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Build an Army of Prophets
“When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.” – John M. Richardson
A colleague told me recently about an experience at his last job. The newspaper he worked for had suffered a prolonged downturn, and people were afraid for their jobs.
One day the big boss grabbed everyone for a hard-hitting meeting. My coworker recalled the tongue-lashing: “How dare he, I thought, put everyone on such a downer! People need positive energy! But he had made a great call. People responded to what they perceived as a challenge, and felt respected that someone had leveled with them. Instead of leaving with bowed heads … they left with confidence and a sense of urgency.”
Negative words are powerful when delivered at the right time, in the right way, by the right person. In the book of Second Kings, the prophet Elisha was this kind of advisor to the kings of Israel. Though he was often appointed to speak uncomfortable truth and divine judgment, he also advised on direction and strategy, anointed others into authority, and spoke boldly in the face of opposition. He required capable people to help themselves, though he was patient with innocent mistakes. He relentlessly enforced the law.
Perhaps Elisha’s most important task was his God-given ability to foretell the future. Though we’ll rarely have an Elisha on hand to provide divine foreknowledge, we can tap into the collective prophetic knowledge of our staff, volunteers, customers, vendors and other constituents. Through their feedback we can sense where our organization is heading, or where it should be heading.
Professional futurists employ techniques like environment scanning and trend analysis to determine what will happen to governments and economies in the short and long terms. On a smaller scale, companies like Starbucks corral the power of the Internet and their large customer base. “MyStarbucksIdea.com” allows customers and employees to post their ideas on product or store improvements, comment on other people’s ideas, and vote on their favorites. Starbucks corporate stamps ideas with “under review” when they’re actively figuring out a way to make them happen. One of the problems the coffee maker experiences is duplication of ideas. When people post, they often don’t realize similar ideas are already on the site. As a result, the voting gets diluted.
Starbucks is building an army of truth-telling prophets, but these people are more than messengers. They hone in on the best ideas, debating and sharpening their own thoughts without a word from corporate. This living focus group gives the company a to-do list that’s prioritized and fully vetted by thousands of customers. The anonymous nature of the site allows people to vent, vote and comment without fear of retribution.
Peter Drucker said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” A great way to create it is to combine predictions from the experts with the thoughts of your own members, customers, employees, and suppliers. This collaborative intelligence gathering is the next-best thing to having an Elisha on staff. For example, IBM hosts “innovation jams” involving 150,000 employees, family members, business partners, and university researchers. Participants brainstorm from more than 100 countries, 24 hours a day for several days.
Planning for the future needs more than a “my idea” Web site, massive brain meld, or a band of truth-tellers. As we cast our own visions and act in the direction we wish to go, we must prepare for alternative futures. Too many leaders, however, allow cultural, economic and marketplace forces to shift them off course. They change their products, structure, or methods based on what everyone else is doing. When things don’t improve, they change again. The problem, of course, is they’re executing on current trends and common contexts rather than strategizing the best future for their particular vision.
Why go where everyone else is, if God’s plan is for you to be a trailblazer?
In The Art of Conjecture, Bertrand de Jouvenel wrote, “Those who act with sustained and strong intention are the creators of the future.” When we have an army of truth-telling prophets that don’t let us stray from the clear path, our organizations become more secure against outside forces that push us toward the common road.
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Tom Harper is president of NetWorld Alliance, which publishes www.churchcentral.com and several online news portals in the retail, banking, technology and restaurant industries.
He is author of Leading from the Lions’ Den: Leadership Principles from Every Book of the Bible, (Sept. 2010, B&H Publishing). His Twitter account is @TomRHarper.
A colleague told me recently about an experience at his last job. The newspaper he worked for had suffered a prolonged downturn, and people were afraid for their jobs. One day the big boss grabbed everyone for a hard-hitting meeting. My coworker recalled the tongue-lashing: “How dare he, I thought, put everyone on such a downer! People need positive energy! But he had made a great call. People responded to what they perceived as a challenge, and felt respected that someone had leveled with them. Instead of leaving with bowed heads … they left with confidence and a sense of urgency.”
Negative words are powerful when delivered at the right time, in the right way, by the right person. In the book of Second Kings, the prophet Elisha was this kind of advisor to the kings of Israel. Though he was often appointed to speak uncomfortable truth and divine judgment, he also advised on direction and strategy, anointed others into authority, and spoke boldly in the face of opposition. He required capable people to help themselves, though he was patient with innocent mistakes. He relentlessly enforced the law.
Perhaps Elisha’s most important task was his God-given ability to foretell the future. Though we’ll rarely have an Elisha on hand to provide divine foreknowledge, we can tap into the collective prophetic knowledge of our staff, volunteers, customers, vendors and other constituents. Through their feedback we can sense where our organization is heading, or where it should be heading.
Professional futurists employ techniques like environment scanning and trend analysis to determine what will happen to governments and economies in the short and long terms. On a smaller scale, companies like Starbucks corral the power of the Internet and their large customer base. “MyStarbucksIdea.com” allows customers and employees to post their ideas on product or store improvements, comment on other people’s ideas, and vote on their favorites. Starbucks corporate stamps ideas with “under review” when they’re actively figuring out a way to make them happen. One of the problems the coffee maker experiences is duplication of ideas. When people post, they often don’t realize similar ideas are already on the site. As a result, the voting gets diluted.
Starbucks is building an army of truth-telling prophets, but these people are more than messengers. They hone in on the best ideas, debating and sharpening their own thoughts without a word from corporate. This living focus group gives the company a to-do list that’s prioritized and fully vetted by thousands of customers. The anonymous nature of the site allows people to vent, vote and comment without fear of retribution.
Peter Drucker said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” A great way to create it is to combine predictions from the experts with the thoughts of your own members, customers, employees, and suppliers. This collaborative intelligence gathering is the next-best thing to having an Elisha on staff. For example, IBM hosts “innovation jams” involving 150,000 employees, family members, business partners, and university researchers. Participants brainstorm from more than 100 countries, 24 hours a day for several days.
Planning for the future needs more than a “my idea” Web site, massive brain meld, or a band of truth-tellers. As we cast our own visions and act in the direction we wish to go, we must prepare for alternative futures. Too many leaders, however, allow cultural, economic and marketplace forces to shift them off course. They change their products, structure, or methods based on what everyone else is doing. When things don’t improve, they change again. The problem, of course, is they’re executing on current trends and common contexts rather than strategizing the best future for their particular vision.
Why go where everyone else is, if God’s plan is for you to be a trailblazer?
In The Art of Conjecture, Bertrand de Jouvenel wrote, “Those who act with sustained and strong intention are the creators of the future.” When we have an army of truth-telling prophets that don’t let us stray from the clear path, our organizations become more secure against outside forces that push us toward the common road.
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Tom Harper is president of NetWorld Alliance, which publishes www.churchcentral.com and several online news portals in the retail, banking, technology and restaurant industries.
He is author of Leading from the Lions’ Den: Leadership Principles from Every Book of the Bible, (Sept. 2010, B&H Publishing). His Twitter account is @TomRHarper.
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Tom Harper
Tom Harper is president of Networld Media Group, a publisher of online trade journals and events for the banking, retail, restaurant and church leadership markets. He is the author of Leading from the Lions' Den: Leadership Principles from Every Book of the Bible (B&H).
