Navigating the Future: Questions for Aging Confidently, Leveraging Experience, and Remaining Relevant Beyond 2024

As we move further into 2024 and gaze beyond...

The world (the organization of work) presents itself as a complicated//complex tapestry woven with the threads of technological advances, evolving work dynamics, and shifting psycho-social-cultural values.

Moving In: In this landscape, the questions we ask ourselves about how we navigate our personal and professional lives are pivotal. Particularly for those of us seeking to age confidently, leverage our accumulated experience, and remain relevant, these questions are reflective pauses as they are guideposts towards a future we desire to shape and share.

Here are 5 enquiries I’m making, each acting as a lens through which I view my journey forward/we view our adventures forward.

Do You Want to Jump the Experience Queue?

In our rush towards achievement and recognition, accomplishment and reward, there’s a temptation to bypass the ‘experience queue’—to search for and execute tasks without fully valuing the depth of understanding that comes from years of nuanced learning.?

But does this rush compromise the richness of insight we bring to our roles? The real question here is whether we value the immediacy of action over the wisdom that comes from a well of deep experience.?

As we age, our repository of experiences becomes our unique value proposition. How do we balance the zeal for immediate results - like searching for the How to without knowing the Why, accessing the depth of insight garnered over years?

Personally – For example - Google, AI, search engines are a useful foreground mentor, not a helpful background mentor…

Do You Work with Structural Relationships or Relational Structures?

In the evolving organization of work as we adventure together, the dynamics of how//why we relate to work* and each other are in constant flux.?

* “Work is about discovering and shaping a place where the self meets the world.” Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity by David Whyte

The question of whether you work with structural relationships (the frameworks within which work flows from process to person) or relational structures (the networks through which people influence processes) reflects a deeper inquiry into your approach to work.?

In a world that increasingly values structural relationships, how do we leverage our experience to navigate this model while nurturing relational structures? How do we blend these approaches to foster environments that are both better, kinder, and wiser for everyone?

Do You Use Ethical-Ecological-Environmental Decision Making?

The intertwining of ethical, ecological, and environmental considerations in decision-making processes speaks to a holistic approach to problem inquiry, appreciative inquiry, and humble inquiry.?

This triad supports what can be termed 'wholversical' decision-making—a blend of whole, versatile, and whimsical approaches that respects the world, our planet and its inhabitants.?

How do we ensure that our decisions reflect immediate profitability (in its widest interpretation) and long-term sustainability (in its widest interpretation) in being FOR the world, WITH the planet, and FROM the whole?

Do You Move the "R" of Strategy One Splace Right?

The concept of moving the ‘R’ in strategy to create ‘startegy’—a synthesis of space (background conversations) and place (foreground conversations)—highlights the evolution of the wholistic organization of work dynamics.?

This movement, while a play on words, is a profound shift in how//why we conceptualize the organization of work. It suggests a move towards more wholistic, inclusive discussions that encompass both the physical and metaphorical splaces where work happens.?

How do we adept (adopt and adapt) to and influence these shifts to ensure that the organization of work remains Resilient, Reciprocal, Resoureful, Reliable, and Relevant by managing safe systems for persons and leading persons from safer practices?

Do You Share You?

Finally, the most personal of all questions—do you share 'you'??

This question delves into the human considerations of being, having, and doing in the cognitive augmented era with the possibility of cognitive articulation (my word use for illustration) in the (near) future.?

In a world where the lines between the personal and professional are increasingly blurred, how do we share ourselves in our work? This question highlights our “Revamping approach”:

• Re — about
• Voice
• Authority
• Mastery
• Position
• ing — the process of VAMP
• --> Without learning and knowing how/why to VAMP
• --> You may experience a VAMPire (where ire is angst, anxiety)

With revamping you are discovering, shaping, and sharing authenticity, vulnerability, and being fully human/being natural in living legacy life. How do you/we ensure that our projects, stories, and contributions are reflections of our true selves, and in doing so, foster ethics, ecologies, and environments where others feel empowered to do the same?

Moving Forward: I ask you to ponder all these questions… and invite comments!

It becomes clear that navigating the future requires a blend of wisdom, adeptability, and authenticity.?

The limitations/constraints and opportunities/possibilities of 2024 and beyond call for an approach that values deep experience, embraces complications/complexity, and proposes sustainability and profitability in wider interpretations.?

Through landscape awareness, sorting out intentions and attentions, we prepare to age confidently, leverage our experience, and remain relevant for a world that continues to evolve in unpredictable ways.?

Our unique journey as we adventure together is revamping answers while asking the wholversical questions.