Chapter 2. Personal Foresight - Becoming an Effective Self-Leader

1. The Anticipator (Forecaster-Protector)

These individuals primarily see themselves as foresight forecasters or protectors, discovering or validating probable futures. On the KAI test, forecaster-protectors are Adaptors. They are drawn to logic, security, truth, finding the best solutions (“optimization”) and things that become familiar and well-understood. They often also enjoy eliminating or controlling for risks (risk management) and enforcing or improving the rules. They can be extroverted or introverted, and are usually more analytical than intuitive. They are less motivated by creating possibilities, or advancing or following social or organizational preferences, than in the act of discovering the expected future, what is very likely to happen in organizations and the environment regardless of our preferences.

The Forecaster-Protector

The Anticipator (Forecaster-Protector)

Forecaster-protectors (anticipators) tend to be quantitative, order-oriented, rational, and consensus-driven. They are often unity and truth seekers, discoverers and optimizers. They have a history of being as analytical and evidence-based as they can, and some can be a tad boring or conventional and may be often (but certainly not always!) right, especially if they keep their anticipation activities focused and conservative. Some examples are insurance actuaries, economists, engineers, and most hedge fund quants. Forecasters are taken more seriously in business environments, but they can sometimes be like horses with blinders, not willing or able to see outside of their narrow set of tools. They usually don’t seek to lead, but rather to get to the right answer. They can be either conservative with respect to seeking to conserving the status quo and critical human systems (politically conservative, security oriented), or with respect to conserving resources and protecting the planet (politically liberal, sustainability oriented). It is the search for stability, predictability, and protection that unites these otherwise very different groups.

Anticipators can be found in any industry or function, but they particularly like places with validated structure and process to follow, where they can exercise well-used techniques and rationality and do both trend forecasting (seeing a pattern, quantitative or qualitative) and event forecasting (predicting an event). Investing, planning, science, and engineering are common outlets. Others are risk managers, intelligence, or security professionals. When they engage in entrepreneurship, R&D, or innovation, they do so from a risk-controlling, optimization, and predictive mindset.

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