We Are Asking The Wrong Question
Jacob Morgan
Keynote Speaker, Professionally Trained Futurist, & 5x Author. Founder of "Future Of Work Leaders" (Global CHRO Community). Focused on Leadership, The Future of Work, & Employee Experience
A lot of people ask the question, “What is the future of work”. But that is not the right question we should be asking. Why? Because it leads to two major assumptions.
First, we assume that there is one single future that could happen. Second, we assume that the future is something that happens to us and that we have no control over it. But both of these assumptions are incorrect. There is not just one singular possible future, there are multiple potential futures that could happen based on the decisions and actions we take. And the future is not something that simply happens to us without our control.
What we need to do is flip the question, what is the future of work, around and instead of phrasing it that way we should ask, what are the potential futures that might happen and what are the factors that we need to influence today to get to the future we would like to see.
Phrasing the question this way allows us to be more active in creating our future than we would be if we just sit back and wait for the future to play out in front of us. We are then able to impact the future instead of waiting to react to it after the fact.
The future doesn’t happen to us; the future is something we create, shape and build. Let’s take a step back and ask ourselves, what do we need to do to build the future that we would like to see.
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Jacob Morgan is a best-selling author, speaker, and futurist. His new book, The Employee Experience Advantage (Wiley) analyzes over 250 global organizations to understand how to create a place where people genuinely want to show up to work. Subscribe to his newsletter, visit TheFutureOrganization, or become a member of the new Facebook Community The Future If…and join the discussion.
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7 年Questions are the answers!! Whether we do something or not we still made a decision and if you don't ask the right self questions your just end up like a rudderless boat. The right questions is like putting up a sail so you can work to correct your course. Life will blow you off course now and then so adjust the sail by asking relevant questions. The mind is like a computer input = output. Great article
Personal Development Coach| Writer about Personal Growth
7 年'So as they would say in Tamil, what you say is true, what she says is true and what we all say is true. Let's make sense of it all.' Brought together beautifully in a thoughtful, inclusive and unified expression of love. You do it so well, Subi! Very grateful to all these wise perspectives!
Writer, Observer and Muser
7 年Reading this wonderful discussion Laura Irwin,Olive Javier, Jennifer Heflin, I have a few more thoughts (my two cents worth) 1. Life lessons are revisited until one learns what the universe wants us to learn (Olive's point) 2. Operating at a level of greater good ( Jennifer's point) helps us with the choices we make. 3. When unforeseen events ( natural disasters, man made disasters, wars, illness or death) come about the only way to cope with the situation is to surrender to the universe and trust the process.(Laura's point) So as they would say in Tamil, what you say is true, what she says is true and what we all say is true. Let's make sense of it all.
Personal Development Coach| Writer about Personal Growth
7 年Thank you, Paula for bringing me into the discussion! Gosh, what a question! This goes to the heart of the matter, Jacob Morgan. Literally and figuratively. One of my favorite one-line, but multidimensional bits of wisdom is that 'Life happens for us, not to us.' Our experience is always serving us, no matter how it appears...it can be no other way. The innate intelligence of consciousness is always creating a balance - the yin and yang - of the sum total of our vibration. The energy frequency of our current state of being based upon our choices, thoughts, beliefs, actions and intentions, along with what the soul wants in this lifetime. Anything that appears to take us off course is not seeing the cause: (1) lack of awareness of aspects of our vibrational state of being (2) inability to see from the unfiltered, all-knowing higher self - the soul - the unfettered knowledge and sum total of our existence - always guiding us towards our highest good. It's all energy in motion, though. We are the creators of our experience - all of it - and we decide and create the future of work. The deeper our connection with the field and our higher selves, the easier it is to be the conscious creator. Love this topic!!!!