Coordinates 05.20
Welcome to Coordinates 05.20
Have you felt it over the last few months?
Time has been distorted. When did the pandemic start? Has it been 1 week? A year? It can feel like it.
Or, have you taken in, for example, how organizations didn’t support employees working from home only to figure it out within days, ramping infrastructures and creating systems to make it possible?
The future has been moved up. Time shifted.
As leaders, we are called upon to view different time horizons. We must deal with the urgent today, and we also must think about the future, on different horizons.
3 months out. 6 months out. 12-24 months out. 5 years out.
In this issue of Coordinates, we offer tips on Thinking Forward through Futures Thinking and Scenario Planning. In addition to our article, be sure to check out the report link from The Board of Innovation in the Innovation section below. It’s a good complement to your own futures planning. I also recommend the podcast, “How to Build Strategy, Start with the Future,” noted in the Worth a Listen section. It features Mark Johnson from Innosight sharing his wisdom on Futures Thinking, as well.
On another note, I’ll also call your attention to the Google CMO survey results that provide a great perspective on what a CMO is being called to do in today’s business world from a Board perspective.
And, one call-out from the Self Care & Indulgences section—if you’ve never experienced Pop Up Magazine, I highly recommend it. It’s airing online FREE this Wednesday, 5/27.
Then, as you enter summer, may time slow down for you.
Remember the power of pauses. And carve out space for you to think on multiple horizons.
Here’s to longer days, sunshine, and contemplating the future.
One that you have power to shape.
Kathy
P.S. Remember, if there’s anything I can do to help, please reach out. Happy to be a thought partner. Happy to research a topic that would be of practical use to you and your teams. Continue to take good care of yourselves!
Leadership Corner
Think Forward - The How To of Futures Thinking & Scenario Planning
Leaders are challenged to think on multiple horizons given the pandemic—addressing short-term needs and stemming the crisis, while considering the longer-term effects and how to come out the other side. All during a time of significant uncertainty.
It does seem unusual. Yet, one could argue this is what business leaders do all the time—deliver business performance for the current 1-2 years, while defining a strategic plan for a sustainable future that is unknown.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution already had businesses rethinking their business models due to its significant changes and impacts. Yet, how many business leaders were actually actively looking into the future and building scenarios to consider that informed their course of action?
With the degree of uncertainty associated with Covid-19, future forecasting and scenario planning should be added to your strategic planning process.
Learn more about the How To's in the full article here >
Insights to Inspire to Action
Leadership
Dan Schulman, PayPal’s president and CEO, inspires and is leading the way in how to be a leader of our times, one focused on multiple stakeholders and doing good.
Looking for a view of what leaders are grappling with right now? Prophet offers a report with results from a survey to their client base.
Marketing
A helpful study from Google displayed in a cool visual offering a roadmap on what boards are seeking from CMO’s.
Consumer
Consumer risk profiles will guide how they’ll behave during and after the pandemic. We will not all just go back to normal.
Innovation
The work of José Andrés with World Central Kitchen is so inspiring and a testament to smart innovation, utilizing excess capacity and resources that are available to feed those in need during crises. Listen to him on How I Built This with Guy Raz.
A good article on what to expect coming out of this “hinge” event that will create pre and post-Corona virus times. The forecasting happens a bit into the article.
The Board of Innovation is offering a report on what they call The Low Touch Economy. A really good starting point for forecasting what is taking shape and what you might be able to take advantage of given the new economic realities of Covid-19.
Reports from the World Economic Forum on the risks, challenges, and opportunities coming out of the pandemic.
Principles of Beautiful Business post Covid-19: Intimacy, playfulness, and surrender.
ICYMI (which is possible since this was released during the start of the lockdown), Fast Company’s most innovative companies of 2020.
Self Care & Indulgences
Join Pop-Up Magazine, a live performance of stories from writers, radio producers, photographers, filmmakers, and illustrators. It’s a brilliant experience and FREE this Wednesday, May 27.
A helpful promotion. Headspace offering 1-year free to the unemployed.
Digital care packages from Dropbox. Download here.
With Memorial Day upon us, kicking off what would have been summer travel season, travel the world from home with Atlas Obscura.
On Watch, Take Notice
What's Trending
Some short, fun Covid-19 innovation inspiration.
Read more here >
Book in Brief
“The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success” by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp
I recently had the chance to hear Jim and Diana speak at an online event. Their tips for Conscious Leadership can make us all better partners and help us take responsibility for our personal impact on others and in the world. Their methods can help us to operate more “above the line,” as they say, and be more conscious in our interactions.
Read more about the Conscious Leadership Group here >
If you're inclined, get the book here >
Worth a Listen
Consistent with this month’s focus on Futures Thinking, this is a great listen with HBR IdeaCast and the co-founder of Innosight, Mark Johnson. Johnson advocates adding a “future back” element to planning with an eye towards what’s possible and shaping the future, rather than just planning “present forward.” He explains that building future scenarios is not about certainty; instead it’s about how you learn and test your way into the future.
“Never allow a good crisis to go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do the things you once thought were impossible.” — Rahm Emanuel
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