Four careers over 50+ years. USMC, engineering, consulting, education. Past twenty years have focused on helping leaders become and remain relevant during times of change.
MindPrep 283 – Bets on the Future
|
Reader Every decision you make today 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. It’s always “the present” when you decide, but every decision plays out in the future. If you want to make better decisions in the “here and now” you should do two things: 1. (Re)confirm your assumptions underlying the decision. 2. Think about the unintended consequences of the decision, not just what you want to happen. Sometimes the unintended consequences are good, sometimes not-so-good. Question: Regarding a pending decision, what assumptions must be true for you to succeed? And, what could go wrong? Happy New Year, Bill |
Bill @ MindPrep
Four careers over 50+ years. USMC, engineering, consulting, education. Past twenty years have focused on helping leaders become and remain relevant during times of change.
Reader, This is a bit long. Go grab a cup of coffee. I’ve been writing about wicked systems and wicked problems for a while. I was reading about the latest competing opinions about the Iran war’s resolution, and I realized that it’s a good example of wicked problems. The current Iran conflict possesses nearly all the defining characteristics identified by Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber in their 1973 work on wicked problems. The conflict is not merely “difficult” or “complicated.” AS we have...
Reader, My most recent birthday was one of those “big ones.” Two dials advanced! I was reflecting on my careers and on the changing world in which we live. That took me back a bunch of years to my very first real job – delivering the Chicago Daily News on my bicycle. That, in turn, got me thinking about the big picture of newspapers and “the news.” “Back in the day” Chicago had four daily newspapers. In the morning you could read the Chicago Tribune or the Chicago Sun Times. In the late...
Reader, Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 and for years it was the undisputed symbol of the electric vehicle revolution. It made EVs desirable, technologically exciting, and commercially viable. It was more than a car company; it was a market-maker. It changed consumer expectations, pushed legacy automakers into motion, and created enormous shareholder wealth (especially for Musk). But leadership in one era does not guarantee ongoing dominance. Today, Chinese EV manufacturers such as BYD and...