W. Edwards Deming is often given as the source for the following quote: “Managing a business on historical data is like driving a car while looking in the rearview mirror.” Deming actually borrowed the quote from Myron Tribus. The idea is that management should be looking ahead and not behind. Many fail to consider what the future of their organizations will look like.

I have been doing a lot of reading lately about the future and came across books from several futurists. One I particularly enjoyed was called Entering the Shift Age by David Houle. Houle has a background in media, an industry that has seen huge upheaval over the past decade.

I have spoken with David several times in the past month about this “Shift Age” (past ages include agricultural, industrial, and information.) He describes this Shift Age as an inflection point that “will change how we live, how we think, how we interact with each other, and what we do.” He uses the metaphor of an earthquake to describe the coming change.

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