Looking Beyond the Rearview Mirror.
An image of a car dashboard showing how the navigation panel shows your current location, the rearview mirror your past and the windscreen shows your futures.
Updated 09 August 2025
IWhen you're driving, where do you spend most of your time looking?
The rearview mirror?
Straight ahead?
At the navigation screen?
If you're like me, most of your focus is on the road ahead—scanning for obstacles, assessing conditions, and ensuring you're heading in the right direction. Sure, you glance at the rearview mirror and navigation from time to time, but your main priority is preparing for what’s coming next.
Now think about your business. As you work towards growth and impact, where are you focusing your time and energy? Are you reviewing the past, addressing today’s pressing issues, or looking ahead to anticipate what’s next?
For many leaders, the majority of time is spent looking back—analyzing past performance, solving immediate problems, or wading through today’s data to stay on track and avoid surprises. But how much time do you spend looking forward? Even when you can spare a moment to plan ahead, it often feels insufficient.
What if you could shift your focus? What if you prioritised forward thinking—planning and decision-making with a long-term view?
The Power of Foresight.
In today’s fast-changing and uncertain world, relying solely on past data isn’t enough to prepare for a range of futures. While historical data helps guide short-term decisions, it often falls short in dynamic market conditions. This is where foresight comes in.
Foresight isn't just about predicting a future—it’s about imagining possible futures, preparing for them, and making informed decisions today. It enables leaders to think 5-10 years ahead, using a mix of tools and strategies to envision potential outcomes and navigate uncertainty with confidence.
Unlike traditional strategic thinking, foresight is more creative and action-oriented. It goes beyond analysis to inspire proactive planning, helping leaders anticipate opportunities and challenges while shaping their preferred future.
Thinking 5-10 Years Ahead.
In a world dominated by 1-3 year plans, foresight pushes you to think further ahead. Here’s how it can benefit your business:
Craft a Compelling Vision: Engage your team and stakeholders to create a shared vision of the future—an imaginative yet reliable picture of the world you want to thrive in.
Spot Opportunities Early: Use scenarios to identify opportunities and risks before they fully emerge, giving you time to respond proactively.
Stay Ahead of the Unexpected: Anticipate unwelcome surprises and prepare solutions in advance, keeping you one step ahead of competitors.
Foresight isn't a replacement for forecasting; it complements it. While forecasts rely on past data, foresight equips you to navigate uncertainty and take action in a rapidly evolving world.
Understanding Change.
The first step in foresight is identifying and understanding the changes shaping your business, industry, and society. Key types of change to watch include:
Inflection Points: Critical tipping points where trends accelerate and lead to significant change—positive or negative.
Trends: Emerging patterns in behavior, mindsets, or sentiments that gain momentum over time.
Drivers: Forces created by combining multiple trends, directly impacting your operating environment.
Contradictions: Conflicting trends or forces driving change in opposite directions, creating tension.
Weak Signals: Subtle indicators of potential change, offering early warnings of larger shifts to come.
Bringing the Outside In.
Foresight emphasises "bringing the outside in" by examining external forces—societal, technological, economic, environmental, and political—that influence your business. By understanding these factors, you can align your strategies to respond effectively to change.
Creating the Pull of the Future.
Foresight isn’t just about reacting to external changes—it’s about envisioning what you want your futures to look like and taking steps to shape it. By exploring possible scenarios and imagining your business 5-10 years from now, you can focus on achieving your preferred future.
Leaders often hesitate to discuss their futures because they feel uncertain about their ability to influence them. But the truth is, your actions today have more power to shape outcomes than you may realise. Foresight helps you embrace this agency, enabling you to lead with confidence and purpose.
Be Ready for What’s Next.
Foresight is a critical skill for navigating uncertainty and building resilience. By using foresight, you can:
Proactively shape your futures instead of reacting to change.
Plan for multiple scenarios and adapt to different outcomes.
Stay informed about trends, drivers, and disruptions that could impact your business.
Bring external perspectives into your organisation to better prepare for what lies ahead.
In an unpredictable world, thinking 5-10 years ahead and making decisions today is essential for long-term success.
Take charge of your futures. Use foresight to anticipate what’s next, build actionable plans, and guide your business towards the future you want to create.
