The Office goes Back to the Future

While none of us have a crystal ball we’re pretty fond of trying to look ahead to what the future might hold for us. As far as organisations are concerned a competitive edge only comes with predicting what’s just around the corner. I’m pretty scathing when it comes to business buzzwords, but I actually quite like the term ‘Horizon Gazing’. I think it evokes an ethereal quality, staring out at the setting sun. In many ways this is what we might as well be doing if we’re trying to predict the future.

Potential vs performance

What’s more important to your company, it’s future or its past? Any business leader worth their salt isn’t going to think twice before answering. The future, of course. No matter how you’ve performed in the past, the future is going to bigger, brighter and better. You’re not moving backwards, you’re moving forwards. Your talent strategy is fully aligned to the vision, with targets cascaded throughout your performance framework, ensuring you’ll have the right people in place to deliver. Well, that’s great, but what’s missing?

Six Degrees

My story starts a little under 80 years ago, in 1936. It was the year that King George V died, and King Edward VIII both ascended to the throne, and then abdicated. It was also the year in which the controversial Summer Olympics took place in Berlin and was used by Nazi Germany to impress it’s ideas of racial supremacy. Now largely viewed as a strong pre-cursor to the Second World War, it is also lesser known as the first sporting event to be televised live.