How to drink the future from a fire hose: Don’t defend. Open wide.

I admit it. I am a “people-r-great” geek.  Most everything I read, hear and watch filters through my coaching lens: How can this help someone be a strong, creative leader in uncertain times?  How will this have someone see she has a choice and that there’s an alternative to feeling victimized?  How can this shed light on how to create a productive team?

The speed of progress and technology is shocking us, literally. Orson Wells’ signature, doomsday voice begins the movie adaptation of Alvin Toffler’s book, Future Shock, published 40 years ago this year: “Future shock. There’s a sickness which comes with too much change, in too short of time. It’s a feeling that nothing is permanent anymore. It’s the premature arrival of the future.” In that same interview, Stuart Candy, a futurist (http://futuryst.blogspot.com/), says “the value of [Toffler’s] book was to teach people that the best defense against the future is to think about it, to imagine different scenarios and to try to avoid being taken by surprise.” (NPR interview at: http://tinyurl.com/2aj2wyo).

Note-to-self: Avoid being surprised?  What kind of future would that be if we could figure it out, nail it down today? Explore the resistance that might underlie Stuart’s statement.

Here’s my view about the future coming at us like we’re drinking from a fire-hose: Rather than figure out the “best defense against the future… and avoid being taken by surprise”, let’s get good at being effective with change (my link blog post), using it to forward our goals.

For those of who like the punch line first, then the trail leading to it, here it is:

• Punch line: Being defensive throws us into the past and pulls us away from the present and the future. High-performance lives in the present, not the past. The more you defend, the more your performance decreases.
• Trail: Consider what happens to you when you are in a defensive mode.  By the way, I got better (and less defensive) at observing myself from an outstanding Strozzi consultant and coach, Susan Geear (http://susangeear.com).  Here’s what I do. Physically, I clench my jaw, grit my teeth, furrow my brow, raise my shoulders toward my ears. Emotionally, I feel afraid, wary, tentative, nervous, on edge. Mentally, I tell myself “Don’t let them get you”, “Get them first”, “Why don’t they like me?”, “I’m right! They’re wrong.”  Being defensive, I become the poster child for “digging my heels in”. Result: My effectiveness goes out the window.

Being defensive, we hunker into the past and close off the future. Essentially, when we dig our heels in, what we really dig is a grave in which to bury our capacity to innovate, adapt, see new solutions and create the kind of relationships to create the future that matters to us. Rather than thinking about defending yourself from the future with its yet-to-come wonders and challenges, open wide, create and commit to a future that matters to you.