The skill of anticipating can be incredibly powerful when used well. It is at the heart of strategic thinking and works in both our personal and professional lives.
Let me use the example of Christmas to demonstrate what I mean.
As we rush about frantically preparing for the holiday season we all have a sense of anticipation. Love Christmas or loathe it those of us who live in the Western world are affected by it.
Anticipation has many guises. For little children there is the wide eyed wonder as twinkly lights and brightly coloured decorations appear overnight as if by magic.
A visit to Father Christmas’s Grotto heightens the sense that something really special is about to happen.
Children’s belief in Santa is finally replaced with a strong sense of excitement for what gifts Christmas morning will bring. They are more focused on the gifts than who delivers them.
As we get older our focus changes. For many adults the anticipation is centred on seeing their loved ones gathered together. This can bring a pleasant and positive sense of anticipation.
On a far less positive note anticipation can be far less positive, anxiety about getting everything done in time, worry about the financial cost and the bills which will follow in January.
For some a sense of foreboding becomes a deeply held sense of dread around managing truculent teenagers or difficult elderly relatives, arguments fuelled by too much time in one another’s company and too much alcohol.
For those of you who work long hours and are married to your jobs, Christmas can be lonely.
The gap left by work allows enough time for you to recognise you need to do something radical about your work life balance but insufficient time to get to grips with solving the problem.
Before you can act, it is time to return to work where you will once again be too busy to do anything to make any meaningful changes.
Negative anticipation has the power to spoil the enjoyment of the moment. Worrying about what might never happen is such a waste, as by itself it so rarely changes anything.
Developing the skill of anticipation gives you the opportunity to take control of your personal and professional life in a very different way. If you would like to engage the amazing power of anticipation read on…..
The benefits of using the skill of anticipation are far reaching.
It is a skill you can learn and if employed on a regular basis it enables you to maximise the resources at your disposal and can help you manage your time more effectively.
It changes your mode of operation from one of fire- fighting to one of strategic planning.
The strategies work in every walk of life.
Think of a game of football. If the striker passes the ball to where his team mate is at the time he kicks the player will have moved on and the shot will be wasted.
All good sports players anticipate where their team mate will be and send the ball to that place. The skill is judging the speed and direction of the other player.
In business success is tied closely to your ability to anticipate the market. The one hundred business list published in the USA every year rarely has the same organisations in the top ten.
I find it fascinating that many companies don’t slip a few places but disappear all together.
I have discovered that the most successful business which stand the test of time have a number of things in common. High on the list is how they use anticipation effectively.
They buy in raw materials at the best price.
Their planning allows them to spread the work load over the year, minimizing peaks and troughs of work load.
They appoint staff with the potential to grow with the needs of the organisation.
They have put in place a training programme ahead of the needs created by a new development ensuring seamless growth.