People high in futuristic are often driven by their vision of the future. What are some ways that we can leverage on this Talent Theme?
Here is the description of the Futuristic Talent Theme from the Gallup Business Journal:
“Wouldn’t it be great if . . .” You are the kind of person who loves to peer over the horizon. The future fascinates you. As if it were projected on the wall, you see in detail what the future might hold, and this detailed picture keeps pulling you forward, into tomorrow. While the exact content of the picture will depend on your other strengths and interests — a better product, a better team, a better life, or a better world — it will always be inspirational to you. You are a dreamer who sees visions of what could be and who cherishes those visions. When the present proves too frustrating and the people around you too pragmatic, you conjure up your visions of the future and they energize you. They can energize others, too. In fact, very often people look to you to describe your visions of the future. They want a picture that can raise their sights and thereby their spirits. You can paint it for them. Practice. Choose your words carefully. Make the picture as vivid as possible. People will want to latch on to the hope you bring.
One thing that I think people high in Futuristic can do is to
Clarify Your Vision
A person who is motivated by what the future holds would probably be more engaged (and also engage others better) when they have a clear vision of the future. And with a clearer vision of the future, they can better communicate it and inspire others as well.
Here are some questions to help you gain some clarity of your vision:
The 6 “W”s
One way to clarify your vision is to use the 6 “W”
- Who
Who are the people included in your vision?
Who are your major stakeholders?
Who does this vision impact?
Who benefits from this vision?
Who can help you? - When
When will you start?
When will you finish?
What is the timeline? (Technically it’s a “what” question, but its about time.) - What
What needs to be done to accomplish the vision?
What tools and resources do you need?
What tools and resources do you have?
What will be happening when you accomplish your vision?
What will you be seeing, hearing, feeling and doing? - How
How will you go about accomplishing this vision? - Why
Why is this important?
Why are you doing this?
Why should others be helping you? - Where
Where does this vision take place? How many locations?
Where will you (and others be)?
Cartesian Questions
Cartesian Questions are from the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), and helps to check the ecology of decisions. But I think that it also works very well for clarifying futures. There are a total of 4 questions:
- What will happen if you do ‘X’
- What wont happen if you do ‘X’
- What will happen if you don’t do ‘X’
- What wont happen if you don’t do‘X’
After each question, dig deeper by asking “what else?” a number of times.
Are you high in Futuristic? How do you make your vision clearer and more real to you? And how can you help those high in Futuristic gain greater clarity if they aren’t already clear on it. Share your thoughts and comments below!
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I have high Futuristic (#3 right behind Strategic) and one thing that has been very helpful for me is to literally close my eyes and “see” something. I have to get a better picture of it before I can move forward. I may have these random ideas of the :”wouldn’t it be great if…” but unless I know what that feels like, what that sounds like, what it smells like, what’s the full experience of that vision, I can’t answer the rest of the questions you propose.
I recently worked with someone else who has high Futuristic but she couldn’t see it in her every day life. She plans events for her organization yet she still didn’t see how she uses Futuristic. I ran her through an exercise where I had her close her eyes and put herself in the middle of that event that she had coming up – asked her the questions about what it was like to be there – how it feels, how it sounds, how it smells. She was able to paint a vivid description of that experience. Then we talked about how she goes about planning an event – does she go to the venue and immediately see how things need to be laid out, what needs to go where, how many people will attend, etc? I’ve started having her record that vision so that when she gets sidetracked with all the other event things, she can go back to that vision and keep moving forward towards that ultimate vision she had at the beginning.
For someone high in Futuristic, until the have a really clear view of that castle in the air, they can’t put the foundation under it. When they don’t have a clear vision – it’s too murky with other ideas, situations, or realities – they can become stuck and are unable to move forward simply because they don’t see it and they don’t see the path to get there. They simply keep going with what they are already doing, even if it makes them unhappy. Once that vision is clear, you as the coach can help them figure out how to get there with the questions above.
hi A’Lisa! Thank you for your comments! You have shed a lot of light into the Futuristic theme for me.
Rather than some of the questions I’ve posted upfront, first make the vision more real by exploring the sensory perceptions of that vision, i.e. Visual (sight), Audio (sound), Kinesthetic (feelings), Olfactory (smell), Gustatory (taste).
Beautiful!