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When you can't figure out where you are, how can you possibly decide to get where you want to be? If you know where you are, but you can't decide where you want to go, where are you going to end up? If you're not sure how you got to the point you are now, how are you going to know what actions to take to get where you want to be? These are some of the questions that need to be dealt with in navigating any vessel: a ship of any kind, an individual life, an organization, a government, or a society.
The science of navigation has advanced to the point where a space vehicle can land on the moon, or one can come back from space to a specific point on Earth. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent science available for navigating ourselves through a lifetime, or navigating an organization, a government, or a society toward accomplishing missions and goals. It's not hard to imagine the potential value of tools equivalent to sextants, compasses, charts, and radar that could help navigate through life.
The Navigating to the Future concept was developed by Daedalean Associates in Cleveland in the 1980’s as a mechanism to assist individuals and organizations in making intentional and calculated improvements in their surroundings. MetaGovernance has adopted Navigating to the Future in all client engagements because it provides the framework for thoughtful and calculated action plans. The Navigating to the Future model has been warmly received in public presentations. It is an effective tool in defining a future Information Governance environment and articulating the steps needed to achieve the desired future state.
This rather elegant model helps individuals and organizations alike in their quest for controlled, deliberate change. "Navigating to the Future" has four major components:
Present Position Analysis – an assessment of your current state
(in the context of the desired change)
Desired Future State –
a declaration of where you want to be at some
future date in time
Projected Future State –
an assessment of where you will end up if you
continue following existing patterns of behavior
(i.e. all things remaining equal)
Required Corrective Action – a targeted action plan that will ensure
you end up at your Desired Future State,
instead of finding yourself at the Projected Future
State, or somewhere in between
In simple terms, imagine you are a pilot of an airplane travelling from Tokyo and you desire to fly to Paris. Looking down on the terrain you notice that you are approaching land that should be snow covered as the route from Tokyo to Paris will take you near the North Pole. To your surprise, you see lush green forests and sandy beaches. A quick glance at your instruments reveal the airplane is on a direct course to JFK Airport in New York. So in this example, we have the following:
Present Position Analysis = flying 35,000 feet somewhere over the Pacific Ocean approaching the coast of North America
Desired Future State = Land in Paris
Projected Future State = Land in New York
Required Corrective Action =contact the FAA for a new course and reset the airplane's navigation to the new coordinates
Modern technology should have prevented the above problem by the use of sophisticated navigational aids that can identify an airplane’s location and provide precise direction and timing information.
In today’s business we do not have the luxury of such precise markers. Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) are useful in providing a measurement of a specific metric like “total sales” or “net revenue.” but they need to be put into the context of
the organization’s objectives to be useful as a navigational aid. The lack of navigational aids mean that an organization’s Required Corrective Action, frequently results in dramatic directional swings or general chaos (a simple look at the financial markets since 2008 are a classic example). To ensure making it to Paris, rather than Stockholm, this process must be frequently repeated.
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