Excerpt: “Future-Ready, not ‘Future-proof’,” from What Matters Next

The following is an excerpt from What Matters Next, a new book due out in January 2025 by Kate O’Neill.

Future-Ready, not “Future-proof”

I get asked a lot to weigh in on how “future-proof” some project or product approach is. That term strikes me as a bit silly. If we were talking about something being “child-proof,” it would mean that kids can totally play in your living room and they won’t poke their eyes out. Fair enough.

But your living room is not future-proof, and neither is your life, nor your marketing strategy—not even your business. Because the word “future-proof” itself suggests that there’s some way to shield against the future so it won’t poke your eyes out. But there’s no preventing the future from happening. Remember what we determined about the future: it is simply the time ahead of us, and it is at least somewhat knowable and predictable, because it is at least somewhat shaped and influenced by the actions and decisions we’ve already taken and those we are about to take today.

So, we can’t be future-proof. There’s no such thing. The future is coming. What we can do, though, is be more future-ready. Does the choice of wording make a difference? I think it does. “Future-proof” puts you into a defensive posture, frightened of the future and denying its potential. “Future-readiness” sets you up as a leader to be prepared for the strategic complexity ahead, to face the cascading decisions that flow from this one, to face the transformation process the way an athlete faces training.

What Future-Readiness Requires

Future-readiness is not about predicting what the next big thing will be, but about fostering an flexible mindset that embraces change as a constant. For instance, a tech company doesn’t need to be the very first to know the next big social media trend, but they do need to have a cultural and practical willingness to adapt their marketing strategy when that trend arises.
This readiness is not about having flawless predictions of what the future will bring, but about having a clear and coherent understanding of our purpose. It’s about being agile, being adaptable, and being prepared for the constant flux of change.

The Reality of Future-Ready Leadership

Future-readiness may seem like a tall order, especially when considering the long-term projections made by futurist organizations that span hundreds, even thousands of years ahead. But your foresight most likely doesn’t need to stretch that far. You don’t need to predict every technological advancement of the next century, or know everything about future trends or market conditions to make informed decisions today. Instead, it’s about having clarity about your own strategy, and using it to take confident, purposeful actions in light of what is foreseeable and how it aligns with your long-term goals.
The scope of our vision should be dictated by the context and the immediacy of the decisions we need to make. It’s understandable that the farther out a decision is, the less clear it will be. But the sooner a decision is due, the sharper our vision of that future timeline should be.

That passage is from my new book, What Matters Next, which is coming in January 2025.

You can pre-order it now (Amazon, B&N, Bookstore.org), you can take the decision-making assessment, and you can also sign up for my mailing list to read other excerpts and gain access