Part Two
New—The Zone of Discovery
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
—Albert Einstein
In Part One, we examined how futurists lay a foundation by analyzing the four forces. As we have seen through this examination, the forces of change have a structure that is constant and thus gives us a reliable system for thinking about the future. As I often tell clients, change is predictable, though its outcomes are not. By using a tool such as the Four Forces Model (the predictable part), we can imagine different scenarios for how things might play out (the unpredictable part) so that we can make the best, most informed decisions today for the future. The power to make those decisions is the only real influence we have on the future.
Part Two lays out a method for making those choices and also, critically, for effectively accessing the imaginative power that precedes them. I will introduce you to the Zone of Discovery (ZoD), where you will answer the two primary existential questions of purpose and vision—and also of all effective strategy: “Who are you?” and “Where are you going?”
It should come as no surprise that to succeed at answering these questions, which are, essentially, about self-knowledge, it is vital to understand some key elements about the physiological source of knowledge: the brain. In Chapter Six, we will examine the latest and most relevant brain science discoveries. But for now, let's stick with the basic simplification that is familiar to most people: left- and right-brain functions. Putting it briefly, the right hemisphere of the brain controls sensory perception and creativity, and the left is responsible for reasoning and analysis. Consider our previous analysis of the four forces: all left-brain thinking. Tapping into the left brain allows us to use the four forces as a valuable tool for scanning the environment for clues about what comes next, for anticipating shifts in the market relating to changes in people's lifestyles and values, and for setting direction to take advantage of early-stage opportunities that are just right for you.
But none of the important strategic work can be fully realized if you stay in the left brain. In order to formulate effective strategy, you have to switch to the right-brain activities in the ZoD.
Your goal may be to make a difference, to create value, and to leave a mark. You may be brimming with purpose and vision, ready for creativity and courage. But if you remain in the left brain throughout the strategic process, you will get stuck in the Permanent Present and fail at your attempts at innovation. Because the fact is, determining who you are and where you are going is hard. For companies as much as for the individuals who breathe life into them, such a deep level of self-knowledge involves reconciling how you see yourself with how others see you. Until you articulate this self-identity, you can't make a strategy. There can be no long-term vision, only reactivity, the busyness of responding to immediate needs—all urgency, no direction. Most of us have had the experience of either generating the kind of chaos that accompanies this kind of “planning,” or working in an environment that fosters it.
If you are trapped in this cycle of reactivity, you are likely to be fully aware that you don't have a clear sense of who you are and where you are going. You desperately want purposeful direction; you hire branding gurus and visionary strategists, conduct market and competitive research and SWOT analyses (a straightforward inventory of one's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and host workshops, all to find the ultimate purpose, mission, vision. Usually, you walk away feeling empty and frustrated.
Why? Because the self-awareness you seek is often stuck somewhere between the conscious and unconscious minds. You need the right brain to access it. All those brainstorming sessions, analytics, and exercises that have you compare yourself to a brand of car are left-brain drills—an exercise in futility.
So is trying to implement the much-loved business model of best practices before you have formulated what I call Best Questions. Using best practices makes a whole lot of sense in the left-brain execution phase of a project, once you've decided what to do. But if you lead with them in matters of strategy and innovation, they will kill the very thing you're after: new ideas, new perspectives, new solutions. Instead, in these front-end phases, the process needs to begin with Best Questions, which, like best practices, tap into left-brain analytical thinking, but must precede best practices as a first step to spark the fresh, innovative thinking that is the purview of the right brain, as well as the foundation of strategy.
A word of warning. Many people believe that trying to be creative is like trying to relax: an impossible oxymoron. But I reject the notion. The process of thinking creatively can be taught, replicated, practiced, and mastered. And that mastery begins in the ZoD.
The ZoD employs a left brain–right brain–left brain (L-R-L) approach to answering the questions “Who are you?” and “Where are you going?” In Phase I: Define, you will articulate Best Questions in your left brain. Then, to get you unstuck from left-brain thinking (thinking that is an essential part of the process but disastrous in isolation) and into the fertile creative arena of right-brain discovery, you enter Phase II: Discover—often over grumpy protestations, I might add. Move too quickly into the focused play and sensory activities that tap right-brain insight, and your dominant left-brain inner voice will throw out judgments: “This is juvenile!” “What a waste of time!” and the like.
Ignore them; I do.
The specific activities of the Discover phase are different for each person or business, but always follow the same basic ritualistic arc: Pour and Stir, Play and Make, and Dream and Scheme. We will explore each step fully. For now, trust that if you follow the deliberate pace of the L-R-L approach in the ZoD, the specifically designed playful, sensory activities of Phase II will gently nudge you from the left brain into the right brain, where you will stimulate expressions of self-awareness in right-brain language—feelings, pictures, atmospheres, sensibility, and the like—that give you new insight into old challenges.
Finally, in Phase III: Distill, we'll shift gears once again to get back into the left brain, in order to articulate a harder, left-brain expression of your desired outcome. At the end of this three-phase ZoD, you will emerge with a Now-to-Future Portfolio of short-, mid-, and long-term solutions that ensure what I call your R3OI—resilience, relevance, and revenue—and are shaped by who you are and where you're going. To finish, you will distill the path to get you there into a clear plan of action.