Foresight: Future Changes for Bold Transformation By Dr. Teresa Moon

Hindsight Brings Insight Which Produces Foresight

Strategic foresight professionals tell us the best predictor of the future is the past. In other words, past and present trends will continue unless something causes them to change. Humans are the perfect example: we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing, and we’ll keep getting what we’ve always gotten unless something changes. 

Reason for Change

What causes us to change? It isn’t seeing something we want more. Psychologists tell us people change when the pain of staying the same diminishes the pain of change. 

Change always feels uncomfortable, even painful. But we’ll do it when it looks preferable to what we’ve been doing and where we find ourselves. That requires foresight born of insight from hindsight. 

Here is an impactful quote by Janet Hagberg: “A leader’s capacity for influence is capped by their capacity for reflection.” That reflection (hindsight) gives us insight which produces foresight. And foresight is how we remove that cap.

Predicting the Future

If the best predictor of the future is the past, our reflective practices ought to help us make better decisions for the future. When we reflect on how God has worked in the past, we can anticipate how He will continue working in the future.

At the Jerusalem Council, Church leaders reflected on and celebrated what God was doing (hindsight). They learned from that (insight). Then, they decided that it quite literally saved the future of the church. Their foresight brought unity.

Today’s Application

How can we build patterns of foresight into our teams and our personal lives?

It took me a long time to become consistent at journaling, but I have spent the last decade keeping a gratitude journal. And I’ve seen its impact – as I continually reflected on and thanked God for how he’s shown up in both remarkable and ordinary ways, I conditioned myself to expect to find something to thank God for in the next problem, even before it happens.

That foresight has come from taking time to reflect on God’s goodness. It didn’t happen in two or three reflections. It grew over years.

Like many, I had always been change-averse. I didn’t want to get uncomfortable unless truly necessary. But now, what I desire even more than comfort is transformation. That comes about as I gain insight from hindsight that produces foresight – and a willingness to act on it.

A Reflection Challenge

Will you reflect with me? Apply hindsight, insight, and foresight to your own life. Based on what God has done in your past (hindsight) and what you’ve learned about yourself (insight), what is one thing you are anticipating God will do in your life in the future (foresight)? 

Your foresight may be in weeks, months, or years.

Whatever it is for you, exercise it now. Then record what God has done.

Dr. Teresa Moon, founding President and CEO of the Institute for Cultural Communicators, is an internationally recognized seminar speaker, education consultant, author, and leadership coach. Each year, she travels around the world, equipping students, teachers, and parents to become “cultural communicators” and helping Christians prepare to speak as extraordinary, authentic communicators.

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