Are you going to create your future? Or, are you going to let the future control you?

The future isn’t working the way it used to. If you’re not at the driving wheel of your future, then you’ll get run over by the future and be tomorrow’s roadkill.

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

“When it comes to the future, one word says it all: You never know.” ~ Yogi Berra

We are consumed with the future.

Everywhere we look we see many articles and blogs pontificating on the Future and the Future of Whatever, particularly the Future of Work, which isn’t working. As financial institutions are fond of saying: “Past performance is no indicator of future performance.” In other words, what might have worked in the past, might not in the future. Systems leadership and design is based on now — not the never never of later on.

“Past performance is no indicator of future performance.”

Work The Future! Today is the art of the possible, practiced well in advance.

Work The Future! Today is based on possibility — based on asking and answering the question: “What is it we could do today, starting now?” It is the act of embracing the unknown as an opportunity and taking responsibility for it. Predicting the future is fed by the unknown and the fear of the future, and relying on someone else to take responsibility for it.

Futurists are out of date.

Futurists try to predict the future, which now more than ever is the art of the improbable. Systems Leaders try to invent the future by practicing the art of the possible, done well in advance. Technically, you call this ‘adaptive planning’ and it has been perfected by the military because they know that:

“No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.” ~ Helmuth Von Moltk, Prussian Chief of Staff

Futurists get ahead of themselves.

Waiting for the future to happen is like saying, “OK bring it on and then I’ll deal with it.” If we don’t act today, we might not have a tomorrow. Just ask some of the people who stayed behind in the wake of hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and now Maria. If we don’t take charge of our lives today, we don’t know who will be in charge tomorrow.

Working in complexity can surface some difficult challenges, but they are not insurmountable if they are negotiated appropriately and imaginatively — particularly when guided by the North Star of your core Purpose and Values.

The Random Future:

The Random Future, the usual random co-existence that persists in most of the world at all levels, is co-created unintentionally every day.

The Purposeful Future:

In contrast, the Purposeful Future is built through collaboration every day. It is literally to Work The Future! Today, which can be your path to go from zero to hero, today and tomorrow. It can take your future path from where you came from and now are to where you could and should go — soaring to fully realizing your individual and shared potential and purpose — instead of flat lining or declining.

At Work The Future! Today, we strive to meet you where you are and collaborate with you to get you to go to where you want to go. We’re Systems Leaders and Designers for What’s Next. Status quo busters for the Powerful New Know.

“But we know for sure that these are days when the improbable can become the inevitable.” ~ New York Times