I’m no runner, but I’m told that the middle-distance runs are hardest — the ones where you need to push yourself to maintain a pace that is slower than a sprint but faster than a marathon.
Imagination and strategy both sit at that distance for me, and it’s what makes them exciting and difficult.
For strategy, we tend to look too short term.
For imagination, too long.
In both cases, the idea is to “keep the future close.” Frederik G Pferdt (Google’s first Chief Innovation Evangelist) writes about this in What’s Next is Now — the power of trying to see and shape the future just beyond what is visible immediately ahead.
In the midst of uncertainty (and that is now — have a look at the World Uncertainty Index if you need convincing), we tend to shy away from the middle distance, but I believe it’s where we can rediscover our mojo. Some of us focus on what we can immediately control — it leads to very short-term, small activities. Others articulate a desired future that is too vague or too idealistic to motivate focused action (i.e. “make the world a better place”). Where might you land if you had to describe a compelling destination in between?
Our dreams, organizationally or personally, are most powerful when they are “under construction” now. Not complete, but underway.
Which means you need to be able to picture what you’re running towards.