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Flash Foresight
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Flash Foresight

How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible

Daniel Burrus and John David Mann
HarperBusiness, 2011
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Recommendation

If you’re like most people, you’re trying to deal with the changes life throws at you every day, and you could use some help planning for the future. Technology forecaster and strategic adviser Daniel Burrus, writing with business author John David Mann, shows you how to see invisible opportunities and solve seemingly impossible problems by developing your ability to generate “flashes of foresight.” He demonstrates how to turn rapid change into advantage by using strategic foresight and certainty. As the subtitle says, Burrus believes you can learn to look where no one else is looking to “see the invisible and do the impossible.” getAbstract recommends their enthusiasm and vision to innovators, leaders and to anyone planning ahead.

Summary

“Flash Foresight”

Developing your ability to have “flashes of foresight” will allow you to see the future accurately. With practice and the methodical application of specific techniques, you can learn to see what’s coming and solve problems before they happen. You can assess market changes more accurately, create new products and position them for more certain success in changing times. To do all this, adjust your outlook by following these seven principles:

1. Start with Certainty Using “Cyclical” and “Linear” Change

Strategy based on uncertainty has high risk and possible reward. Strategy based on certainty has low risk and high reward. Start by recognizing the two different kinds of change. Cyclical change moves through a cycle, such as the perennial rotation of seasons. More than three hundred known cycles provide certainty. Linear change moves in a single direction. Time, for instance, is linear: As you live, you keep getting older.

Understanding linear change, which includes technological growth, is central to building certainty. You must learn to distinguish between “hard trends” and “soft trends.” Hard trends are based on “measurable, tangible...

About the Authors

Technology forecaster, strategic adviser and entrepreneur Daniel Burrus is the author of Technotrends. Business writer John David Mann is the co-author of The Go-Giver.

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