Cultivating long-term thinking in your teams

Cultivating long-term thinking isn’t a one-time effort – it’s a journey, writes Bryan Whitefield.

Many, many executives are familiar with the pain brought on by investment analysts’ focus on the short-term results of their company instead of rewarding their long-term strategy with supportive buy recommendations. The same goes for teams in organisations. The siren song of short-term gains often drowns out the crucial need for long-term vision. As an HR leader, you have an opportunity to call out short-termism and champion a culture of strategic foresight.

The myopia epidemic

Let’s face it: short-term thinking is seductive. It offers quick wins, immediate gratification, and a false sense of control. But this myopic approach is akin to navigating a ship by focusing solely on the waves lapping at the bow, ignoring what lies over the horizon ahead.

The challenges are formidable:

1. Relentless short-term pressures: From shareholders demanding immediate returns, to ministers demanding immediate results, to the constant churn of the 24/7 news cycle, the pressure to deliver now is intense.
2. Misaligned incentives: When bonuses and promotions hinge on hitting this quarter’s numbers, who has time to worry about next year, let alone the next decade?
3. The imagination gap: Envisioning a world beyond the next few quarters requires a mental leap that many find daunting. It’s like trying to picture a forest when you’re surrounded by trees.

The impacts are non-trivial:

• Future challenges: Short-term solutions often sow the seeds for future crises. We see this all the time with ageing infrastructure or production outages from postponed maintenance.
• Inconsistent growth: A rollercoaster of ups and downs rather than the steady progress craved by many investors. Certainly, your CEO will need to share more surprises with the board than would otherwise be the case.
• Missed opportunities: And here is potentially the biggest. Failure to anticipate and capitalise on emerging trends. Only to see competitors, opposition parties or start-ups make your organisation look like a deer in the headlights.

But here’s the truth: organisations that master long-term thinking don’t just survive – they thrive. They’re the ones reshaping industries, solving global challenges, and building legacies that endure.

Cultivating the long view

So, how do we break free from the shackles of short-termism? The obvious is to incentivise long-term thinking, even if the rewards aren’t known or guaranteed. This will get the message across about how serious the organisation is about thinking long term.

More importantly, it’s about reframing the narrative of the future and designing organisational and team strategies that can best adapt to deliver on that future. Instead of asking, “What will this quarter’s numbers look like?” teams need to be encouraged to ponder, “What will my team be working on in five years?” This simple shift can open up new avenues of thought and creativity.

Next, teams need to consider the skills they will need along with any necessary infrastructure, processes or systems and identify how likely it is they can create them. Where they will likely have strengths they can be more ambitious with their strategy and where the weaknesses are evident, strategies need to be more conservative, or support from leadership should be sought to bridge gaps and build future capability.

Cultivate imagination

To build strength and capability of teams to think long term, help stretch their mental muscles by:

• Inviting futurists or long-term thinkers to speak at company events.
• Run speculative thinking town halls with questions from staff that need to start with “What if?”
• Organising mental modelling workshops in which team member narratives are brought together to identify patterns.
• Encouraging teams to create a strategy funnel. It’s just like a sales funnel, except instead of prospective customers filling the funnel, it is filled with innovative ideas that progress along the funnel via experimentation.

Think long term, today

Cultivating long-term thinking isn’t a one-time effort – it’s a journey. It requires patience, persistence, and a willingness to challenge the status quo. But the rewards – sustainable growth, increased innovation, and a more engaged workforce – are well worth the effort.

As an HR leader, you have the power to shape this journey. By fostering a learning environment where long-term thinking flourishes, you’re not just preparing your organisation for the future – you’re the catalyst of its creation.

Remember, every great achievement in business started with someone looking beyond the immediate horizon. It’s time to look beyond the next HR report card!

Bryan Whitefield is an author, chemical engineer, and leadership specialist.