Personal Futures and the Long Term Perspective

In February, I’ll be attending a conference in Mumbai (Bombay), India. The conference is the “World HRD Congress” for Human Resource Development professionals.
Why is a futurist attending a conference for HR professionals? Because the organizers have asked me to speak about how Personal Futures can help them train leaders and potential leaders in their organizations in long term thinking—foresight. The title of my presentation is “Leadership and the Long-Term Perspective.”

The presentation will focus on three points:

1. A long term perspective is an important attribute of leadership.
2. Long term thinking can be taught and learned.
3. The personal futures system is an effective learning tool for long term thinking.

The first point will rely on the research by Kouzes and Posner for their books on leadership. The second is demonstrated by the number of universities offering graduate degrees and undergraduate courses in foresight and futures studies. The third point is based on the scalability of futures methods and the Personal Futures system of earning.

The scalability of futures methods is really what makes the concept work.
Just as we were able to scale the methods used by large organizations down for use by individuals, futures methods also scale up. That scalability makes the personal futures system, which incorporate several methods, an excellent way for individuals to learn those methods on a small, personal scale. Once learned and applied at a personal level, individuals will have the knowledge of how futures methods work, so they can apply that knowledge at any scale. More important, they have acquired a long term perspective, that critical component of leadership.

Michael Jackson (Shaping Tomorrow) will also be speaking at the Mumbai conference. He will speak about the future of education.

In July, at the World Future Society Conference in Vancouver, BC, Ufuk Tarhan and I will conduct a pre-conference workshop, “The Power of the Long term Perspective.” If you attend, I recommend downloading the Personal Futures Workbook, 4th Edition from www.personalfutures.net . The download is free. Bring your computer to the workshop with the Workbook loaded. Also, everyone attending the workshop will receive a copy of It’s YOUR Future… Make it a Good One!

I will be sending Tweets from Mumbai. You can follow with @urfuturist