unimagined futures

Searching for YOUR most valuable ROADS AHEAD
In a world relentlessly moving toward new and different futureS
This site provides the elements
for creating a "life time" work approach

Foundations for future directed decisions

Contact me (bobembry)

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Donation: Click the button below to make a donation through PayPal. Just a few dollars helps with the books, software, web site hosting, and the time devoted to enhancing the work approach blue print available on this site. See the text site map for a view of the site's unique scope and resources. Also see links to external resources on my delicious page

FoundationS for future directed decisions
are part of
a life-management or life-navigation system.

These foundations set our outer limits.

Foundations can be enhanced through
time investments

Future directed decisions: For decisions to be effective, they need to be effective in the time yet to unfold—in other words decisions need to work in the future rather than the past—the time spans with which we are most familiar. This is not about future decisions (decisions we plan to make in the future), but about the futurity of present decisions.

Also see time spans.

A link to an exploration of the futurity of present decisions would be appropriate here (Google: drucker futurity decisions).

Foundations are the information bases and social terrain awareness upon which future directed decisions rest. Different decisions areas require different familiarities. Our foundations create or shape our expectations for the future. These foundations come from time investments. The adequacy of an attempt to do one's "homework" on a topic depends on the adequacy of the foundation.

Together the ideas above form a Future Directed Decision Foundation (FDDF) or a Foundation for Future Directed Decisions (FFDD).

Our foundation is part of our mental terrain and it develops along our life lines . Our foundations are the totality of our active mental radars. Things that have slipped off our radar are not part of our functioning foundation—a structured note-taking system may be helpful. Creating foundations requires time investments and learning.

Identifying the Future (The Daily Drucker)

Futurists always measure their batting average by counting how many things they have predicted that have come true. They never count how many important things come true that they did not predict. Everything a forecaster predicts may come to pass. Yet, he may not have seen the most meaningful of the emergent realities or, worse still, may not have paid attention to them. There is no way to avoid this irrelevancy in forecasting, for the important and distinctive are always the result of changes in values, perception, and goals, that is, in things that one can divine but not forecast.

But the most important work of the executive is to identify the changes that have already happened. The important challenge in society, economics, politics, is to exploit the changes that have already occurred and to use them as opportunities. The important thing is to identify the "future that has already happened"—and to develop a methodology for perceiving and analyzing these changes. A good deal of this methodology is incorporated in my 1985 book Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which shows how one systematically looks to the changes in society, in demographics, in meaning, in science and technology, as opportunities to make the future.

About the future: Peter Drucker wrote (in different places):

The future is unknown and unknowable. Also it will be different from what we now expect.

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

The future that has already happened

Management guru was always a step ahead (a book review of The Definitive Drucker that appeared in the Boston Globe) contained the following:

"Management in the 21st century faces fundamental changes in the size and scope of opportunities," he said …

The result is a book that lays out paths for managers to navigate the silent revolution that took place on five fronts—greater velocity of information, exploding geographic reach, changing demographics, increased customer control, and fluid definition of a company. To succeed today, Drucker and Edersheim note the critical importance of looking at tomorrow while focusing on customers, innovating, building collaboration, investing in workers, and setting disciplines for decision-making …

Writing in the Harvard Business Review in 1988, he said management "has created a global economy and set new rules for countries that would participate in that economy as equal. And it has itself been transformed."

Today's major economic problem is overcapacity in most of the world's industries. Customers are scarce, not products. Demand, not supply, is the problem. Overcapacity leads to hyper competition, with too many goods chasing too few customers. And most goods and services lack differentiation—read more—Philip Kotler.

The entire contents of this TLN site can be viewed as a foundation for future directed decisions.

All of these have crucial life and death organization evolution implications. Knowing everything about your industry will not get you to tomorrowS. Organization evolution depends in INDIVIDUAL awareness, efforts …

The links at the bottom of the page are door ways into major site areas or topics

Concepts and ideas used or mis-used in our thinking and speaking

Drucker's Career / Life guidance links

Management Challenges for the 21st Century and Managing in the Next Society below

TLN Keywords: tlnkwfffdd tlnkwfoundations

Peter Drucker: Conceptual Resources

about Peter Drucker — a political social ecologist

Combined outline of Drucker's books — useful for topic searching.

