It’s true that you cannot predict everything, but you can accurately predict more than enough to elevate plans, accelerate innovation, and transform results.
By developing something called an Anticipatory Mindset you can elevate your anticipation of change, advance your plans and raise the way you approach your business, your industry, your relationships, and ultimately lift up your life to produce transformational results.
You may have heard the expression that the future holds only two certainties — Death and Taxes. However, there is a third certainty frequently overlooked, often avoided, seldom anticipated, and usually deeply feared — change.
Like death, change is inevitable, so why not plan for it and use change to your financial advantage?
In a world filled with uncertainty, an Anticipatory Mindset provides you with the confidence needed to make the correct bold moves necessary for success.
So what is this mindset? And, how and where can you get one?
According to the book The Anticipatory Organization, Anticipatory Mindset it is the ability to accelerate innovation and growth by learning how to anticipate disruptive problems and game-changing opportunities before they happen. This mindset is already available to you and only requires a slight mindset tweak- embracing the idea of change and seeing it as an opportunity for growth and advancement.
Well, that sounds simple, doesn’t it? However, the old saying, “Easier said than done,” comes to mind.
Daniel Burrus, one of the leading technology forecasters and innovation experts says, “It’s true that you cannot predict everything, but you can accurately predict more than enough to elevate plans, accelerate innovation, and transform results.” And Daniel should know because he is a strategic advisor to executives from many Fortune 500 companies, helping them to develop game-changing strategies based on his proven methodologies for capitalizing on technology innovations and their future impact.
“People love change. Babies are born loving to be changed.” Daniel Burrus says. He has a point.
The future is far more certain than we realize, and by focusing on the skill of anticipation we can elevate our relevancy and impact the world of transformational change. This is not something only psychics or tarot card readers can do. It is an innate skill we use in our everyday life for survival but do not seem to realize we can also use in our business life for profit.
Here are some current examples of change that were anticipatory and left people wondering why they had not thought of them first:
The cab driver who wished he had thought of Uber
The hotel owner like Marriott who did not anticipate the power of Airbnb.
Why did big companies like Sony, Dell, Blackberry, and Sears, to name a few- who all knew how to be agile and execute strategy, rapidly fall behind in the business world? And, what about small companies, entrepreneurs, and individuals who were blindsided by change and forced to close their doors or lose their jobs? How could having an Anticipatory Mindset change their future for the better rather than disrupting it for the worst?
An Anticipatory Mindset would have helped the companies, and individuals, to distinguish between Hard Trends that will happen from Soft Trends that might happen and adjust their business course accordingly. This mindset would also give them the skills to:
Anticipate and pre-solve problems before they occur
Use Hard Trends to accelerate innovation and results
How to use the opportunity of change to skip your biggest problem because with change they may become irrelevant
How to turn disruption you thought was outside your control, into innovations that you, yourself control.
Digital transformation has divided the world into two camps: the disruptor and the disrupted. In which camp would you prefer to be?
It is much like deciding if you want to be the windshield or the bug. The windshield is the disruptor, while the bug is permanently, and possibly terminally… disrupted. Which camp are you in right now?
And, that brings us to the million dollar question. “Is all disruption bad?”
According to Daniel Burrus, “No. Disruption can be a necessary part of change.” Perhaps disruption from natural business and organizational advancement is the essence of the saying, “Out of chaos comes new order.”
When cleaning out your closet it is often easier to throw everything out in the open, on the floor, and sort through it to find those nuggets of gold in the form of clothing that fits your lifestyle now. When others see a mess, you see opportunity for improvement-change.
With business and political uncertainty at all-time global highs, it is imperative to learn how to find the golden nugget of opportunity in change when others only see challenge and disruption because as the rate of change accelerates, uncertainty also accelerates.
It is time to see and shape your future now before you are left behind and tomorrow becomes a time of overwhelming confusion that touches your personal life, which ultimately affects your health and sense of well-being.
The Anticipatory Mindset-it’s a game changer. Are you ready to play to win?
The 15-minute VIDEO below is with author Daniel Burrus who has written seven books on this subject and is considered one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and innovation experts. The interview is filled with golden nuggets of information, AND- a link to get a FREE copy of his latest book The Anticipatory Organization: Turn Disruption and Change into Opportunity and Advantage. Yes, you read that correctly- A Free Book. Enjoy!