Future Future
You cannot desire the desires of tomorrow. Which future will seem attractive tomorrow, what needs, what options, what plans will be relevant, cannot be decided in advance or even planned for. This is what is meant by the entanglements of the future future.
This time modality is also highly relevant to change processes, because humans, as well as social systems, for identity-ensuring reasons, definitely specify what they would like to want and what not. “This is not something for me!”. “We have never done it like that and we will never be able to accept it!”. In this way, right from the outset, they try, in the present, to stifle the occurrence of impulses, needs, desires and plans. Though this ensures the competence and security needs, it hinders the adaptability and thus allows the past to dominate the future. This is often a survival disadvantage, or at least an adaptability disorder.
To be open for wanting hitherto unimaginable things is a competence, which time-shaped systems cannot easily do without (and yet they often do). To the question “How does innovation come into the world?” (=emergence), the future future is of great significance. Therefore, managers, as well as consultants, should understand something about this.