Where is your event horizon?

It’s something that anyone who has taken a walk through the woods knows. Standing at ground level, you can’t see very far into the distance. Standing on a hill, you can for see what’s happening for miles and miles toward the horizon. I use the phrase event horizon.

The same applies to an individual’s view of life. How far is your event horizon? How far ahead do you see things? How far ahead do you focus your vision?

Some people’s event horizon is very short. For example, when we’re young, we tend to have a very short event horizon. We may only see a few minutes into the future, maybe even a couple of hours, but little beyond that. Tomorrow is lost to us. As we get older, become teenagers, our event horizon may still only be this instance, into the weekend maybe. Good luck getting most teenagers to think beyond that. As we get older, our event horizon starts to get further out, years out even. We start thinking about our kids’ college, retirement, mortgage, etc.

Our event horizon reflects in our work and leadership style. For example, younger employees who are less invested In your organization, may seem less motivated or dedicated, the slacker mentality that many employers and bosses decry, whether it is deserved or not. It seems that their event horizon isn’t focused very far beyond tonight or the next weekend. Some managers don’t seem to see beyond the next quarter’s numbers or today’s stock price. In either case, their focus is on what they can get today. Rather than looking at the long term, both these groups fail to look beyond their immediate gratification.

It is part of what got the country into the mess it’s in economically and in Iraq and Afghanistan. People failed to look beyond the immediate and failing to account for the long-term. It is why we have gridlock in Washington D. C. because they’re really just focused on the next election. It’s why schools focus on the next round of student test scores.

It is the effective leader who takes on the long event horizon, looking at where the organization is going to be in 10-20-30 years. It takes practice and effort to look at the distant event horizon. It means that you have to stop looking down at your feet and pick up your eyes. Too many people are focused on today’s agenda only. It’s easy to look like you’re working hard because you’re only focusing on the to-do list. It’s a lot harder and time consuming to look at the distant event horizon.

How far ahead are you casting your event horizon?