Forward Thinking
by Gerardo Oudri, D.Min.
If we want to move forward, we need forward-thinking.
INTRODUCTION
Patrick Mouratoglou is a famous and extremely successful French tennis coach with a long list of accolades: (a) He has coached top players like Serena Williams, Grigor Dimitrov and (currently) Holger Rune, to name a few. (b) He founded the well-known Moratoglou Tennis Academy in France, where many promising tennis players seek to grow and reach professional levels. (c) He has over 1M followers on Instagram; and the list could go on.
In a recent interview by tennis player Nick Kyrgios, Mouratoglou revealed a serious problem he faced growing up: he was so shy he could not talk to people. In Mouratoglou’s words: “I spent the first 20 years of my life being alone, unable to talk to people, I was bullied a lot. I was scared that people would talk to me, because I knew I would freeze.” Until “one day I decided to change. I went to see a therapist. It took me 8 years of work. The first year I could not say one word to the guy; not one word!” But eventually he conquered his giant, something he considers his greatest achievement: “being able to change the child I was into the man I became.”
Somewhat shocked after discovering this about Mouratoglou’s past, and in light of it, Nick Kyrgios next asked, “With all the things you do today, working with the media, helping players, etc., is there one thing you carry in the back of your mind?” To this Mouratoglou replied, “Yes, there’s one thing that changed my life!” Now, you may ask, “What is the one thing that changed his life?” Let’s come back to that later.
For now, suffice it to say that it had everything to do with forward-thinking. What is forward-thinking? And, how does it relate to the church and to church leadership? I’m glad you asked…
A CALL TO FORWARD THINKING: DEFINITION AND SELF-ASSESSMENT
Marriam-Webster defines “forward-thinking” as “thinking about and planning for the future: forward-looking.” Google describes forward thinkers as “favoring innovation and development; progressive.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary forward-thinking is “the act of thinking about and planning for the future, not just the present.” Cambridge includes the following example: “We don't want to stifle creativity, innovation, and forward-thinking.”
Let me ask you reader: how important do think it is for our church to have and to develop leaders that are forward-thinkers? How do you think we are doing in this area? Personally, I am convinced that in a rapidly changing world in which we live, more than ever, forward-thinking is an imperative. But how can I know if I am good at forward-thinking?
In 2020, Forbes magazine published an article entitled “Are You a Forward-Thinker? Use These 4 Questions To Find Out.” In the article, “future and innovator speaker” Robert B. Tucker describes the importance of forward-thinking: “All leaders today, no matter what industry or profession, need to hone their capacity to look, think and act ahead of the curve. The future is arriving faster than ever.” He adds: “The ability—but more importantly the willingness—to think forward will be a key component of organizational and personal success going forward.” Furthermore, Tucker proposes that “the next decade is certain to be more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous than ever before. And full of potential, at the same time—for those who are ‘future-ready.’” Talk about the need for forward-thinking!
If you are like me, you may feel a bit intimidated by this pressing need of forward-thinking. Do I have it? If not, is there anything I can do about it? Don’t panic, for Tucker argues that “forward-thinking is a learned behavior, rather than an innate human ability.” Simply put, we can get better at predicting the future and seizing up its opportunities “by being curious, outwardly focused on change in all its dimensions, and pro-active in our information intake.”
For those interested in developing better forward-thinking skills, Tucker’s more detailed recipe begins with a “focus on two areas: strategic foresight and innovation skills.” Then he moves into four questions to help readers identify and process their forward-thinking abilities (I’ve added a one word heading for each question):
IMAGINATION - Do friends, family or colleagues ever acknowledge you for your imagination? You are forward thinking when you conjure up the layout of your dream house before you ever start drawing up a blueprint.
INFORMATION - Do you periodically audit your “information diet”? If you want to accelerate your forward-thinking skills, start with your informational intake.
INTENTIONAL IMPROVEMENT - Do you regularly sharpen your forecasting skills? While nobody can predict the future, according to Tucker, highly adept forecasters have certain traits in common: they are philosophically cautious and humble; they are comfortable with numbers but not always math whizzes, they are pragmatic and open minded; they are intellectually curious; and most especially, they are alert to personal bias and wishful thinking.
IMITATION - Do you benchmark the best practices of leading innovators in order to improve? Simply put: innovation breeds innovation.
In sum, according to Tucker’s article, if we want to be better at “forward thinking,” we need to: (a) increase our imagination quotient, (b) filter our information intake, (c) intentionally seek improvement in reading current trends so that we can better anticipate and forecast the future, and (d) learn from other people’s “forward-thinking.”
Dr. Gerardo Oudri serves as Associate Director of the NAD Ministerial Association.