Process: find topic; get Kindle version; word search; dictate notes to voice recognition software (Dragon NS or smart phone); calendarize

Invent Radium or I'll Pull Your Hair by Doris Drucker

Most of the following contain interesting introductions and prefaces with key strategic concepts. Reading through a book's index is a valuable use of time.

Toward tomorrows

Toward unimagined futures

The End of Economic Man: The Origins of Totalitarianism (1939)

The Future of Industrial Man (1943)

The New Society: The Anatomy of Industrial Order (1950)

Landmarks of Tomorrow (1957)

The Age of Discontinuity (1968)

The New Realities (1988)

Post-Capitalist Society (1993)

Managing in the Next Society (2002); Last section originally published earlier in The Economist (http://economist.com/surveys/displaystory.cfm?story_id=770819)

Comprehensive Management Books

Concept of the Corporation

Practice of Management

Managing for Results

Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Essential Drucker (An introduction to management)

Managing the Non-Profit Organization

Management, Revised Edition

Management Cases (Revised Edition)

The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization

“Time Related” Management Books

Managing in Turbulent Times

The Changing World of The Executive

Frontiers of Management

Managing for the Future

Managing in a Time of Great Change

Management Challenges for the 21st Century

Managing in the Next Society

Individually Aimed Books by Drucker

Managing Oneself

The Effective Executive

The Effective Executive in Action

What Executives Should Remember (a valuable summary of several core concepts)

The Daily Drucker (an introduction to broad range of his thoughts)

The Daily Drucker table of contents worksheet

Drucker on Asia — A Dialogue Between Peter Drucker and Isao Nakauchi

Adventures of a Bystander

Books about Drucker and his ideas

The Definitive Drucker

Inside Drucker's Brain

A Class With Drucker: The Lost Lessons of the World's Greatest Management Teacher

Drucker on Leadership: New Lessons from the Father of Modern Management

The Drucker Lectures: Essential Lessons on Management, Society, and Economy

The Drucker Difference

Drucker Essay Collections

Although written years ago, these essays can be valuable attention directing tools. They can take your brain to places (brain addresses and brain roads) it wouldn't naturally go. What has changed and what is likely to change?

Technology, Management and Society

Men, Ideas & Politics

Toward the Next Economics and Other Essays

The Ecological Vision: Reflections on the American Condition

Brainscape enhancement and topic assessment

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Radar: attention :: enhancement :: organization

Life-TIME Investment System

(a road map and brainscape ^© for time investing)

For a world always moving
away from yesterdays
and toward unimagined futures.

Working on the familiar (routine tasks)
with the familiar (capabilities)
won't get you to tomorrows.

What follows is part of a
foundation for future directed decisions

Time investing is the only way to escape
the decaying worldS of yesterdayS — its not a one time event.

The 1850s, 1920s, 1950s, 1970s, 1990s … are gone
and they aren't coming back.

Many people seem to believe that a rising tide lifts all boats.
But does it, really?
Look around the worlds of yesterdays.
How much of the things being done then
had any lasting value?
(Disco, 8-tracks, B&W TV, rotary dial phones,
downtown shopping, fashion, bleeding, Blockbuster, …)

How much of what you're doing today is really
effective or future directed?

Organization change events are with us for the roads ahead.

Amazon link: How The Mighty Fall

… the organization of the post-capitalist society of organizations
is a destabilizer.

Because its function is to put knowledge to work
—on tools, processes, and products;
on work;
on knowledge itself—
it must be organized for constant change.

It must be organized for innovation;
and innovation,
as the Austro-American economist
Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) said,
is “creative destruction.”

It must be organized for systematic abandonment
of the established, the customary, the familiar,
the comfortable
— whether products, services, and processes,
human and social relationships, skills,
or organizations themselves.

It is the very nature of knowledge
that it changes fast and
that today's certainties
will be tomorrow's absurdities. — Peter Drucker

Extrapolating yesterdays is hazardous to your future.

But what if you're currently doing great?

“Only fairy tales end
‘They lived happily ever after.’
Success always obsoletes the very behavior
that achieved it.
It always creates new realities.
It always creates, above all,
its own and different problems.” — Peter Drucker

You can only invest your time in the things on your radar

You can only utilize the things on your radar

What you primarily see around you is yesterday
and the dead past.

