Think: Here’s something to think about: If optimizing short-term accounting measures does not maximize long-term performance, why do we focus on it? This Harvard Business Review article, What’s the Best Way to Create Long-Term Value, will give you plenty to think about.
Think Like a Futurist: Strategic planning is not a substitute for critical thinking. I “cut my teeth” as a strategic planner for the Pentagon and, later, as the head of the Office of Strategic Planning for the State of Minnesota and I can tell you a lot of businesses “do” their strategic planning in a less-than-optimal way. This article by fellow futurist, Amy Webb, offers a wealth of solid advice: How to Do Strategic Planning Like a Futurist.
Think Fast: Walmart recently launched a pilot to begin delivering orders via self-driving cars. This trend could grow very fast. If it does, everyone from automobile executives to urban planners will need to think fast because many families could soon be ditching their second and third cars. (FYI: Grocery shopping is the number 1 reason young people still own a car. If this need disappears so will a lot of cars.)
Think Different: Do you know what solarpunk is? If you don’t, don’t worry, neither did I. Now that I have learned a little about it from this article, Solarpunk is Growing a Gorgeous New World in the Cracks of the Old One, I am intrigued. The reason is because it uses biomimicry, greenery, sustainability, and self-sufficiency to envision a more beautiful future. (Personally, I am tired of all the dystopian science fiction versions of the future. It serves little purpose but to depress people about the future. Isn’t it time we had more uplifting visions of the future?)
Heart-Centered Thinking: In my latest article on Medium, Concessions of a Corporate Tree Hugger, I make an unusual admission. It was written from my heart and I ask that you read it and think about it from your heart.
Until next week: Don’t stop thinking about the future! But also never forget “It is easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than think your way into a new way of acting!”
