A recent article over on the HBR blogs on how your brain connects the future to the past discussed some recent studies that suggest that the areas of memory that remember the past and the areas of creativity that imagine the future in your brain are almost one in the same. More specifically, the brain’s memory circuits are not merely for reflecting on the past but are also vital mechanisms for imagining, anticipating, and preparing for the future, a skill that each of use needs daily in this fast-paced knowledge-driven economy.
In the business world, it’s a distinct advantage to have a brain that anticipates future demands and negotiates them well because accurate predictions typically translate to success. A proactive brain that flexibly recombines details from past experiences that, by analogy with your current surroundings, help you make sense of where you are, anticipate what will come next, and successfully navigate the transition increases your performance. But how do you get a proactive brain?
The article provided some tips, which included:
- thinking about your (organization’s) goals for the future,
- giving your brain a rich bank of experiences, and
- interacting with others.
In short, increasing your CQ will increase your performance. So what’s CQ? That’s the subject of a new 10-part series, edited by Dick Locke — SI’s resident expert on international trade, that starts tomorrow!