Please Understand Me
Explaining feels crucial. I've probably generated more draft documents attempting to codify and communicate what Foresight does than anything else except client materials. Getting it right feels like it is essential to connecting potential clients' needs to our services. Stray too far from what most others do, however, and clients struggle to create a conceptual box in which to put you and never completely fathom "what you do." Why hire us if we position ourselves too much in the middle of the pack? Be different, but not too different. A year into a newly constituted Foresight, with several projects in our portfolio, and it has gotten no easier. Like many of the issues on which we work, there isn't a "right" answer, but more a compelling and potentially fruitful direction. Even defining criteria by which to measure success is a challenge. The opinion that really matters is the client that we don't know or have yet. Particularly at this point, she and I are the firm. While other, larger, national entities get hired based on their brand (a dubious, often unquestioned credential), clients have hired us because of a specific topic or skill set expertise. Yet neither of us fit neatly into a particular professional stereotype. Since starting Foresight in 2003, the organization has been constantly changing in response to evolving interests and a still-emerging sector, which is both a survival strategy and a recipe for disaster. Perhaps the ultimate irony is that if I literally stated what we do, across most all engagements, which is to lead different sorts of "learning journeys," I suspect few people would understand. Then again, who am I to say?
Bridge of the Gods (6 installments)—Power, connection, human, divine; the reward and cost of it all.
All Trails (11 installments)—6080 miles across America, to its depths and back.
