Don't project your current reality into the future
Assumptions are the building blocks of vision work.?
Vision and strategy thinking are about the future to be. The future is not objective. In fact, it is very subjective. Everyone sees the future their own way. Everyone has their own bias.??
We carry a lot of baggage of history entering the discussion about the years to come. That's logical and sound. What works today is what we know. Our logic is based on learning and observation of the current reality. The problem is that the future will not be like today.??
Don't project the realities of today as facts of tomorrow. What is impossible today might just be possible in 5 years. What is plausible, impossible, and probable in the future are all very difficult to tell apart from the surface of the assumption.??
Your assumptions are the building blocks?
Your assumptions are the building blocks of strategies of tomorrow. We create novel ways to differentiate. We seek for the competitive advantage of tomorrow. We use what we believe to create a picture of the reality of the future. Our thinking stands on the assumptions we have.?
Your assumptions truly are like Lego-bricks. Our assumptions get remoulded and remixed in vision and strategy work. With luck and perseverance we might find something that is interesting and winning.??
If your assumptions are stuck with the realities of today, then you use the knowledge of today to solve the problems of the future years.??
Stretch and shuffle your assumptions?
Stretch your assumptions. Use your hunch on how technologies might develop. Follow trends in their logical progression. Lean forward. Assume some things that were not possible before now become possible. Be optimistic about our future capabilities.?
Get quirky with assumptions. Get rid of rules. Get rid of barriers that look like standing on the way to the better world. Use imagination and get creative. You will end up with strange-feeling scenarios. The likelihood of those scenarios coming to be may be smaller, but you might find totally new angles into how to rearrange the product, the strategy, or our actions.?
Remember to test your new assumptions. There is no way to guarantee that the world will work as you hope it works in the future. But if you are mindful of the changes and patterns you anticipate will happen, then you can see as the future starts to unfold as you assumed.??
Stretch and shuffle your assumptions. You will create richer options as the constraints of today do not bind you.??
Thinking of a great solution? Don’t. Talk with the users. Look at what they do, not just what they say.
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