Without continuous, systematic on-going work
your radar will be infested with yesterday
rather than opportunities.

Because we live in a world that is always heading
into a non-linear future …

1940 Census

… we need a way to force ourselves
to look for and at things
that aren't on our radar (with some credible help)
and decide what to do about them.
At the same time we need a way
to narrow down the infinite number
things we could look at.
The previous ideas need to rest
on a solid foundation for future directed decisions.

The topics below are “top of the food chain” radar ammunition

It would be a really good idea
to read all of the following before clicking the links.

As you're reading remember the non-linearity of time.

All of the below are connected through TIME
and are moving in TIME

They are part of the elements
for creating a “life time” work approach
mentioned at the top of most pages.

They will help you figure out
where you want to go (your most valuable roads ahead)
and how to get there.
And then do it again …

This is a blueprint for a genuinely interesting life.

A radar list will be helpful in your exploration and life navigation.
It could include important, relevant topic areas and where you found them.
There is a limit to the number of topics a person can effectively calendarize.

One of the difficulties of getting to tomorrows
is having access to the right brain-addresses.
Your radar list should be your future brain-address book.
Every line in the image below is a brain-address
or at least a jumping off point toward the right brain-road to pursue.

Please don't ever begin to believe that
a permanent answer or magic bullet exists.
There is a constantly receding horizon — no final answer.
Just alternatives — appearing at different times.
Life is a navigation challenge
in a world moving toward unimagined futureS.

The pages below are meant to be explored and selectively harvested.

They are ATTENTION-DIRECTING TOOLS

They provide a form of LIFE “insurance.”

Having a complex mental landscape
combined with periodic abandonment and refocusing work
will prevent your from traveling the wrong roads for too long.

Every road eventually becomes the wrong road.

Having a complex mental landscape is also
some protection from those pushing “snake oil.”

Everything above and below is about time investing
for the purpose of time-life navigation.
All of it is part of a foundation for future directed decisions.

You should want to know how the world works
and how you can navigate this reality.

We are already embedded in
a knowledge society, a society of organizations, and a network society.

Attention !!! (refocusing attention always comes first) ::: LTIS for TLN — Quick Look ::: The World is Full of Options by Peter Drucker (a social ecologist) ::: Contents of books by Peter Drucker ::: What do you want to be remembered for? ::: Foundations for future directed decisions (What do you need to know before you decide … ?) ::: Knowledge: Its Economics and Its Productivity ::: The Daily Drucker (a foundational resource with an unparalleled field of vision) ::: TLN text site map (quick view of the Time-Life Navigation ^SM ^© site's scope. Over 500 html pages, 100+ PDFs, 1000s of images. Which of these elements are part of your future?) ::: Time-Life Navigation ^SM ^© (about living in a world moving toward unimagined futures) ::: Adventures in time (can you connect this idea with someone or a topic listed here?) ::: Adventures of a Bystander ::: Simplified TLN system view ::: The Unfashionable Kierkegaard ::: The Changing Social and Economic Picture ::: Economic Content and Structure ::: Knowledge System View ::: Selected TLN articles from the news (Society :: events :: stuff happening)

Work life brainscape: Early Career Work (for knowledge workers and ambitious knowledge technologists—a foundation for future directed decisions)   :::   Because life-time employment is gone Networking is necessary   :::   Résumé and Interview Planning for your years and the decades ahead   :::   New job game plan: when you get a new job, task, or assignment — this is very, very important   :::   Learning

Managing Oneself (as a unique INDIVIDUAL human being over a lifetime in a changing world—beginning NOW! This should be your foundation for everything else)

  :::   Career and Life Guidance from Peter Drucker   :::

  :::   The Essential Drucker   :::
("A coherent and fairly comprehensive" introduction to management)

  :::   Managing Oneself for Effectiveness (a step up the performance ladder — The Effective Executive Preface !!!!! Outline !!!)   :::

  :::   The Educated Person ("defines society's performance capacity")   :::

  :::   Living in More Than One World
How Peter Drucker's Wisdom Can Inspire Your Life by Bruce Rosenstein   :::

