Flash Foresight

“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...