Happy six-month anniversary!
Can you believe that it is six months (or there abouts), since we came together at the Molineux Stadium to gain some expert training from world-renowned applied futurist and growth expert, Tom Cheesewright, around building sustainable success.
As a reminder, Tom’s workshops were built upon the premise that although there have been challenging times in the past and will be in the future, your businesses can protect themselves and embrace opportunities to continue growth and success.
Foresight
We wanted to take this opportunity to re-focus your mind on Workshop 1, which covered foresight and planning skills for business leaders who invariably find themselves in times of great uncertainty, where planning for the future is a critical skill.
Simple Scenario Planning
Tom asked you to pick two factors that will have the greatest impact on your future success. e.g. price of electricity, population wealth.
- Create four scenarios by pushing each factor to its extremes
- Roleplay those scenarios: how would you respond in each?
Pressures
Tom explained that pressures are factors that are already driving behaviour change or affecting business performance
- Net negative: cause friction, reduce profit or revenue, increase costs (but they don’t have to be negative for you)
- Measurable today: unfilled positions, reduced margins, overheads
Tom asked you to describe the pressures on your own business
- Substance: What is happening?
- Impact: Who or what does it affect?
- Metric: How can you quantify this impact? e.g. lost time, loyalty, cost etc.
Trends
Following pressures, Tom, explained trends; factors visible on the near horizon, or that are already driving change but expected to grow in reach/impact
- Net neutral: whether they are positive or negative (for the business) depends on your reaction to them
- Visible today: identifiable in other markets, geographies, cohorts, data
“If you can carve out just 1% of your time to focus on the future, I will show you how to use that time effectively, to keep a watchful eye on the horizon for new opportunities – and any potential threats."
Tom Cheesewright
Intersections
This is where the magic happens. No trend operates in a vacuum: It will have the greatest impact where it coincides with an existing pressure
Look for the Intersections: Can you pair/group Pressures and Trends that affect the same things?
What happens to the different forces? Do they amplify each other? Cancel each other out? Or create opportunities?
What is affected? Look for Trends and Pressures that will alter the same metric (e.g. wages/unfilled positions in digital skills in our example)
What is the impact? Think about how the Trend will shift the needle Will it make the situation worse, better, or create a new opportunity?
Next steps
Intersections only scans the near horizon. In each exercise you will miss things or deprioritise them. The only answer is to repeat regularly.
Set aside one day every six months to focus on the future ~1% of your time
- Refamiliarise yourself with the key concepts in Tom’s Workshop
- Complete the:
- scenario planning
- pressures
- trends
- intersections
- and prioritise!
Next time!
We look at how you can share the story of your business with each of your audience profiles, to create a compelling action.
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