  :::   CEO   :::   Board member   :::

  :::   Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It   :::
  :::   What Got You Here Won't Get You There both by Marshall Goldsmith   :::

::: The Second Half of Your Life (important to start by your mid-30s) :::

Career evolution : Professional Grade (another door)

Organization evolution (essential to creating and maintaining a healthy, modern society. Somebody has to want it and do it. From working in a basement or garage to Built to Last) ::: Management, Revised Edition ::: Managing the Non-Profit Organization ::: The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization ::: The Definitive Drucker ::: Leadership ::: Production (from "specs" to user reality) ::: Managing the Small Business ::: Managing the Family Business: see December 28 and 29 in The Daily Drucker

Apple: Apple II, Lisa, Mac, Laptops, iPod and iTunes and other online stores, iPhone, iPad, iCloud …
always aiming high

Innovation and Entrepreneurship ("This is a practical book, but it is not a "how-to" book. Instead, it deals with the what, when, and why; with such tangibles as policies and decisions; opportunities and risks; structures and strategies; staffing, compensation, and rewards. Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service. … The test of an innovation, after all, lies not its novelty, its scientific content, or its cleverness. It lies in its success in the marketplace. … A successful innovation aims at leadership … successful entrepreneurs aim high. They are not content simply to improve on what already exists, or to modify it. … Successful businesses, businesses that are today in the right markets with the right products or services, are likely ten years hence to get three-quarters of their revenues from products and services that exist today, or from their linear descendants. In fact, if today's products or services do not generate a continuing and large revenue stream, the enterprise will not be able to make the substantial investment in tomorrow that innovation requires.") ::: Innovation ::: Entrepreneurship ::: Entrepreneurs and Innovation

Life lines (a view from above) ::: Life design (as your verb or noun) ::: Financial investing (developing an informed capacity) ::: Life management system (LMS) (a conscious navigation system from yesterdays to tomorrows) OR Time-management

Practical thinking (knowing what to to do) ::: Mental patterns (our self-organizing information system. In the final analysis the future of society depends on what's between our ears) ::: More thinking resources by Edward de Bono

Using conceptual resources (as brainroads ^© and brainscapes ^©)
Conceptual resource digestion process ::: TLN conceptual resource file listing ::: Concepts and ideas …

Calendarization (from topic introduction to what's the next action—really?)
What's next? in your life and time
Where will your current time usage lead?

Larger

bobembry contact info (suggestions or whatever) ::: Conceptual resource assistance ::: Partners wanted ::: Resume (Bob Embry) ::: Personal (Bob Embry) ::: Bob Embry's Time-Life Navigation © Blog ::: Twitter | Bob Embry ::: Twitter | ti4tomorrows ::: Facebook | Bob Embry ::: LinkedIn | Bob Embry ::: delicious | bobembry ::: googleme (unexpected ways to view site connections) ::: TLN search (semi-functional Google site search)

The URLs to my site are going to change before June 30, 2012. Apple is discontinuing their hosting service. The new domain is http://rlaexp.com/. Also you will still be able to find the site by Googling either bobembry or "Time-Life-Navigation" or "Life-Time-Investment system"

"To know and not do, is to not yet know"

tlnview tlnkwview

At the present time this is a prototype site. I add, remove, and redesign content based on my own unfolding comprehension of the time-life navigation ^© (TLN) landscape . This means that you might want to periodically revisit relevant pages.

Site design goals (beta—September 2010): My minimum goal is to provide enough "sign-posts" that serious site users don't find themselves in major negative situations because they didn't get the TLN memo. My desired goal is to provide "sign-posts" to a meaningful life—both for individuals and society. One supreme sign-post is to set your sights on achievements that really matter, that will make a difference in the world. The second half of your life is the major opportunity for full effectiveness and fulfillment.

Many of the books that were available when I first started working on what I now call "time-life navigation" have gone out of print or are hard to find. You can still use the content of the book outline pages to identify topics of interest and to search Amazon Books for topics or phrases.

tlnkwtime ::: tsm ::: tlnkwradar ::: tlnkwquick ::: tlnkwdrucker ::: tlnkwceo ::: tlnkwleadership ::: tlnkwbobembry