How does your team relate to the future of your organization? Is it relevant for you as a leader?
People have various ways of experiencing their relationship with the future. Based on our previous learning, we hold beliefs such as ‘the future is an opportunity,’ ‘it’s better to live as if there were no tomorrow,’ ‘the future is a repetition of the past,’ ‘the future belongs to others,’ ‘the future is my responsibility,’ ‘only God knows the future,’ ‘the future must be conquered.’ These beliefs and our stance regarding our responsibility and agency in our future lives can determine the future we will experience. Whether we take action or not in designing and shaping what we care to manifest in our future life on a day-to-day basis is more likely if we pay attention, project ourselves into the future, and believe that our actions are worthwhile in influencing it.
Organizations aim to thrive in the present and project themselves into the future. How does this happen? It involves seizing or creating opportunities, going with the flow, or designing the future. There are organizations that, in their present, create and change the once probable future. What sets them apart from others? Some are blind to emerging changes and trends, while others develop needs and bring about transformations.
Cultural evolution and the future
What is the culture of your team, and how does it relate to future creation? How do they perceive future possibilities? Some teams live in the present as a continuous cycle without a sense of the future. Some see the future as recurring cycles, while others live in immediacy. Some believe in destiny and predestination, those who design and seek a strategic vision, and those who care about a common future where everyone thrives. Can you distinguish how your team relates to the future?
The phrase by Peter Drucker, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” is well-known and shows us that culture translates strategy into actions and behaviors that produce results. Culture can even impact the organization’s ability to conceive its strategy.
We understand culture as a way of life through conversation, a closed network of conversations. It’s a web of recurring practices, values, and symbols that emerge to address the specific context from which they arise. They are transmitted between individuals and collectives through imitation.
This closed network of conversations and recurring practices, shared by a collective, has helped address specific contexts and challenges. However, in their preservation and imitative transmission, they need to be improved in solving new challenges over time or in the face of significant disruptions.
The current challenge is to thrive in the future in a world with fragile systems, which generates anxiety due to the level of uncertainty and insecurity it exposes us to. This world is also non-linear because causes and effects appear disconnected and are experienced as incomprehensible. It’s a world where we cannot calculate and control long-term outcomes. What kind of future-oriented culture do we need to develop? What beliefs about our relationship with the future open up possibilities? What practices does your team need to implement to face the challenge of thriving in the present and the future?
Recognizing our current way of experiencing the future is the beginning. What aspects of this way of being open and close the possibility of thriving? We can connect with our realm of possibilities, with people, teams, and organizations that inspire us to identify what in their relationship with the future is worth emulating. What do they believe, how do they feel, how do they act toward, and what do they practice to create their futures? If I succeed in this learning, what future possibilities would it open up for me?
Acknowledging that there are various ways to inhabit the future in the present opens the doors to cultural learning and design, allowing us to choose the way of experiencing the future that best serves our purpose today.
Article initially published in Clase ejecutiva UC by Pablo Reyes and Natalia Cordova.
