Get comfortable thinking about the future—or get left behind. The IA Team shares a few quick habits that you can put into practice to grow your futuristic thinking skills.
Episode Transcript:
If you aren’t thinking about the future, you might find you’ve been left behind.
Futuristic thinking is one of those essential skills for innovators and leaders, but it doesn’t always come easy. Obstacles often pop up in the form of fires to put out and productivity goals to meet now. However, if you can set aside some time to develop this skill set, you’ll certainly see the results in the long run. Here are some quick habits to put into practice:
Identify futuristic thinkers in business and in your industry. Follow them on social media, read their books, or listen to their podcasts, and as you familiarize yourself with their thinking, you find you begin to adopt their ideas and think more about the possibilities ahead.
In the same vein, spend time with the futuristic thinkers in your circle and then journal about your conversations. This will anchor the ideas even further in your mind and expand your futuristic thinking abilities.
And lastly, think of the future in increments. Ask yourself, “What am I going to do next week? What about next month? Next quarter?” And set goals based on those answers.
This will help you measure and reflect as you hit your milestones, and you’ll become more comfortable thinking about a year, two years, three years, or even five years out.
Learn more about growing your futuristic thinking skills in this 90 Seconds of Innovation series here or by subscribing on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts so you don’t miss an episode. Tweet your innovation questions to @ebaiya. | Header Photo by Sora Shimazaki via Pexels.
