“If you hadn’t have snuck off to have lunch with her, we never would have been dragged into this, and you wouldn’t be sleeping alone on the couch tonight! But you did, and we were, so you are!” – “Murder Most Maris,” Frasier
…are hidden within the text of this article. Hah — made you read!
Joking aside, in both my professional[1] and personal[2] life, I’ve noticed a trend of ignoring one of three questions when moving forward with an idea. On the personal side, that’s not a bad thing because we wouldn’t have many of our numerous options of shows and movies to mindlessly binge if these questions neatly resolved the plot in the first five minutes of the film[3]. But on the professional side, and even when straddling the line between the professional and personal halves, I’ve noticed that we leap ahead with ideas and shiny new plans without considering the impact of doing so.
Futurists survey the landscape from the top of a tower, looking at how the traffic (in this case, the traffic is the information) moves and where collisions are bound to happen. This unique perspective, along with our curious natures and ability to essentially “predict[4]” certain major events that have occurred in the last few years, is exactly why you – yes, you; don’t look away at another article – need to ask futurists three very important questions when you have a new idea, process, or anything you want to do:
Could you do it? Should you do it? Would you do it?
This seems simple, but hear me out: “Simple” isn’t being done as often as it should be. Resources are continuously wasted[5], innovative ideas and processes are shut down in favor of what’s known[6] and “doesn’t need fixin’,” and worst of all, ideas are worked through and ready to go…when they get placed on a shelf to be forgotten, like the Girl Scout Cookies I hid in my cabinet[7].
So, I hear you ask, if this is so revolutionary[8], then what do you mean?
Could you do it: Do you have the resources to do this? Not just the resources in general, but the resource availability? If you don’t have the availability, are you able to acquire it quickly? Do you have the time?
Should you do it: Just because you can doesn’t always mean you should. Does this make sense? Is it ethical? Or is this just an impulse because you don’t want to be left behind? Is this the right place to start, or have we jumped over several steps because we think we’re too good for the basics?
Would you do it: You have the plans and resources in place – are you actually going to move forward with it? Is this really the right time for this? Are you going to be able to follow through with this new idea? Have you weighed the appropriate pros and cons for this?
Futurists can tell you so many stories of how they saw something that was dismissed by higher-ups because they forgot to ask these questions[9], and lo and behold, it came to fruition a month or a year later. Or there have been times where something jumped several steps ahead and completely disintegrated as it approached the atmosphere of reality[10]. I have had many ideas shelved after I spent hours painstakingly going through the research and putting together the document, only to find out that they were really needed after all, and were brought back to the light years later[11].
Another reason to ask a futurist these questions is to see if they have examples to either refute the originality of your idea (in case you’re trying to create something that already exists), support why your idea will work today and for the next few years, or even highlight disasters of others trying and failing to implement the same thing. This should be a conversation between you and the futurist to see what they believe the long-term implications of your idea could be, both the good and the bad.
For example, long ago I had predicted that social media influencers would be used to help promote political causes. I had even created a fake newspaper to have an article about how a riot downtown, led by influencers, caused the deaths of three people[12]. This idea was shot down because “that would never happen” and I was not taken seriously. Cue the pandemic, and influencers are being used to push people to get vaccinated.
I tell this story not to say “I told you so,” but to show that futurists will have already thought through things about ten steps ahead of everyone else because their brains are constantly moving through those three questions on impulse. Could it be done? Yes, it’s another platform to use to push people to do something. Should it be done? Potentially, but you have to remember that anyone can push anything on these platforms. Would it be done? Yes, when push came to shove, it would be done, because it’s fairly cheap, and the influencers get more attention and political clout.
Every futurist I know has a story like this. We don’t limit ourselves to the current constraints of our company, our client, or our world, because the things we consider constraints today won’t necessarily be the constraints of tomorrow. And as we read and watch everything, we are able to see how similar ideas have been brought forth in other media or by other entities, and how they could – or should – be brought forth.
Personally, I wouldn’t have the priorities set at 1/3rd for each question. At best, I’d give could and should about 25% each, and give 50% to would, simply because implementation is the hardest part of any new idea. Anyone can come up with an idea, but it takes a lot of effort to get that idea from dream to reality. So the next time you have a concept for something in your mind, or your coworker does, think about the coulds, shoulds, and woulds of the idea. And then find a futurist to bounce the idea around with. Or message me. I’ve got some time. My fee is…where are you going? Hey, I was going to say it’s coffee! Wait a minute!
[1] Research
[2] Television
[3] And we all know how Quibi bombed. We like our plots long and involved.
[4] We don’t really predict things. If we did, I would have won the lottery several times by now.
[5] https://www.business2community.com/cloud-computing/overprovisioning-always-on-resources-lead-to-26-6-billion-in-public-cloud-waste-expected-in-2021-02381033
[6] https://environment-review.yale.edu/will-businesses-efforts-clean-their-own-waste-divert-resources-away-innovation
[7] And they should remain that way. The cookies, I mean. Not the ideas.
[8] Your words, not mine.
[9] Also due to raging sexism and ageism, but I digress.
[10] Which is basically most IT systems currently.
[11] But I’m okay – I already got paid for the work. I’m good.
[12] It was one of my “bad side” articles. The “good side” had the client running a new automated system during a government shutdown.
formthefuture.org 