by Sharon Morris, ALA, Colorado State Library
Thinking about the future is an odd thing. How do we imagine something that has not yet been? The best thing to do is to open our minds up to new ways of thinking. Below are some strategies to try.
- Embrace uncertainty. The thirteenth century poet, Rumi, said, “Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.” In other words, to see things differently, one must start with confusion.
- Take time to dream. Take a walk, stare out the window, sit quietly and let your mind float from subject to subject. Notice any images or vivid memories that come to mind. Be nowhere and everywhere. Imagine and dream.
- Talk it out. Share your ideas about the future with other future-minded people. They will keep you looking ahead. They will help you expand your own thoughts and ideas. Also, listen to them. It is often easier to see what’s next for others than for ourselves.
- Join forces. Form a confab with others who read about the future so you can keep each other up on things. Share blogs like this one with each other. Schedule time regularly to talk about new innovations and ideas that each of you is discovering.
- Don’t just imagine, try stuff. If you have an idea, do something to make it happen. Jump in and explore. Start small with a pilot project. Even mistakes and failure can lead to wildly unexpected innovation.
- Read widely. Review blogs, journals, and publications from other fields to determine how they envision the future. This kind of environmental scanning can help you identify common themes and issues that may indicate the salient future trends.
- Be curious about problems. At times, issues in organizations point to a need for systemic change. Finding opportunities where others see only barriers will open new paths to the future.
- Give up perfection. We no longer have time to be mired in the drive to do things perfectly. We have to do what is good enough now so we save time to explore what can be.
- Use our values. When you hear of a new technology, tool, or resource, view it through the lens of our values: access for all, intellectual freedom, privacy, and intellectual property rights. Will the emerging technology or innovation enhance or challenge those values? If there is a conflict, how might you resolve it?
- See space. When learning to draw, students are encouraged to sketch the space around an object instead of the object. This gets them past their preconceived notions of what a common place object “looks like” and actually gets them to see the real shape. This attention to space rather than the object can apply to many things. You can notice the silence between words as much as the conversation. You can give attention to the time between activities as well as the activities. This builds awareness at a different level and opens us up to perceiving things in new ways.
–If you have remarks or would like to contribute your own strategies for being future-minded, please add them to the comments below.–
Sharon Morris is Director of Library Development and Innovation at the Colorado State Library and a doctoral student at Simmons College studying Managerial Leadership in Libraries. She convenes the Council for Library Development, a futurist think tank for Colorado libraries and other statewide initiatives. She is also the current President of the ALA Learning Round Table.
I’m working on #8. I need to make more time for #6. I love reading magazines when I get a chance, it’s just a simple way to get a lot of new ideas at once. Reading usually leads me to item #2. Good tips, thanks for sharing!
These are intriguing, both the taglines and the explications. Some are good advice in general, but some are interesting strategies for the task of looking forward. Take #5: “Don’t just imagine, try stuff.” It’s appealing advice for something that doesn’t exist yet (the future), but it’s also the best way to get there. Exploring can get us out of mental ruts, which we all have. And “Use our values.” It may seem obvious, but I bet we often forget to look at change through the lens of our professional values. A Buddhist friend mentioned a similar approach he takes with all his choices now: does it end suffering and promote the end of suffering (my inelegant paraphrase). Sometimes, a checklist helps. Also, #7: “Be curious about problems.” It’s a natural reflex to avoid them in every way. The very aversion we feel can serve as a flag to stop and look closer. Just as with exploring, looking closely, and openly, at problems can allow for new and skillful solutions. What a pleasure they can be. OK, one more. “Join forces.” There’s the mob and there’s the community of friends. Having trusted friends to help examine ideas is a precious thing. Writers need the imagined “reader over the shoulder” as well as the reader who can be trusted to read carefully and speak honestly. Anyway, for most journeys, it’s nice to have company. It seems being future-minded is less about prophesy and more about the attention we pay right now.
You had me at “Sell your cleverness…” (I’m a sucker for a good Rumi quote.) I’ve read and re-read the most a few times now, and it strikes me as not just an effective roadmap for being future-minded, but an excellent recipe for being centered, open, and creatively-oriented. I guess if you nail those three, you’re well-positioned to ponder and plan for the future.
If I had to pick one item off the list to reinforce, it would be #9, “Use our Values”. I strongly believe that if we (individually, or as a profession) are clear on our values, our purpose, then we can continually reinterpret and re-express those values in whatever situation we find ourselves in. Our values will always light the way, providing a form of “celestial navigation”, helping us make important choices as we navigate into the uncertain waters of the future.
Thank you Sharon for sharing this wonderful, thought-provoking piece!
What I like about this list is that it is mostly about openness and orientation. We too seldom grant ourselves permission to be confused, to stare out the window, to chat up our friends, to poke around the literature, to imagine vast and imperfect emptiness around things. We somehow think that we’re not doing anything when, in fact, all those things crack open the wall between us and the possible. And unlike other prescriptions for futurism, this list has a timelessness to it. It’s not just an approach to library issues, it’s a way of life. Beautifully written.
Like Peter said, you had me with strategy #1. I think the most important aspect in becoming future ready, is always viewing the process as a positive one. Change can be hard, but in the end it’s usually for the best. Very well-written article, all 10 of the strategies are great discussion points.