The Third Law of Performance: Future-based Language Transforms how Situations Seem to People

Future-based language, also called generative language, has the power to create new futures, craft vision, and eliminate the blinders that prevent people from seeing alternative possibilities for the future.  This kind of language doesn't just describe how things occur, it transforms how the they occur. It achieves this by recasting the future in a new mold.

People live for the future that they envision for themselves, not the one they will actually live. This imagined future is a person's default future, and it consists of expectations, fears, hopes, and predictions, all of which are based on our past experiences. But it's future language that shapes historical moments and causes them to become turning points.  Think of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.  What started out as his dream was passed on to his followers, changing the future.

The steps to creating a new future are:

1. Seeing what binds and constrains us, which most often isn't the facts, but our interpretation of the facts. ("Nothing ever improves, management won't change anything.")
2. Articulating our default future and deciding if this is what we really want. ("Things can be both different and better in the future because we can make it so.")
3. Creating a blank space by completing issues from the past. ("Management can see the situation from our side, which means things really will change.")

There are three principles for generating new futures. First, futures inspire actions by creating a sense of ugency and possibility. People find themselves doing things they formerly would have considered impossible. Second, futures speak to everyone in the process by satisfying their concerns and by being compelling enough to spark a heightened sense of enthusiasm. Third, futures exist in the moment of speaking; language creates a future in which the speaker is giving his or her word in the moment of speaking.  This happens when a justice of the peace says "I pronounce you man and wife" as the future marriage is created.  This also happens when a contract is signed, thus creating something new in the future.

Leaders who want to construct a future need to commit to addressing incomplete issues, figuring out and articulating the default future and then deciding if this is a desirable outcome.  If it's not, then they should speculate with others on a desired future that would inspire action from everyone, address everyone's concerns, and be real in the moment of speaking.  When the people align with the future vision, a leader should commit to making it happen.

Leadership Corollary 3: Leaders listen for the future of their organization.

Adapted from Zaffron, Steve and Dave Logan. The Three Laws of Performance, Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009.