Influencing Patterns
Looking forward is entering into what does not yet exist. It can be easy when we are in an environment we can control. But we often find it difficult to make decisions and determine actions.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” —Soren Kierkegaard
The rules for corporate and individual performance are changing.
Employees need to develop new competencies to adapt effectively to their emerging environments, and they must develop these skills and concepts through innovative systems and methods.
Abraham Lincoln said that “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
Although the future is unknown, we can anticipate the patterns that emerge in the system. And we can help shape our future when we are able to identify and understand these patterns. When we can anticipate what will be, we can create the conditions that allow us to influence that future we want.
By patterns we understand the choices, behaviors, and relationships that occur in a certain environment. Those patterns evolve. We make sense of them and refer to them as culture, politics, norms, and conventions.
Glenda Eoyang, Founder and CEO of the Human Systems Dynamics Institute, has taught us to talk about future patterns and the competencies that are necessary for effective adaptive leadership.