Tips for Making Your Futurist Group Vibrant

 by Dave Stein
 

In today’s “chronologically challenged” (not-enough-hours-in-the-day) societies, there is substantial competition for one’s already limited disposable time, particularly among people who have diverse interests. To make your futurist group viable and vibrant, your imperative is to make it a priority for a sufficient number of people. That is, you must win “hearts and minds.”

 

This has been no small task even for FUTUREtakes. However, based on principles that have served us well, we are pleased to offer the following tips for success in anticipation that you will also find them useful:

 

1. It starts with vision and possibility thinking. Think and dream big – in terms of your futuist group being all that it can be. Ensure a continual infusion of new ideas, new energy, and new vision to keep your futurist group ever vibrant and to build and leverage the “contagion of enthusiasm.” Otherwise, your futurist group will eventually become stagnant and will suffer a “contagion of complacency” or “contagion of apathy.” There are too many exciting potential growth paths for your futurist group, and you will not want to seek contentment as a caretaker president.

 

2. Next comes commitment and action. It is rarely a shortfall of good ideas that limit volunteer organizations and efforts! Set goals that support your futurist group’s vision and that motivate you and your team to do the necessary “legwork” for goal achievement. As we have observed elsewhere – you can’t talk your way there, you can’t vote your way there, you can’t “policy” your way there, you can’t “oversight” your way there, you can’t “org chart” your way there, you can’t “advise” your way there, and you can’t spend forever planning your way there! 

 

3. Be willing to make bold moves when appropriate. It is leadership – not tinker-at-the-margins management – that wins the “hearts and minds” that will bring you members, activity participants, and volunteers.

 

4. Continually question hidden assumptions about what your futurist group must be and how it must operate. For example, do your officers consist of a president, a vice president, a secretary, and a treasurer because these are the officers that other organizations have? Periodically ask yourself and your team some “outside-the-box” questions. Also remember that the winning hand for today is not necessarily the winning hand for tomorrow. If it were, there would be little or no need for futurists!

 

5. Be observant! Remain alert for weak signals, even during periods of outward vibrancy. If unheeded, weak signals often amplify with time. Eventually they will get your attention, but perhaps in a way that is not to your liking. Also learn from your observations of other organizations – their successes as well as their lessons from the “University of Hard Knocks.” (Indeed, it is our own such observations that have made possible these tips for success that you are now reading.) Otherwise you risk enrolling in this “university” yourself. 

 

6. Avoid dysfunctional behavior. Here are two time-tested and proven ways to destroy a good organization and push away the builders and leaders whom you need as volunteers – ways that you will want to avoid: 

 

1. “Majoring in the minors” – in other words, thinking and dreaming big but then acting small, focusing too much time and energy on administrivia and trivialities. Matters such as trinkets for speakers, the book or CD to be raffled at a futurist group activity, or whether you refer to your governing body as a board or a council are not the things that will make or break your futurist group. 

 

2. Thinking, dreaming, planning, and talking big – forever. Visions and dreams are essential first steps toward your futurist group being everything that it can be, but (in computer parlance) endless discussion buys you a “don’t loop” that keeps your futurist group goals at the proverbial starting block and again drives away good volunteers.

 

Some volunteers may indeed remain, but when they observe that endless talking and planning is acceptable behavior, they will themselves become “tainted.” 

 

7. There is one type of volunteer whom you do not need – the one who has no time or interest to do legwork for your futurist group between board, council, or committee meetings but who invariably finds or makes time to attend meetings to talk about doing things. Again, you will find that it is not a shortfall of good ideas that limits your futurist group.

 

8. With rare exceptions, having advisors is ill-advised! This includes former futurist group officeholders who contribute nothing beyond words or who otherwise overstay their value added. Such arrangements almost invariably benefit the advisor far more than the organization. By definition, advisers are talkers, not doers, and this implicitly volunteers others to do things. You know where this generally leads – nowhere. Although corporate memory can be useful, it is to little avail if there are few or no people to do the legwork necessary for achieving your futurist group’s goals.

 

9. Above all – lead, don’t merely manage. Leaders inspire others to expend the additional effort to manifest a better tomorrow, and they focus on transformational change. In contrast, managers are generally more concerned with process, which is far less conducive to winning hearts and minds. Being a leader is knowing when not to be a manager!

 

We invite you to give these principles a try and to share your resulting experiences.

 

About the Author

David Stein is editor-in-chief of FUTUREtakes. and a professional member of the World Future Society.