Transforming the Future

My wife commented recently that most portrayals of the future are not optimistic. The Economist Magazine The World in 2015 confirms her opinion. It is full of articles based on what in business we call lagging indicators. These are the results, or output, from the system. In the case of our current world situation there seems to be negative output and chaos from the system of world order. Most of the articles take these lagging indicators (and they are many) as a semi permanent pattern and project a future based on the past. This is based on what I call incremental development of the current pattern. To transform this situation one has simply to take a new point of view(s) and seek outputs that create more peace and order. This creates a group of leading indicators that require one to take actions to create and implement the new pattern. This is I call leadership. Since this scenario does not appear anywhere in the magazine, and if the magazine reflects general world opinion or expert opinion, then it appears that we don’t have any active point of leadership. The Economist does mention the lack of leadership in the world but not the presence of some group of people that they think will change this opinion and lead the world successfully to the next level of performance. This type of leadership activity is what is needed to transform the current pattern to a new and more productive one. Our leaders today are really followers! They are blindly following the current pattern and bolstering it through their mindless acceptance of the present situation. The wisdom needed to withdraw and reflect on the current situation objectively, in order to create the new pattern, is the desired remedy. The question is will we ever get better or is this a chronic disease?