Printable PDF

“You love him [Jesus] even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:8-9 (NLT)

Forward thinking is required in these times of rapid change and disruption. Today’s world requires a more forward-thinking mindset than in the past. It is not an option. Our industrial age thinking of command and control has separated people, teams and organizations. This is outdated and must change. Forward thinking is vital to help us discover how we will live and work together in new ways.

Forward thinking is one of the most important duties of a servant leader, but one that is often neglected because of busyness. Daily urgent needs tend to take priority over the important future needs of a business. A servant leader spends significant time contemplating what the future might hold and how to respond strategically. This is important for the organization and for the individuals whose livelihood is at stake.

Forward thinking is a skill and a process. It is a critical thinking skill to understand how data and information affects your organization going forward. It is a process to gather information from research, news articles, politics, financial data, public trends, demographics, networking, etc. The process is unending, and the information is always changing. As an example, artificial intelligence (AI) has been discussed for many years, but it was not until ChatGPT was released to the public that everyone was able to experience it firsthand. At that point, businesses knew they were behind others that were already using AI to improve their business.

Forward-thinking leaders empower others to have a forward-thinking mindset. There are a few people that have the insight and the intuition to develop solid ideas that should be considered. The servant leader acknowledges that they do not know everything about everything. They humbly solicit ideas from others. For example, a 25-year-old recent graduate more likely understands AI, but needs to collaborate with a senior leader to understand the type of information needed to help the business. A collaborative team can be helpful in effectively developing forward-thinking strategies. 

Below is the list of skills for a forward thinker. No one has all of these, but some individuals possess more than most. These skills can be developed, and a servant leader will look for people with these qualities.

·       Intuition

·       Critical thinking

·       Curiosity

·       Take calculated risks

·       Continuous learning

·       Visionary

·       Embrace change

·       Foster collaboration

·       Courage to make daring decisions

·       Willing to fail

·       Clear communication

·       Prioritize innovation

·       Challenge assumptions

Being a visionary and being a leader are entirely different. Elon Musk is an unbelievably creative and smart person and people follow him because of his creativity. However, he is not the leader that most people would desire to work with. So be cautious as you evaluate the forward thinking discussed in this lesson. It could end up being a trap.

Shared Experiences:

·       Can someone share their experience in having a forward-thinking mindset?

·       How has your organization developed its forward thinking?

·       Can someone share a success or a failure of forward thinking?

·       How is AI being used currently in your organization? In the future? What will the benefits and the drawbacks be?

·       Has anyone been caught up thinking they knew what was coming in the next year or two, but did not bring their thoughts forward?

Bottom line: Peter was a forward-thinking person. He eventually had insight, courage and great communication skills after his failure of denying Jesus. Sometimes our failures are our best learning tools.

Dig Deeper

·       Article: Eisenhower Matrix published by ProductPlan.com

·       Article: 65+ Change Management Statistics for 2025: Key Trends and Insights published by Mooncamp.com. This is an excellent article.

·       Article: AI’s Pace Of Change: 6 Indicators You Are Too Slow by Andrew Binns writing in Forbes.com

·       Video: Simon Sinek: How to start a cultural transformation? by Simon Sinek speaking at DenkProducties. Excellent video.

·       Video/Slides: It's Time for a New Strategic Conversation by Bill Fox. This is a little over one minute long, but it has a fascinating message.

·       Article: Accenture Pace of Change published by Accenture

·       Video: The Power of Teamwork by Quanta Services. The story of teamwork of Belgian horses. Powerful!

·       Book: Servant Leadership – A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power & Greatness by Robert K. Greenleaf. This book contains many of his writings, including the essay cited in Lesson 9-1.

·       Book: Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership: Practicing the Wisdom of Leading by Serving; Revised & Expanded Edition by James W. Sipe and Don M. Frick. This is an excellent book.

·       Article: Avoid Unforced Errors and Stay Humble: Warren Buffett’s Leadership Lessons published by the Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2025, by Chip Cutter.

·       Video: Simon Sinek's Advice presented by Alpha Leaders

·       Article: Set Aside Time To Think About The Things You Really Need To by Victor Lipman published by Forbes.com

·       Blog: Fast-forward — comparing a 1980s supercomputer to the modern smartphone published by Adobe in 2022. Today’s smartphones are 5,000 times faster than the CRAY Supercomputer of 1985. The CRAY2 weighed 5,500 pounds and the iPhone 12 weighed 5.78 ounces.

“Every organization must be prepared to abandon everything it does to survive in the future.” - Peter Drucker

The story of Velcro – The art of being observant and determined

Velcro is the invention of a Swiss electrical engineer, George de Mestral. After returning from a hunting trip with his dog, he began plucking the cockleburs from his wool pants and the dog’s fur. He wondered what made the cockleburs stick so tightly. He had a spirit of curiosity, which led him to examine the cockleburs under a microscope, where he discovered that they were covered with tiny hooks. He realized that nature had provided him with an idea for a new type of fastener. This began an eight-year journey to invent Velcro. You can read more at A Brief History of: Velcro published by Time Magazine.

A short history of the internet

The origins of the internet began in the 1950s at the beginning of the Cold War between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union. Tensions were high and both countries possessed nuclear weapons. People were worried about the destruction of the U.S. and maybe even the world. This came to a standoff in 1962 with the Cuban Missile Crisis. The U.S. realized it needed a communication system that could not be affected by a Soviet nuclear attack.

In 1959, Paul Baran joined an American think tank, the RAND Corporation, and was asked to research how the U.S. Air Force could keep control of its fleet if a nuclear attack ever happened. In 1964, Baran proposed a communication network with no central command point. If one point was destroyed, all surviving points would still be able to communicate with each other. He called this a distributed network. This was a crude idea that eventually led to the creation of the internet. There is no single person who invented the internet, but many people over time led to what we know as the world wide web today. You can read more at A Short History of the Internet published by Science + Media Museum.

AT&T thought Baran was nuts. They were stuck in analog thinking instead of learning about digital thinking. The world’s largest corporation missed out on the beginnings of the digital revolution.