STEPS TO DEVELOPING LIFESCAPES IV

[continued from the Last Post.]

Step 7: Implications

With the Lifescapes substantially developed, “rehearse the future” with the focal issue in prominence:

• How does each Lifescape look in terms of offering possibilities for crucial decisions to be made?
• What vulnerabilities have been revealed…or are possibly still hidden?
• Is the strategy robust across all Lifescapes, or does it look good in only one or two of the panoramas?

{If a decision looks good in only one of several Lifescapes, it becomes a high-risk gamble—especially if the organisation lacks control over the likelihood of the desired scenario materialising. We must then consider ways of adapting the strategy to become competitively relevant, by making it more robust.}

Step 8: Track Leading Indicators

It is vital to track the leading indicators of each Lifescape; determine that they are both plausible and surprising; they must have the power to demolish the status quo, and to grasp opportunities, not just well ahead of the competition, but in real time.

Lifescaping must be intensely interactive, or it fails.

In general, look at each Lifescape independently: do NOT lock yourself in by assigning probabilities to them in case you are tempted to opt for the one with the highest probability, thus disregarding the possibility of any one of the others turning up as a “wild card.”

Name each Lifescape: it will help you to assume ownership of it, and to recall the details vividly.

Use 2x2 Matrix Thinking to help you process your thoughts, prior to, and after, crafting your Lifescapes.

To test your Lifescapes, animate them via theatre (skits), digital modelling, and general role playing.

Then activate the Lifescape that is most appropriate to unfolding circumstances.

[All images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]