Show me your Vision and I will show you your Future ...

In today's turbulence it seems like a strategic plan is hoping what you would like to accomplish this afternoon. With the USA working hard to redefine global economics with shifting tarifs for many the strategic plan is attempting to maintain the status quo.

Creator of your strategic Plan you are a forecaster. you are also a Futurist.

While there is no single approach to creating a strategic plan, most approaches can be boiled down to five overarching steps:

• Define your vision.

• Assess where you are.

• Determine your priorities and objectives.

• Outline responsibilities.

• Measure and evaluate results.

The result of Strategic planning is the process where an organization defines its long-term vision, sets clear goals, and creates a roadmap with actionable steps, resource allocation, and timelines to achieve that future direction, ensuring all teams align towards common objectives and adapt to change. In today's environment that is more of a definition of Project Management.

Today your Strategic Plan needs to be more fluid. Organizations still need to look to the future, but must learn to adjust the vision to align it with the demographic changes happening around us.

While swimming the other day with Julie Danaylov she shared the a call to action statement she uses with many of her clients "Show me your Vision and I will show you your Future". I loved it !! It really resonated with me and how often we actually help our clients do the same thing. Now, Julie is an event planner along with her sisters but not your typical planner .... no she is "Cirque Revolution" a combination of dance, gymnastics and aerial performances https://www.cirquerevolution.ca/

But Julie I responded "In many cases our clients either A) Dont have a Vision B) Have a wrong Vision or C) The Vision is not big enough? What then ?"

Julie "In that case, I show them opportunities based on my experience or I may question them into identifying a grander opportunity"

Once again the power of using "Outside Eyes" so if you have a Vision and dont know how you can make it happen ... call us. Don't have a Vision? Let us create one together or feel that your Vision is not ambitious enough ... share it with us. Just call !!

Earlier I stated that as you create your Strategic Plan you are a forecaster as you assess variable inputs (Tariffs, Currency Exchange, Technology Evolution,to name a few). Which in essence then equips you to be the Futurist of your Organization.

Then into my inbox popped a quick blog from Lisa Kay Solomon, Stanford d. school Designer in Residence and author of Design a Better Business on How to Lead Like a Futurist.

I think it has some cool tips and tricks to keep in mind as you develop and execute your Strategic Plan ...

How to Lead Like a Futurist 

Leading like a futurist isn't about following a single recipe, but rather cultivating a set of practices—much like a chef masters various techniques. These practices are about building applied hope, grounded optimism, and resilience, making us more "anti-fragile" and capable of navigating the world to come.

A fundamental truth we must accept is that this present moment might be the simplest we'll experience for a while. The future won't slow down or become less complex; we have to change. This necessitates embracing imagination as a source of strength, not a mere nice-to-have or a trait possessed by a select few. We must incorporate imagination into our strategic planning and organizational development.

We all carry an "official future" in our minds—a view of where our organizations are headed, often articulated in strategic or annual plans. Typically, this view is rooted in past performance, projecting forward based on market data and competitor analysis, perhaps with a sensitivity analysis to create a "probable future."

However, futurists understand that there isn't just one future, and a strategic plan doesn't guarantee its arrival. We must widen our scope to consider a range of possible futures. Cultivating imagination is vital. If we don't allow ourselves to imagine and rehearse various futures—both positive and negative—we risk being blindsided by the present.

The three core practices are anticipation, imagination, and design. Anticipation: Looking beyond industry trends to understand how the broader world is changing and why. Imagination: Envisioning how these changes might play out for our customers and organizations. Design: Making choices and bringing new ideas forward—often without precedent—to create value and bring preferred futures to life, or at least to inoculate ourselves against undesirable ones. It's about building skills in anticipation, imagination, and design, learning our way forward to bring new ideas to fruition.