If you want to know where to look to understand the future, don’t forget the people already in your team. Everybody brings unique perspectives and lived experiences that could shape smarter decisions and sharper strategies. The best leaders listen to external voices, but also actively include their team in learning about, shaping, and creating the future.

https://swiy.co/go-yes-theres-an-i-in-team

I had an interesting conversation recently with a client I’ve worked with for many years, and we were re-engaging working together with him and his senior leadership team, to help them understand the future. We’ve done this work in the past, but the world keeps changing (so inconvenient, ha ha)!

During our conversation, he asked me:

“Gihan, it’s really good to be working with you again. But where ELSE should we turn to learn about the future?”

It’s a great question! Because understanding the future doesn’t always mean going outside. Don’t get me wrong – I’m very happy to be working with him. But it takes more than one meeting, conference, or strategic leadership off-site.

You need to be continuously learning about the future.

And one of the best sources – which you have at hand already – is engaging your team.

I told him about another client, who again had engaged me to work with her leadership team. I ran two sessions for them to discuss their future initiatives, and I was so impressed with the way she participated in those sessions.

She wasn’t just "the hot-shot CEO" who had brought in the futurist to work with her team. Instead, she went all in herself and participated fully – just like everybody else in the room. She did the pre-work, engaged in all the discussions, didn’t talk over others, and took part in all activities.

This is exactly what a leader should do.

Many leaders and managers think they know more than the people they lead. Oh, sure, they might defer to their role expertise, but don’t forget their broader expertise.

We used to say “There’s no ‘I’ in team”, but that’s exactly wrong now. There IS an “I” in team – in fact, it’s all there is.

Everybody in your team brings different perspectives and different lived experiences. And it’s that individuality, unique, and diverse perspectives that help you understand the future. They see, hear, feel, notice, and care about different things. And in a complex, inter-connected world, they all bring new, valuable insights for you.

So listen to your team, enable them to share their ideas and perspsectives, and use their contributions to create the future.

For more, join my online presentation “Seeing Into The Future”, where I will share more of the things that futurists do to help you understand more about the future. And – spoiler alert – one of those things is listening to the people in your team.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-yes-theres-an-i-in-team

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