FUTURE THINKING
The future seems to be coming at us at an ever-increasing rate.  As effective managers and practitioners, we must think proactively about all the possibilities that the future may bring, but those possibilities have uncertain outcomes.  We call those possibilities opportunities if we believe they will have positive outcomes.  For example, we have the opportunity to successfully complete a project and make a substantial profit or we have an opportunity to introduce a new product into the marketplace first and capture the lion’s share of that market.  We call those possibilities risks if we believe they will have negative outcomes.  For example, we have the risk of not successfully completing that same project and losing our investment or we may have the risk of our competition beating us to the marketplace with a new product and losing market share. To quote Tom DeMarco, “Moving aggressively after opportunity means running toward rather than away from risk.” Continue reading →