Hindsight is a beautiful thing. Really!

Mayflower is a fast growing business. As a result, things go wrong. All the time. Which, as far as I’m concerned, is 100% OK. Because that’s how we learn. And get better. It goes like this:

1 – Hindsight.

“Wow, that didn’t go as expected.” Whether it’s a meeting or a task or a project, there are often (usually?!) aspects that in retrospect you would have done differently. Frankly, I think the numerous people I know who are working very hard to get the new RG97 changes in place on time are probably already having this feeling.

The question is, what to do about it. Well, you can beat yourself up, or blame other people, but the better option is to learn for next time. And that my friends, is hindsight.

But wait, there’s more!

2 – Foresight.

This is when you see the same situation approaching. But now, instead of waiting until it goes to sh*t and then feeling bad, you can instead plan in advance. Haha! I see you coming you tricky situation!

The thing is, when the opportunity for foresight comes up, it’s easy to feel dejected and reflect on what went wrong last time. But actually, you should be patting yourself on the back. Why? Because you’re already in a MUCH better position than last time. That hindsight you experienced last time is your friend. And now you can use foresight to give yourself a much better chance of success.

3 – Insight.

So, I always thought that this was the end goal.

And in some cases it might be. For instance, maybe what went wrong in the first place is that you got into an argument^ with a stakeholder. By using hindsight to analyse what made it all go so wrong, you can then use foresight to plan for the next meeting you are going to have that could also go awry. And then finally, after doing that a few times, you might reach the ‘insight’ stage, which is where, if a meeting suddenly goes sideways, you are able to stay calm and make good decisions in the moment (which might be to finish the meeting rather than getting into a stoush again). And that’s insight. Well done!

But in many cases, there is always going to be foresight required. Another word for foresight? Planning. Making sure you are always prepped properly, thinking through what issues might come up and how you’re going to handle them if they do. Funnily enough, I sort of thought that I would ‘get past’ this stage for a lot of activities, but now I know that’s not the case. You probably figured that out a long time before me!!

Hindsight, foresight, insight. Those are the steps required for continuous improvement, at a personal and at a business level.

So the next time you experience an AFGO (Another f’ing growth opportunity, aka a big stuff up), you can say to yourself and your staff “ah, but this is hindsight! And now we can do something about it. Great work everyone!”. Without hindsight, we’d never get better than we are now.

And frankly, you probably know someone who leaves a trail of destruction in their wake and never quite seems to realise that they are the cause. That person? No hindsight.

^Something I would never do. I am the picture of calm and control at all times...