Reader, Rin Duong I focus on strategic thinking for business leaders. Here are five things to ponder: Lifecycles are destiny. Products, businesses, even careers start, (hopefully) grow, mature, and decline. You need to rethink, reinvent, and reposition all of them as needed. Evolve at least as fast as your environment is evolving – or become irrelevant. AI is the most recent catalyst for business and career evolution. It won’t be the last. Customers age a day at a time. Tomorrow’s target...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Reader, Sometimes a picture is worth a lot of words, so this week’s issue of MindPrep Reflections is short and sweet. Charlotte Mills It’s always “today” when you decide, but every decision plays out in the future. In fact, every decision is a bet about the future. Sometimes the future is near and sometimes the future is far. Sometimes our decisions produce that results we want; and sometimes they don’t. If you want to make better decisions in the “here and now” you must do two things: 1....
12 days ago • 1 min read
Reader, Intercept the Future A few weeks ago (MindPrep 308) I introduced this cycle and provided some comments about the first stage of intercepting the future – scanning. I promised to jump into the second phase but was sidetracked about my IdeaQuake musings. Nonetheless, I’m back on track and have a few comments about the need to guess where the future is taking us. I say “a few comments” because the work associated with guessing about the future is hard work and we don’t have time for that...
19 days ago • 3 min read
Reader, The last issue MindPrep Reflections dealt with the work of scanning the larger environment and I told you that I would address the need to build hypotheses (i.e., guess) in the next issue. However, I started thinking about what I was seeing in today’s business and political environments, and, for some strange reason, I started thinking about earthquakes. That lead me to think about the relationship between earthquakes and “IdeaQuakes.” Bear with me as I explain my thought process....
26 days ago • 1 min read
Reader The last issue of MindPrep Reflections introduced the general framework for an upcoming workshop focused on “intercepting the future,” which is built around answering four fundamental questions. They are: What’s going on? >>> Scan the larger environment. Where is the future taking us? >>> Guess and build hypotheses. Can we intercept the future? >>> Decide on bets about the future. How are we doing? >>> Act and adapt. Answering the first question requires that you actively scan the...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Reader, Can you predict the future? NO ….. Can you anticipate the future? YES Can you eliminate surprises? NO ….. Can you reduce the impact? YES The past few issues of MindPrep Reflections have ended with suggestions about a “forthcoming” workshop focused on intercepting the future. Here are my thoughts. This workshop will explore tools and techniques you can use to better prepare your company and yourself for the inevitable surprises of “the future.” It is not intended to develop...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Reader The last issue of MindPrep Reflections explored the concept of wicked world dragons and gave some examples of these dragons over the past 200 years. I ended that issue with a promise to look at the need to learn from the past, deal with the present, and intercept the future when considering the dragons in your world. Why? Learning from the past builds hindsight (wisdom from the past). Dealing with the present builds insight (clarity about the present). Intercepting the future requires...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Reader, I mentioned the dragon metaphor in the last issue of MindPrep. Why? Because they thrive in the wicked world in which we live and operate our businesses. This world is not just filled with puzzles, but also with complex challenges (good and bad) that morph as we try to resolve them. These challenges defy simple solutions. They blur the line between cause and effect and resist conventional planning. It’s a world where supply chains crumble, customer habits shift, and technology moves...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Reader The last issue of MindPrep ended with three realities: Linear thinking is obsolete. None of these frameworks support the notion that you can define a problem clearly, solve it once, and be done. Cause - effect relationships are scrambled. Strategy must be adaptive, not predictive. Wicked worlds, VUCA, and BANI all warn us to stop trying to control the uncontrollable. We must scan for signals, place bets, learn, and revise often. Emotions and cognition are inseparable. BANI highlights...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Reader , This is long (about a thousand words) so get a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. Part 1 of 2 Many of you know that I’ve been writing about wicked worlds for a while and that my “summer project” is to write a follow-on to the 2006 book The Prepared Mind of a Leader. But while researching and thinking about wicked worlds I kept coming across two other acronyms, VUCA and BANI. Since all three might apply to my quest to explain and find tools for today’s mess I did a bit of...
3 months ago • 4 min read
