Third Turn Heroes

I recently came across a familiar  quote from Nassim Nicholas Taleb .

Do you agree with it? 

"We favor the sensational and the extremely visible. This affects the way we judge heroes. There is little room in our consciousness for heroes who do not deliver visible results—or those heroes who focus on process rather than results."

―  The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

As a person devoted to developing and advancing the field of Process Consulting, I ardently agree. People who take the long and process view give us symphonies, alabaster sculptures, epic novels, artisanal bakery goods, ground-breaking doctoral dissertations, and well-behaved children who become good neighbors. People who take the long view become our heroes, even when acting in the moment. The lives they live are how future value gets constructed.

With the long view in mind, let's consider several current dynamics: 

1.  Even as 5G technology rolls out and we worry about its hazards, 6G already exists with the promise of internet accessibility as a digital exoskeleton covering our planet. 
   
2. "Of the 250,000 privately-held middle-market companies looking to exit by 2030, only 20% will be considered 'market ready' and only 6%. will transact at the desired value." - -- Idaho Business Review 4 March 2022
   
3. CRISPR represents the next step in humans separating sexuality from reproduction. Scientists and academics openly discuss the likelihood of an ethical shift from "we should not seek to play God" to an expectation that parents would have their fetuses tested and tuned up to offset genetic abnormalities. They think future society might think it wise to abort a child who might otherwise live a less than optimal genetic life. 

Perhaps 5G has barely reached you. Maybe your business is not on the block. You might have already lived your child-bearing years. These things might not be part of your now, yet they loom in your future. They will touch your children, let alone your grandchildren's grandchildren.

 The more a Third Turn of executive leadership points you into the mist of future value, the more you must plan with future generations in mind. The issues might involve technology, preparation for business continuity, or the level of health care a society will expect an employer to cover. Diving into and beyond any one of them, our long-term, guiding mission is what keeps us oriented. And, our carefully discerned values gave us a lane in which to travel.

May you find your inner hero as you build into this world where our children, and theirs, will live. 

-mark l vincent