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The idea of leaders possessing “vision” and special abilities to envision a safe future for an organization can sound complex and daunting. And it can be. But “vision” as an exercise in predicting the future is something you and I do every day, on the fly. What are the core elements of “vision” and envisioning possible futures? They are faculties that everyone possesses and can develop with effort and training.
We use many different terms in different disciplines and practices for prognostication and preparing for our best guesses, like planning, strategy, goal setting, visioning, prophecy, predictive analytics, psychic ability, and more (see list in endnote).
Despite its many names and forms, we can’t see into the future with certainty or precision. The biggest reason for anxiety over the future, even short-term, stems largely from discomfort with uncertainty. We’re wired to seek predictability, control, and security. But continuous shifts in aspects of global society, regional circumstances, and our individual lives can often make us feel like we’re on a roller coaster ride into a dark tunnel.
Still, we have native temporal faculties that we employ as tools to probe ahead and envision the possibilities and probabilities. Our vision of possible futures is a synthesis at the convergence of hindsight…
