, many hours later, was as if I had become unconditional love.
So what did I make of this experience? Well it was clear that it can only begin with vision, for that is the highest plane we can sensibly appreciate. What is your personal vision for this world? For only when you have articulated this can you consider what your individual mission is, and then sensible objectives to spur you to achieve this vision. When I was the CEO of a variety of organisations I realised that my vision didn’t change, but my role in that industry would demand a different mission because the vision of the organisation needed to be created, and as we did that their mission became clear. My vision was universal, and within a group of people I understood that we had to collectively create a group vision to inspire everyone to commit to its mission and objectives. My sense is that edgewalkers do this to some degree anyway, but maybe unconsciously in many cases. However it should be the case that your personal vision will naturally embrace the group vision because as a group it will be limited until they embrace the sense that the more universal it is the more inspiring it becomes. We can all sense how we can impact a truly universal vision, but when the vision is to be the top dog for instance, you create separation, an us and them.
The first time I realised this I changed the way I advertised for a senior manager in a hospital group and was explicit about our vision, I also broke all the ‘rules’ about how and where to advertise this post. Normally I would expect at best 20 enquiries and maybe 10 applications, but on this occasion we received 800 enquiries of which 600 turned into applications and began a turnaround that shocked everyone as we quickly became the ‘go to’ workplace. We may not know the future, but with an inspiring shared vision we can certainly create it……
Hello again, Rex;
I am making this reply fresh today, Forgive my tardiness, please.
I so enjoyed your story sharing. Indeed, an associate in Australia,. Bernadette Jiwa calls marketing ‘a series of helpful conversations’. This value-full descriptor can be used for all conversations I feel, especially those we have as coaches with leaders across life’s spectrum, appreciating the leader in all of us.
And I join you in the puzzle of what comes first – mission, vision or vision, mission? I am ever perplexed.
At its core it’s a bit of a chicken and egg scenario I feel?
Here’s what comes to me as I write – like the jigsaw, it’s good to have all the pieces present (unless a piece is forever lost under the sofa of course!). It’s then a matter of what piece goes where or comes in where to complete the ‘game’…..or are there rules?
Oh, I don’t know but I do know that the Edgewalker in me isn’t too keen on rules, rather more comfortable with guidelines. Chuckle.
Of course, I am reminded now that the placement of pieces needs to be precise in a jigsaw. It’s in life – and business planning – that the pieces can likely change order, level, stage and even state depending on the project in hand and the point in the game (and of the game) as well as the playing field…..?
Which brings us beautifully back into practise with the Edgewalker Skill of Sensing…… and the freedom to choose what we move or not.