As a professional futurist, I am a strong proponent of strategic experimentation. The future is accelerating so quickly, and technologies and trends are advancing and converging at such a rate that is impractical to believe strategic planning alone can “research away” all of the uncertainty that the future holds.
Therefore, I advocate businesses take incremental action right away. Action, however, implies risk and risk implies occasional failure–and no one likes to fail. The result, all too often, is that nothing much ever seems to happen.
To address this shortcoming, leaders should create a TIARA award. A tiara is, of course, a jeweled crown typically worn by royalty. My TIARA award is only an acronym and it should be awarded to any individual or group within your company or organization that demonstrated the courage to Take Incremental ActionRight Away. (Get it. The acronym spells TIARA.)
Now, your TIARA award doesn’t have to be an actual tiara—although that might be cute. It can be anything that provides your team or your employees a tangible incentive for taking action. Such external recognition can go a long way toward creating a culture of action.
As Zig Ziglar said, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great.” Maybe a little tiara can be just the incentive your team needs to get started.
