Presenting the past and present to prescribe beneficial prospects

Mind Your Ps and Qs (33 - Part 1)

The previous post, “persevering through pivots along pathways, from playgrounds and through people”, assumed that the ability to pivot requires a finely tuned futures literacy. But it may not be true, not because the future is unknown, but because so many of us rarely put in the effort to imagine and create the conditions to realize desirable futures…to learn from the past and “become the ancestor we would like to thank”. As stated in the article: We owe a lot to the future by respecting our own “ancestorhood”.

So much of what we want to do in our personal and organizational lives stems from aspirations, ambitions and high hopes. Unfortunately, and too often, they are confused with insight and foresight that has been hampered through hindsight bias. A situation that could be amended if only more of us had a more vivid understanding of mindsight.

Learning to pivot in the right direction and at the right time requires traversing and exploring the pathways to possible, probable and desirable futures. As with our travels, such undertakings require a lot of prior planning if we hope to achieve our goals. Planning that’s often premised on past or recent experiences - knowing how we got to where we are now.

Planning also based on an awareness of how well destinations should be prepared and best positioned along desired pathways to reach preferred futures…while recognizing, of course, changing conditions, more complex realities and expectations that out of necessity may force us to revise our futures so that they become more favorable, progressive and prosperous for all. All of which can be ascertained through a state of the art review of destination marketing and management (this one published in 2023 and somewhat outdated!).

As I reveal in my e-book, Astonish! Smarter Tourism by design, if communities-as-destinations hope to chart a more favorable course and avoid so many pitfalls that others have succumbed to, they are strongly advised to do so by investing in deep-dive assessments that should precede the development of scenarios.

This assessment process, Destinations-in-Action (the same title of this blog), begins with the following introductory comments which provide an explanation of the need for such deep dives on which to build a strong foundation for future-forward momentum.

****************

Too many communities-as-destinations fall into the trap of believing that they Astonish! Such beliefs, and lack of intellectual humility, know no bounds. If we are to be seekers of objective truths, we have no choice but to operate under the premise that “we don’t know what we don’t know” or “don’t see”. As such, we are obliged to reframe, dive deeply to gather the facts, adopt more systemic views, and expand our circles of competence.

Critical inquiry requires working harder to improve our collective instincts, best accomplished by immersing ourselves into the issues; seeking the perspectives and truths of others; intensifying our curiosity about the future; articulating our convictions and aspirations; identifying, and then pursuing opportunities that can pass considered decision reflection.

With communities-as-destinations under extreme pressure to provide services and experiences that count, create and capture value, transformations can be complex, time-consuming projects, demanding interactions that have to be carefully orchestrated and choreographed. Taking place within unique and nested adaptive systems, it seems absurd that the process can be simplified by seeking answers to the magic question: “What does success look like?” And yet, despite the existence of assessment tools, research techniques, and professional advice, there is no acceptable universal methodology or uniform logic as to what makes communities-as-destinations great or how they can achieve (and maintain) net value over the long-term.

That’s not to say that smarter and more thoughtful approaches can’t be found. They can, but they must be designed and customized to suit purpose and take into account complex organizational and socio-cultural contexts, situational requirements, and reference a wide range of differing expectations, outputs, outcomes, and impacts. It helps if transformation can be done pre-emptively, but more often it tends to be made reactively.

With the intent to get better at the basics, create positive change, sustain improvements in performance over the long-term, as well as identify the trajectory and direction of community futures, Destinations-in-Action sets out to re-think and navigate our way out of constraints through deep, wide and long destination evaluations, leading to actions that are strategically relevant and transformative.

As evidence-based balancing acts, the oversight offered through Destinations-in-Action requires situational humility, deep curiosity, and psychological safety, plus a high degree of collaborative effort to assess and test ideas and intuitions. Chock full of questions and probes, you will be shown multiple pathways, but not a definitive roadmap to preferable outcomes and development. As leaders, with the intent to awaken, unleash and harness peoples’ collective genius and help create more aspirational narratives, beware: If you are intent on legitimizing tourism as a super-cluster and its transformational success, you’ll have to transition from being heroes to hosts.

In doing so, you will thoroughly test your profound beliefs, be amazed as to what you will be able to learn and accomplish. After all, what got you here, won’t even keep you there. What will keep you here are resonant ideas that lie within the realm of possibility.

Part 2 will follow