Shaping the future and leadership

Part of the work of leadership is to shape the future, which is tricky given that it doesn’t really exist! As my colleague Robert Burke writes the only way we can relate to the future is by creating compelling images in the present of our preferred future. At the same time we need to understand the present “weights” and “pushes” which will condition that future.

Otto Scharmer argues that part of leadership work individually and collectively is to sense and make present the future (his word is “presencing”). My view is that for us leaders the future can often look like a brick wall or a confined tunnel – you are a football player heading towards goal but on the playing field all you can see ahead of you is a wall of opposition players. Here the leadership act is to sense a small crack in the wall and to apply maximum leverage to open it up further.

How can individuals and collectives sense these present openings into the future and bring that future into present reality?