Think about your business right now. You’ve probably got a bunch of things to do.
How well is your business doing right now? What are the main challenges today?
Now imagine yourself slowly into the future. Tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, five years from you. How clear is the future to you? How aware are you of where your business is going?
How clear are your plans?
How conscious are you of trends and developments in your community, in your industry, in your sector? What changes are coming on the horizon that might effect you? What different scenarios? How important is it for you to be conscious of what lies ahead for your business?
Do you have plans for what could happen or for what you want to happen? How clear are they?
Conscious businesses are not just conscious of what is happening today, but also what is likely to happen tomorrow, and even further up ahead.
We can make decisions now that can get us ready for the future. If tough times lie up ahead we might start to look at creating stronger partnerships with customers and suppliers. We might put some cash reserves aside. We might invest in new products. We might train staff for what lies ahead – new technology for example.
Now, expand your awareness backwards in time – into the past – into history.
How aware are you of past influences in your business? And also past influences on your as a manager or leader from your own life?
Can current problems and challenges and also success be rooted in the past?
Are there aspects of the past that we need to properly reflect on and learn from them so we can harvest that learning and use it? Many successful conscious business keep in touch with people who have retired from their businesses, tapping into their wisdom and experiences and even using them as advisors, non-executive directors and coaches.
There may also be “legacy” aspects of the design of our products, services or business processes – things that are now out-of-date and we need to drop but people have never questioned them. It can become very easy to take things we have done for a long time for granted and lose awareness of their positive and negative influences.
It’s better to be aware of the ghosts that might be haunting our business.
So, by temporal we mean “time”. And by temporal business consciousness we really mean a business that is much more conscious of its vision for the future, its plans, its forecasts and planning and getting ready for different scenarios. We also mean a business that learns from, celebrates and harvests the lessons of its past, and is very aware of how past influences – habits, patterns of behaviour, aspects of its product design – are still influencing its “Now”.
A temporally conscious business is conscious of the WHOLE TIMELINE and uses it in ways that help it be successful.
Aware of past, present, and future.
How conscious are you and your business of the whole time picture?
Paul Levy 