3 Steps to Help You See Challenges Coming

12/11/2019

It’s counterintuitive, but the easiest challenge to face may be a crisis. A crisis can be difficult, but it’s also extreme. For some of us, facing the extreme is far easier than dealing with the mundane. In a crisis, everything else takes a back seat. Things like expense reports and emails can all wait.

Managing a crisis can be like a temporary "get out of jail" pass, nothing is more important than managing that crisis. And often, everyone in your sphere of influence is facing the same crisis. You’re in it together. There's energy in that. Successfully tackling a crisis can also be gratifying, making for great “war stories”. Sometimes a crisis can make a career.

But facing a crisis, even successfully, comes with a high cost. A crisis can create business interruptions, loss of assets, reputation damage, and even injuries and death. So, skill sets that help you avoid a crisis are just as important as those that help you manage them. Failing to take realistic steps that help you see a crisis coming and then avoid it is bad business. And in some cases, it’s a breach of duty.

The silent and often un-celebrated skills required for looking ahead and acting before a crisis appears are just as important as the amazing skills required to manage a crisis that has arrived.

Practicing foresight is the discipline of seeing challenges coming before they become challenges. Foresight gives individuals and organizations something vital: strength.

If we took a poll, the results would show that most of us agree foresight is a skill that should be developed. I agree and I'll raise the stakes. I believe that if we want to stay on mission and thrive, foresight is a skill that we must develop. Effective foresight helps you save time, money, and, at times, lives.

With that in mind, let's explore three simple steps that can help us see a challenge coming. We’ll look at foresight through the lens of personal safety, but it has a much broader application – from sales to business intel to mitigating external threats. 

1. Mind the Mission – Keeping the mission in mind, think through what foresight should include. What challenges do you want to avoid? What does it cost if you miss a challenge, and it becomes a crisis? What do you need to do or know to see the challenge coming?

2. Practice “Normology” – This is simply studying what’s normal. One of the easiest ways to see “abnormal” that can become challenges is to pay close attention to and learn what’s normal. When you make studying normal a habit, possible challenges seem to stand out.

3. Apply Context – Behavioral indicators are an important part of foresight. When looking at behaviors, remember that most behaviors can indicate more than one thing. For example, making a fist can be an indicator that someone is anxious. It can be a response to being cold. And it can be an indicator of an imminent punch. Applying context improves the quality of behavioral indicators.

To illustrate these steps, let’s use my professional mission which sometimes involves the safety of those around me.

To support that mission, I’m intentional about practicing normology and noticing who is around me. Are they sad, rushed, excited? Are they noticing others around them? How do they react when I make eye contact? This gives me a lot of information about what’s normal and about who is present.

It also helps me to apply context. When I see something stand out, something abnormal, I have already considered the situation. I’ve noticed the mood, the environment, and what tensions people may be facing. I’ve seen who people are interacting with and what others are doing around them.

All that "noticing" gives me an idea of what’s normal and where behaviors may be headed. These steps aren't really separate actions. They work together and help me practice foresight. Knowing my mission, what’s normal, and applying context helps me see a challenge coming before it becomes a challenge.

It’s a simple process. Usually, it’s easy. What’s not easy is to develop this skill into a discipline.

Distractions, losing sight of your goals, and experiencing awareness fatigue are some of the challenges you might face when you’re trying to practice foresight.

For some of us, the easiest challenge to face may be a crisis. On the other hand, the most difficult challenge to face may be the aftermath of a crisis that was avoidable. Knowing you could have done more to protect a business, other people, and even yourself, is something you may never forget. But this is a challenge you should never have to face if you practice the discipline of foresight. We can help.

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