Sunday 8 March 2009

Future > now > History

Seems that many people are concerned about what things "are". More than they consider what they "can become" or evolve into.

What things "are" seems less important to me than what they can become. Or be used to.

History is important. But the future is more important. Main reason for history to be important is that is can be used to create the future. Including avoiding some mistakes from the past.

I think kids are often good at this. To see potential rather than judging and deciding what a thing is. And they can use existing things in clever and innovative ways.

When walking through IKEA my son found huge balls made of tree branches. They largest were approximately 30 cm in diameter. Some sort of decoration? Who knows. My son immediately realized:
"Dad, if we ever buy a lion the lion can play with these."

In the company I work for we have framework that says something smart:
"…decisions are made in the context of the desired future state. Analysis of the present state is performed only when needed to clarify the vision and for effective transition planning."

If someone defines something in a new way, explore and see what it can become. No need to correct and say "Wrong". Think instead of the possibilities. "What can this lead to?"

Future and "can become" is more important than now and "what is".

1 comment:

  1. My favorite saying: "Power to the Possibilities!"

    This was the biggest downfall of the whole Reverse Engineering movement. It never assessed for the effectiveness of the methods based on cost -- and shifting focus to various areas of the continuum.

    The non-existent methods of Design Thinking (the ones we seem to extrapolate out of the common thought) do a better job of this: assess for relevant facts to present/challenge common thought (did you know?), then use this 'reality' to frame the possibilities.

    ReplyDelete