We all manage something in our lives. Whether we manage
other people, an entire organization, sales or even just ourselves,
management is part of our everyday lives and includes careful
planning, well-thought-out direction and a sense of control.
What happens when we apply that definition of management
to the concept of opportunity?
What if we were to identify and act upon opportunity much as
we arrange and then manage a meeting, a project or some other
form of responsibility that takes place each day in our lives?
What transformative opportunity does that foster for
your organization?
Take Anticipatory Action, Not Agile Reaction
One element of being a manager is the necessity of reacting to
crises. This COVID-19 global pandemic we presently find ourselves
in is the perfect example. In the wake of the coronavirus, I’m
sure you have had to manage a crisis or two you never before
thought plausible, yet somehow you overcome it every day.
Crisis is a form of change or disruption coming from outside of
your organization that greatly impacts the status quo and must
be dealt with. That is a perfect description of what the coronavirus
pandemic has done to us all, no matter what industry we find
ourselves in. However, COVID-19 and other forms of disruption
and perceived crises aren’t the problem; the real issue is when
your response as a leader is solely reactionary and habitual.
No matter how agile or clever you are, repeatedly reacting to
problems and issues will eventually be a never-ending cycle.
This is why change must happen by way of implementing
anticipation—allowing you to become an opportunity manager
instead of a crisis manager.
What Is an Opportunity Manager?
What does it mean to become an opportunity manager instead
of a crisis manager? Among other things, it means being
anticipatory, paying attention to what I refer to as Hard Trends
(projections based on measurable, tangible, and fully predictable
facts, events, or objects) shaping your industry and pre-solving
problems before they occur. An opportunity manager looks for
opportunities, identifies them, acts on them and refines them. An
opportunity manager is a positive disruptor. More specifically,
here are three attributes of an opportunity manager:
- You create change rather than having to react to it.
Instead of reacting to change, you effectively create change.
Rather than reacting to an outside factor, like a nationwide
shutdown of nonessential businesses that most business leaders
never anticipated, you’re reversing these effects and creating
change from inside your organization.
- You are a positive disruptor.
As I mentioned, you create the disruption instead of being
disrupted by it. This pandemic has created a “new normal”—so
merely waiting for disruption to hit you is a poor choice. New
innovation is needed, so creating positive disruption from inside
your organization allows you to stay ahead of the innovation curve.
- You use disruption to your advantage.
Not only do you create the change and control the disruption
before it disrupts you, but you’re also the anticipatory one who’s
leveraging disruption to your advantage. For example, instead
of attempting to protect the status quo (as most are doing in
reaction to COVID-19), you find ways to use that disruption as
an opportunity to innovate, continue to serve customers and
possibly even continue to offer said service once the pandemic
is over.
Become an Opportunity Manager
Becoming an opportunity manager means first developing an
anticipatory mindset. For instance, one of the salient principles
of my Anticipatory Organization Learning System is Hard Trends,
which are future certainties that you know will impact both you
and your organization.
Take a few moments to consider what Hard Trends could
drastically affect you, your organization and your industry as we
come out of this pandemic. Likewise, think about the possible
problems and opportunities that you can foresee those Hard
Trends bringing with them for you or your customers. What can
you do now to not only pre-solve those problems before they
become detrimentally disruptive, but also leverage those Hard
Trends into game-changing opportunities?
A good example of a Hard Trend is the reality that there will be
greater changes in regulation of brick-and-mortar businesses as
they reopen into the “new normal” COVID-19 has left us in. For
example, the Las Vegas entertainment industry, which makes
up nearly all business in lower Nevada and relies on in-person
contact much of the time, must reopen safely.
An opportunity manager looks at opportunity within the
framework of both time and effort. What opportunities are more
immediate and mandate less effort, and what opportunities
require a longer time frame and greater commitment?
For Las Vegas, the immediate opportunities are most pertinent,
and an example of an opportunity manager in this case is a local
billboard printer who began making custom-fitted plexiglass
shields, allowing individuals to play cards at a table while being
separated from one another.
In the face of the unknown, it is time to transform your
role from a crisis manager to an opportunity manager.
Daniel Burrus is considered one of the world’s leading
technology forecasters and disruptive innovation
experts. He is a strategic advisor to executives helping
them to develop game-changing strategies based on
his proven methodologies for capitalizing on technology
innovations. He is the author of seven books, including
The New York Times bestseller Flash Foresight, and
his latest book The Anticipatory Organization. He offers
monthly Strategic Deep Dive Webinars through an
Anticipatory Leader Membership program. You can
contact Daniel at www.Burrus.com | office@burrus.com.
This article appears in the summer 2020 issue of the Washington CPA Magazine. Read more here.