Leaders take the first steps

Who remembers the 'dancing guy' video at the Sasquatch Music Festival? 15 million views later and it has become a regular in leadership presentations all around the globe. The point of the story is that leaders are the ones who take the first steps and shine a light on the path for the rest of us to follow.

Recently an article titled, Practice Profile: A formula for forecasting the future, written by Danielle Lee, Managing Editor was published highlighting a group of firms taking that critical first step to show the path forward in this Fourth Industrial Revolution. These firms are all early adopters of the Anticipatory Organization?: Accounting and Finance Edition a learning system that serves as a "transformation accelerator' when done across a firm or organization.

This state of the art learning system was developed by leading global futurist and best-selling author, Daniel Burrus and customized for accounting and finance by the Business Learning Institute and Maryland Association of CPAs.

Accounting Today Managing Editor, Daniel Lee writes, "These “AO” firms are certainly not alone on the front lines of change, but their commitment to very intentional and actionable innovation has made them vanguards for the type of future-focused firm that will thrive in today’s evolving business landscape."

These firms are getting impressive results when you read how they are using it to spark innovation, differentiate themselves in the market, and create a culture of proactive, anticipatory consultants.

“The Anticipatory Organization Learning System helps establish a mindset, a common language and eventually a culture of being anticipatory for our clients. By making this anticipatory skillset a core strength of our teams, it brings creative and new ideas that make us more valuable to our clients and it creates a game changer for our firm.” - Joey Havens - HORNE, LLP (top 50 firm)

And firms are learning to drive three new forms of innovation:

1. Everyday Innovation–where individuals learn to predict and pre-solve problems with inventive solutions,
2. Differentiating Innovation-where industry teams create opportunities based on hard trends for your industry groups and have future-focused conversations with clients, and
3. Transformational Innovation–where leadership teams learn to turn predictable disruption into game-changing advantages. For example, HORNE's HR Consulting and Cyber-security groups came from applying the AOAF concepts.

Kassi Rushing, HORNE's director of people growth and engagement said, "At Horne, the anticipatory model is “how we run our business. From a people standpoint, we use hard trends for how we’re recruiting, how we’re training, how we’re engaging. Every group is impacted by the whole concept. If you stop to think about it, it’s not revolutionary how Dan Burrus took it and taught us to apply it— we use his concepts to bill faster, learn faster. It’s basic but groundbreaking.”

Here are some of the results firms are getting by strategically deploying this innovative learning system:

• Create a proactive anticipatory mindset and the requisite skills to shift from being reactive to proactive.
• Align employee’s Futureview around current plans and the Hard Trend certainties leaders have identified to move the organization forward.
• Elevate all planning activities by learning to anticipate disruptions, problems and game changing opportunities.
• Identify and capitalize on new business opportunities.
• Accelerate growth and maintain a healthy advantage over your competitors.
• Create a foundation of consultative skills and tools to provide insights to clients.
• Differentiate in the marketplace as a future-focused, anticipatory firm from the reactive, historical-based competition

Elliott Davis CEO, Rick Davis puts it this way, “As we’re all thinking ahead to the future, to develop the skills we need to bring to our clients, the anticipatory thinking component really comes naturally once people understand the basics behind it. It’s not that difficult -- the framework behind it gives a roadmap. The ease of use makes it more simple to talk through, have discussions with clients, and engage at a higher level.”

Our thanks to the latest group of organizations taking the first steps and the earliest adopters of the Anticipatory Organization?: Accounting and Finance Edition that included HORNE, LLP, DeLeon & Stang, SSAI, K-Coe Isom and HBK.

In a world of exponential change, standing still is actually falling behind.

According to Daniel Burrus developer of the learning system, "Being reactive, no matter how agile, adds less value. We are teaching the other side of the strategy coin, to anticipate disruptions before being disrupted. The choice to be a disruptor or disrupted. To pre-solve problems so as to not have them in the first place, to see amazing new opportunities with anticipatory mindsets.”

Are you ready to take that first step?

Resources:

• Practice Profile: A formula for forecasting the future, Accounting Today
• Anticipatory Organization?: Accounting and Finance Edition - more information and demo video
• Anticipatory Is a Big Word - Joey Havens on Linkedin
• Creating the future-ready firm at the Digital CPA Conference - BLI Blog

TOM HOOD, CPA, CITP, CGMA is considered one of the most influential thinkers in the CPA Profession. He is also one the Top 100 Influencers on LinkedIn. He was named to the Accounting Hall of Fame by CPA Practice Advisor and the Second Most Influential Person in Accounting by Accounting Today Magazine for the past six years. Tom is also a member of Forbes Finance Council.

He is the CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs (MACPA) and CEO of the Business Learning Institute, the innovation, strategy, and learning affiliate of the MACPA, a leading strategic planning and talent development organization for CPAs, finance and accounting professionals in the world.