Why is Preparing Important?

Stubbornness is incredibly prevalent in human nature and it is not limited from being involved in human relations with technology. You see stubbornness in many forms such as your grandparent refusing to purchase a cell phone and holding on dearly to the wired landline that was the most innovative creation of the 80s. This form of stubbornness may seem innocent and harmless when it involves your sweet grandma, but it is incredibly hazardous when the same mentality is held in the business world when individuals and organizations refuse to move with the change and new developments in technology.

How to Prepare

An effective organization is one that keeps up with new technology and seeks to utilize it to give them the sharpest edge possible on the competition. For instance, Amazon utilized innovations in the smartphone industry to take advantage of the increasingly advanced cameras in your hand to provide an augmented reality application that allows you to virtually place furniture and décor in your room to see how it would look before purchasing it. This type of high-tech, user-oriented feature draws customers to Amazon services and away from the typical brick and mortar furniture store where you must take a tape measure and hope your measurements are right while imagining how it will look. This sort of innovation is not limited to big tech companies like Amazon though. Any organization can utilize modern technology to their advantage. The first step is to learn about the technology that is being developed and expecting to be cutting edge in the business world. It might seem boring to just read science blogs and articles about fictional tech that you cannot purchase yet but it is incredibly important. By doing this, it allows you to picture how your organization can utilize it when it is released to get an advantage on others who may not have known or planned for the new technology. Examples of tech to plan for in 2040 include fully autonomous transportation and shipping, extremely intelligent AI, and a very digitally connected society. In this way it is more effective to plan for future tech than seek to overuse outdated technology.

Jeff Wilcox Speaks on his Perspective

The Lockheed Martin Leadership Institute at Miami University recently had Jeff Wilcox, the retired vice president of digital transformation at Lockheed Martin, speak to us about his views on upcoming change. Check out the video below to hear his perspective and advice for preparing for the changes in technology in 2040:

Talk Summary

In his talk, Mr. Wilcox takes a more holistic view of preparing for the future. He steps back from a technological and fortune telling perspective and focuses more on how us as individuals are agents of change in the present and that is our biggest advantage when envisioning the future over any timeline. He talks about how the best way to be prepared is to be the ones creating the future and the best way to do this is to envision the future that you want to live in and the endless possibilities that that future will hold. Next, he says to take a step back and see what actions you, an agent of change, can take in the present to make this envisioned future closer to becoming a reality. Mr. Wilcox specifically emphasized on this quote by Khalil Gibran:

Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing towards what will be – Khalil Gibran

Mr. Wilcox then said that once your change is in action, and you are beginning your part in the bigger story that you are a character in, it is incredibly important to ask questions and be curious. There is no differing level of importance between questions because it is the curiosity and the urge to learn more that will allow you to explore why things have happened in the past and present that will allow you to build off that foundation to have a stronger future. He very wisely stated that it is important to be gardeners and foster growth around you as a leader, rather than being a chess master and trying to manipulate and use others to achieve a “win.” By gardening and growing your future, you will gain better perspective to where things grew from and you can improve as you move forward, living in the present.

TLDR

• It is important to prepare for future innovations while they are still a concept and not a reality by doing what you can in the present.
• It is important to avoid being stubborn when working with technology.
• You are agents of change in the present and should work towards the future that you want now, rather than focus on what will happen later.

Further Reading

QUANTUMRUN: Predictions for 2040

References

S. Perez, “Amazon rolls out a new AR shopping feature for viewing multiple items at once,” TechCrunch, 25-Aug-2020. [Online]. Available: https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/25/amazon-rolls-out-a-new-ar-shopping-feature-for-viewing-multiple-items-at-once/. [Accessed: 24-Mar-2021].