Tyler Mongan
CONSULTING THE ORACLE OF DELPHI
Before his conquest of Asia, Alexander the Great consulted the oracle at Delphi, demanding to know the future of his actions. The Delphi’s prophecy was
scenarios and global strategists articulated a growing concern that a pandemic was on the horizon. Did leadership trust the foresight and action to prepare?
that “Alexander was invincible.” Alexander’s trust in these words drove him and his army forward, conquering the lands from Northeast Africa to Central Asia.
The 2019 Edelman Global Trust Barometers revealed a low level of trust in organizations, media, and political systems throughout the global. Further,
Casandra was another gifted foresight practitioner of ancient Greece, but cursed with the flaw that nobody would trust what she foretold. Imagine if Alexander had consulted Cassandra instead of the Oracle of Delphi. The same words, “Alexander was
trust in the capability of organizations and political systems to “think” about the future is higher than trust in an organization’s capability to take “action" on the foresight [2].
invincible” would have been spoken, but he would have distrusted the prophecy and turned his army back to Greece. “The Great” would have been left out of his name. Cassandra’s Curse is a reminder that foresight requires trust.
There seems to be a correlation in leadership failure to take action on foresight and decrease in leadership trust. In a post-pandemic world leaders will need to focus on building their foresight capabilities, while also cultivating an environment of trust. A demonstration of trust starts with leadership taking
Research shows that 71% of firms exhibited a low level of future readiness and most firms admitted their leadership is not prepared for the future [1]. The
action on the foresight. This trust will inspire others to action. In a post-pandemic world it seems that “actions” will speak louder than words.
pandemic has been a global stress test for leadership future readiness. For several years epidemiology
REFERNCES: [1] Rohrbeck, R. and Kum, M. E. (2018) ‘Corporate foresight and its impact on firm performance: A longitudinal analysis’, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 129(4), pp. 105–116. https://doi.org10.1016/j.techfore.2017.12.013 [2] Edelman Intelligence (2020). Edelman Trust Barometer 2020 (PDF): https://www.edelman.com/trustbarometer
HUMAN FUTURES
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