Foresight: Embracing Future Change for Bold Transformation
Hindsight brings insight which produces foresight.
Strategic foresight professionals tell us the best predictor of the future is the past. In other words, past and present trends will continue unless something causes them to change. Humans are the perfect example: we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing and we’ll keep getting what we’ve always gotten unless something changes.
What causes us to change? It isn’t actually seeing something we want more. Psychologists tell us people change when the pain of change is diminished by the pain of staying the same.
Change always feels uncomfortable, even painful. But we’ll do it when it looks preferable to what we’ve been doing and where we find ourselves. That requires foresight born of the insight that comes from hindsight.
In my last post, I shared this impactful quote by Janet Hagberg: “A leader’s capacity for influence is capped by their capacity for reflection.” That reflection (hindsight) gives us insight which produces foresight. And foresight is how we remove that cap.
If the best predictor of the future is the past, our reflective practices ought to help us make better decisions for the future. When we reflect on how God has worked in the past, we can anticipate how He will continue working in the future.
Two weeks ago, we looked at the Jerusalem Council. Church leaders reflected on and celebrated what God was doing (hindsight). They learned from that (insight). Then, they made a decision that quite literally saved the future of the church. Their foresight brought unity.
How can we build patterns of foresight into our teams and our personal lives?
I mentioned last week that I’m a wannabe journaler. It took me a really long time to get consistent, but I have spent the last decade keeping a gratitude journal. And I’ve seen its impact – as I continually reflected on and thanked God for how he’s shown up in both remarkable and ordinary ways, I conditioned myself to expect to find something to thank God for in the next problem, even before it happens.
That foresight has come from taking time to reflect on God’s goodness. It didn’t happen in two or three reflections. It grew over years.
Like many, I had always been change-averse. I didn’t want to get uncomfortable unless truly necessary. But now, what I desire even more than comfort is transformation. That comes about as I gain insight from hindsight that produces foresight – and a willingness to act on it.
Will you reflect with me? Apply hindsight, insight, and foresight to your own life. Based on what God has done in your past (hindsight) and what you’ve learned about yourself (insight), what is one thing you are anticipating God will do in your life in the future (foresight)?
Your foresight may be in weeks, months, or years. Whatever it is for you, exercise it now. Then record what God has done.
