Seize The Future!

Don’t let the future happen to you. Seize it! I wrote a book in 2021 about how to change your thinking because I predicted the time would come when the old ways of thinking no longer worked: How do you solve the issues of hybrid working and still retain a consistent culture? What does distributed leadership look like? How do you get the right people? What’s the “next big thing” (and how do you avoid missing out)?

If you’re a leader at any level in private enterprise, government, or community organisations, you’ve got to change your thinking. There’s no time to lose! Here’s how to apply System 3 Thinking to create a more adaptive form of leadership and decision-making in the post-Pandemic era:

Change the focus of your attention and your intention

Focus is a critical facility right now. Where you place your attention becomes your reality. If you see hybrid working as an infrastructure problem then you’ll likely focus on IT and space utilisation solutions. All very helpful, but you might be missing the point. If you focus on people you’ll notice a more complex set of responses to Working From Home. In fact, the whole meaning of work has shifted slightly out of focus. The very idea of the corporation has changed. So you’re going to have to experiment and try out some novel ways of thinking to bring the focus back to people.

Draw on the lessons of history

There’s always a tendency to frame a situation through your own experience. But we’re all biased. For example, the Belief Bias played a significant part in the Global Financial Crisis. Experienced traders expected the market to respond in a particular way. When it didn’t they were unprepared.

You use your experience to predict the future, but it’s only good for short-term trends. You can’t see the great cycles of history. Every pandemic has triggered a geo-political shift and we’re in the midst of one right now. According to past history this might play out for another decade or so. How can you shape your strategy to include disruption for the next decade?

Act decisively

Under conditions of unpredictability and crisis you must act. There’s no time to waste. There will never be enough data to confirm your decision. Act on the slightest hint of information. If it feels like you’re on an ice-floe heading downstream towards a waterfall, then jump to the next ice-floe. And keep jumping. Don’t wait to be told. Accept mistakes, and make another decision. The entrepreneurial creed is to fail fast in order to figure out what works.

Protect against emotional triggers

You are hard-wired for three reactions to uncertainty: Avoid facing up to what is really happening; Fight back with your own version of reality; or try to please those around you in the hope of finding a place in their lifeboat. But these reactions are maladaptive in the current situation. So how should you regulate your emotions? First, it’s important not to suppress your emotions. Feeling states are rich sources of information. Tap into what you’re feeling and describe your emotional responses to yourself. Secondly, express your emotions as a thoughtful narrative rather than a knee-jerk reflex. Don’t allow your emotions to overwhelm you. And third, maintain and contain the energy of your emotions in order to fuel your actions. Much as you would keep a fire going in a fireplace without letting it burn the house down.

Find compassion, always

Philosophically, the reason we are in this mess in the first place is because compassion has not be sufficiently central to what we do. “It’s not personal, it’s just business”. But when you put compassion at the centre of every decision then things begin to make sense. What should be the new form of distributed leadership across virtual teams? Practice compassion - for yourself, for your team members, and for your stakeholders and communities. How can you even start to plan a way forward with this much uncertainty? Start with compassion and connect every project and client engagement back to compassion. What’s the “next big thing” and how do you avoid missing out? The next big thing is compassionate leadership. Ask yourself, “how is this decision a compassionate decision?” “How can I practice compassion in this moment?” We must turn inwards in order to progress outwards.

Many hands make light work

It’s an old Chinese proverb but it applies equally well to the need for diversity in your teams and in your organisation. Many hands (faces, ages, persuasions, cultures) make the work of enacting strategy much lighter. We’ve relied too long on clutches of male, pale, and stale leaders at the top, and look where that’s got us. There’s more than enough data now to show that diversity enhances creativity and agility. Even neurodiversity is a recognised asset. How many ADHD or Autistic team members do you have? The “next big thing” could easily emerge from a unique blend of cultural, historical, and individual approaches to solving a problem that no one could have predicted.

Find out how well you use these 6 dimensions of System 3 Thinking to sieze the future by taking the FREE T3 Profile here.

Get the book to learn how to enhance each of these dimensions here. Apply the code s3t2021 for a 20% discount!