Narrative

This is your invitation to go on an adventure with us.  We’ll be there with you every step, equipping you with a new way to prepare for the future and giving you practical examples from our past experiences to encourage you. All you have to do is take the first step. We promise that you’ll never want to look back.

The chapter opens, appropriately, with a story about space exploration and then encourages you to think and play like a child – to be curious in this journey. After all, kids really are the best futurists.  We discuss why kaleidoscopes are so powerful and how the rest of this book is your opportunity to pick up a kaleidoscope and, with each turn of it, see fresh possibilities for your future. With enough twists, we’ll show you how to combine these insights into a clearer vision of the future.

We share the story of Sir Ernest Shackelton, a polar explorer who is best known for his successful failure.  You may relate to Ernest Shackleton. As a leader, you also have a weighty responsibility to navigate your team through the chaotic world around you to a better future. You aren’t alone.  We all suffer from the human condition of nearsightedness. Thankfully, there is an antidote called “futures thinking.” You can use futures thinking as a way of inspecting your beliefs, habits, and assumptions.  We’ll help you understand why the future is actually plural and why having clarity about your preferred future is so important.

Like the invisible wind that can wreak havoc and destruction, or power our sails as we take flight, there are four forces that are having a significant impact on us today.  The four forces —purpose, people, place, and technology— have been around since the beginning of time and their influence remains unchanged to this day.  We’ll show you how to identify the forces and and their influence in your world.

The four independent forces are catalysts in a change reaction (to use chemistry terms). As they combine, or mix together, we can see the chaos they are causing. We can choose to react to the reality out our fear of change, or we can respond with a better understanding of how the forces provide us an opportunity to better design solutions, collaborate with others, scale the results and impact our world in the future. To respond better, we need a lens to view the future through which gives us better insight. The Futures Framework is that lens and we’ll explore the intersections of the overlapping forces to see how they are combining to drive change.  You’ll start to understand the power of the Futures Framework as proactive, intentional approach to help you benefit from futures thinking to create transformational change.

We begin our explanation of the framework by describing how purpose and passion combine to form identity.  This chapter is all about exploring who we are today and in the future.  Identity is fundamental to our human experience and at the core of human activity. Identity is about you and us—all at the same time.  We use a well known model to explain Jesus’s identity, so we can understand the three key archetype roles he filled during his ministry – the Prophet, Priest, King. These roles symbolize the threefold mission and office of Christ Jesus and his Church. We will then apply that concept to common leadership roles you may find yourself in, the Entrepreneur, the Pastor and the Executive.

At the intersection of purpose, people, and place, we next explore how we can connect and relate with people in new ways.  What would happen if you found yourself isolated for six months?  Would you, like in the story of Michael Siffre, become “a half-crazed disjointed marionette”?  The truth is, we all quickly fall apart outside of relationship.  Is there a cure for loneliness? And how does our need for relationship tie into the Futures Framework?  We’ll dive into breakthroughs in neuroscience and discuss how to build connections that matter because pursuing and developing authentic relationships with others is a vital, core component of the good work you’re doing as a leader in your organization, church, or ministry.

Belonging is a universal human need, just like our need for food and shelter, but the way we belong is changing.  Belonging has always been at the intersection of people and place, but the boundaries between us are being erased.  As we transition from an analog world to a digital one, we’ll discuss the fear of losing control, fear of inauthentic experiences, and fear of new places. We’ll help you see why overcoming your fears are so important to your organization, church, or ministry.  As leaders, we have a responsibility to the people we lead to create a place where they can belong.  As our friends who have traveled to space have explained, having an orbital perspective will help us welcome to people with different experiences and expectations than our own.

Every Thanksgiving, churches around America sing a 400-year-old hymn titled “We Gather Together.”  The hymn reminds us that God instructs us throughout the Bible—as those who find our identity in Christ—to gather together in relationship with others.  It’s impossible to relate with others and belong in community without some kind of ability to gather.  Our life is best lived with others and that requires two key ingredients: relationship and proximity.  Place and people have always been the driving forces of how gathering happens, but we explore how technology is changing the way we gather today.

Have you ever designed anything entirely new and unique? If so, you know firsthand that the design or development of anything new, whether it’s a new product, approach, or system, is really difficult.  Designing a better solution for the future starts with knowing and responding to what you want, rather than reacting to what you fear.  So, how do you know what you want? Intentional design starts with empathy.  As you learn to be an architect of the future, you’ll benefit by understanding and applying three key design principles.  These processes will help push you to think differently and see new possibilities.

We often define collaboration as “people working together,” but it’s much more than that. The Futures Framework places collaboration between design and scale because collaboration’s a critical link between your process for solving problems and your approach to grow and scale those solutions.  Having built up a firm foundation in first four themes, by this chapter your preferred future will start to take shape as you recognize who you are, how you relate and gather, and what you want.  Our attention now turns to inviting others into your story because the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  We’ll explore whats required for a great collaborations (and what isn’t).  With this insight, we share examples form our work, to encourage you (since collaborating can be hard work).  

Do you remember when you asked your high school algebra teacher, “How is this actually going to help me in the real world?” Well, today is that day. In this chapter, we show you the difference between growth and scale, as well as how to start a movement. We’ll discuss what it means to be on mission, to serve others, and to be the global church, all which are being redefined right in front of us, and are happening at the intersection of purpose and technology.

Completing the framework, we’ll help you tie the impact you want to have to the existing mission statement driving your organization. Now that you have clarity on your preferred future, your mission statement will be more than just a series of aspirational words on a piece of paper – it is something that you’ll have clarity to accomplish.  We’ll challenge you to consider how your passion meets the world’s needs (to quote one of our favorite books by Frederick Buechner) and then to be a leader who creates transformational experiences by imitating God’s purposes in all that you do.  Transformation is God’s ultimate purpose both in us and through us.

Going on an adventure requires being brave, overcoming your fears, and permitting yourself to take the first step. After reading this book, you’re now better equipped to think about what comes next and ready to step into the unknown. But for those around you who haven’t read this book, this can all sound scary.  Remember, most people don’t like disruption and change. When you’re the one with a vision for a better future, you can quickly feel like an outsider in your organization, church, or ministry, so before our journey together comes to an end, we share some practical tips on how to exponentially increase your likelihood of success.

Why would anyone remain in their seats to sit through the never-ending rolling credits at the end of movies?  Stick around and we’ll tell you!

The notes section has always been one of our favorites parts of a book.  Did you know – this book has 116 footnotes!  But, which chapter has the most?