A Case for Career Planning in the Future

Disruptions. Unforeseen occurrences Misguided tactics. All of this is feasible for both businesses and careers. We don’t have to look far back in time to see how even the best-laid business and career plans can go awry due to an unexpected and unexpected event in 2020. We could say, well, that’s life. Nobody ever promised us long-term security. This is correct. Unannounced and unintended curve balls are part of life’s churn, but that doesn’t mean we can’t prepare for them ahead of time and develop agility that can lead to competitive advantages and success despite disruptions.

Many of us still operate under the assumption that the most difficult part of executing a career is deciding which career path to take, followed by education and training, landing the great job, keeping the job, and staying current with best practices. As important as these features are, I would recommend adding at least one more: improving your ability to predict where your career will take you and what hazards will thwart your plans.

In terms of our careers, it is prudent to devote time and energy to a style of future planning that incorporates deliberate forecasting of trends and movements that have the potential for threat and disruption. Although no one can predict the future with certainty, by developing projections over time, we can hone our ability to make more accurate predictions, test hypotheses, and delve deeper into what makes our professions tick. Improving our forecasting abilities could mean the difference between thriving and failing in today’s volatile economy.

To prepare for the future, we must first change our attitude and question our assumptions. Here are some basic hypotheses that I encourage you to test. The good times don’t last indefinitely. Luck can only take you so far. The world is dynamic rather than static. That being said, change your plans for tomorrow. Future planning should not be limited to evaluating the present and then looking ahead. Rather, determine the most likely future perception as best as possible and plan backwards from there.

Creating a vision is the first step in interpreting the future. The more in-depth our knowledge of our profession, including the proclivities of markets and customers, the clearer this vision becomes. Vision is not certainty, but rather an estimate of what is possible. The more we learn, the closer we are to perfecting our analysis. As a result, the primary activity to practice is structured ongoing learning. We can better prepare ourselves for forecasting by looking at every aspect of our profession, including the influences and disorders affecting our lines of work, as well as practicing making and reviewing predictions. There will always be opportunities. Make yourself a change agent and a magnet for these possibilities.

Scenario planning is a strategic method used by smart organizations. It entails forecasting and incorporating a high level of flexibility into long-term planning. Scenario planning presumes that adaptation is required for survival. The same holds true for our careers. In general, this process entails combining known future facts, such as demographics, geographic constraints, cultural characteristics, government structures, and so on, with social, economic, political, technological, and environmental trends. We can create simulations that serve as prototype strategies using this mixture. Is it reasonable to believe that climate-related disruptions will manifest in novel ways over the next three decades, causing potentially abrupt market fluctuations? Do you believe the United States has learned its lesson about pandemic preparedness and is ready for the next such attack?

Developing a heuristic approach to prepare for uncertainty may be the system required to best weather whatever the future throws at us next.