Can the Solution focus and “User’s guide to the future” concepts be used for the definition of the company vision?
The power of future perfect
The concept of “Future Perfect” is an awesome metaphor that can help people and organizations to describe with many details how will be different the “dreamed” situation from the present.
The specific description of the future perfect has also the power to raise the focus towards a “touchable” goal, so to help people also to define the very next steps that can guide them toward that future.
And what about the plan?
Usually the definition of a good future vision has to be accompanied to a good plan that design the route to that future. And usually this phase of the strategic planning can fail because the difficulty of the estimation of every single unforeseen that can happen on the road. So it happens that, after a big effort on designing the final vision, the plan is less useful exactly for this reason.
In order to overcome this problem it can be very interesting to use the concept of the “User’s guide to the future”, presented by Mark McKergow and Peter Röhrig (thanx guys, great job!) during the Budapest SOLWorld.
In a nutshell, the concept says that we don’t need to give a very high level of attention to different level of “future”. The image explain very well what I mean.
And what about the accountability?
Having created a plan with the help of this concept, in which way it can help to remain accountable to the plan itself?
The most important concept that has to be clarified before starting the workshop is linked to the fact that the very next steps and all the plan has to be reviewed periodically in order to implement as soon as possible all the changes that the reality imposes.
Of course, different levels of future deserve different timing of review. The nearest need to be reviewed very often, instead the furthest need longer review periods.
So what?
I’ve used all the concepts described during a workshop with a company and in this moment i’m preparing the complete article on the work; I’ll publish it as soon as possible.
Please, send me your consideration and stay tuned!
The future is both created and negotiable
Insoo Kim Berg
Signs of progress: after Budapest 2019
The SOLWorld conference closed 2 weeks ago and the Hungarian organizing team (thanx for all, guys, you rock!) made a great job with it! The name of the conference has been “Signs or progress” and this concept is really crucial for the SF approach.
Signs of progress: the SF concept
It means that whatever change you are planning, you should learn to focus on every sign of progress you could notice about your path to your success. Only noticing these tiny changes in your way, you’ll be able to learn more about the way you’re doing and also on yourself. Moreover, you’ll be able to check your progress, re-think about your goal and redesign the next steps you’ll need to do in the future to get closer and closer to your goal.
Although the concept is apparently simple, its actual application may not be at all: the signs of progress are sometimes so subtle that they could go unnoticed and get lost in the daily chaos. learning to notice them can in itself be a step forward in one’s own progress. Sometimes signs of progress can also be a simple change of perspective from a past situation, from which we finally learn new things.
Of course, in order to identify them, it is necessary first of all to have identified the objective towards which to proceed and to have defined one or more small steps towards it, compared to the current situation.
My personal signs of progress from Budapest
This is why it is extremely useful to stop and notice (it means taking notes, writing…) what are your signs of progress, so as to be aware of them and be able to make further decisions. And so I want to do with myself compared to the contents of SOLWorld. These are my 3 signs of progress after some days from the conference:
- the introduction of Dialogic Orientation Quadrant as a tool for conduct an useful conversation (thank you Haesun Moon);
- the introduction of the “User’s Guide to the Future” in a next session for the definition of the new vision of a company (thank you Mark McKergow and Peter Röhrig, your concept of the “ants country” is awesome!);
- introduction of some “experiential learnings” steps in a training session (thank you Katalin Hankovszky).
In the next few days I will be monitoring my work again and I will take note of further signs of progress that will tell me that I am moving in the right direction with respect to my main objective.
And you, what are your signs of progress toward your goal?
Devi effettuare l'accesso per postare un commento.