You’ve set your goals and mapped out your plans for 2027 and beyond, and you might even have a rock-solid process to help you deliver them. But every plan relies on what you believe the world will look like a year, two years, or five years from now – and the world keeps moving. Good project planning helps you achieve a goal, but you need something else to ensure that goal still makes sense when you arrive.
https://swiy.co/go-the-future-in-motion
As a leader, if you’re setting goals now and making plans for 2027 (and beyond), do you also have a plan for staying on track?
You might say:
“Yes, obviously, Gihan! We have a very good project planning process to make sure we can achieve our goals.”
That’s good, but you also need a second plan: a plan for monitoring the future.
I’m speaking at a conference early next year, and its theme is “The Future In Motion”. I love this! Why? Because it’s not “The Future: Set And Forget”!
“In motion” is exactly how we should always think about the future.
We make plans now based on our assumptions now about the future. Right now, as you plan for the future, you probably make assumptions about workforce demographics, AI, climate change and sustainability, the political climate, and a host of other things. And those assumptions are baked into your plans.
But five years, two years, or even ONE year from now, that projected future will change – and those assumptions might no longer hold true.
The future isn’t what it used to be!
So, you must constantly revisit those assumptions and adjust your plans and goals.
To do this well – and make sure it doesn’t fall by the wayside – appoint “champions” in your team to track and monitor the future. Give each champion responsibility for one of the future trends you’re considering – AI, hybrid work, sustainability, whatever.
Their job is to regularly track and monitor that trend. Let them suggest how they will do this – subscribing to journals, listening to podcasts, attending conferences, and so on – and give them the time, money, and other resources they need.
Then, just as importantly, ask them to report regularly to you and the rest of the team. That could be in regular staff meetings, leadership briefings, reports, posts on Teams group chats, and so on.
This is one of the most important components of my Future Scenarios program. A big part of the program is creating plans, but another (smaller, but no less important) part is creating a plan to track and monitor the assumptions in those plans.
For more, join my next free public online presentation, “Seeing Into The Future”, where I’ll share tools like this to help you with your planning for 2027 – and beyond. It’s free and open to all, so register here and invite other leaders in your team and network, too.
Register for the virtual masterclass: