In Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible, written with John David Mann and published by HarperBusiness (2011),  Daniel Burrus discusses a skill that uses “the data of your five senses, as well as that intuitive sixth sense we all have that some call a gut feeling or hunch. But flash foresight goes further, because in using it you synthesize those sensory and intuitive faculties and project them forward through the dimensions of time. A flash foresight is a blinding flash of the future obvious. It is an intuitive grasp of the foreseeable future that, once you see it, it reveals hidden opportunities and allows you to solve your biggest problems – before they happen. Flash foresight will allow anyone to both see and shape his or her future.”

In a recent blog post, I briefly discussed what Burrus characterizes as “seven radical principles that will transform your business.” Frankly, I do not view them as “radical” but each is certainly challenging and I agree with him that business planning and initiatives that are guided and informed by them have a much greater chance for success.

The seventh principle, Direct Your Future, focuses on how to achieve and then sustain control of our circumstances or at least control of how we respond to developments. Flash foresight will help us to, in his words, “go back to putting out fires and digging [ourselves] out from the crises that started while [we] were reading these pages.” Burrus cites two “key” forces that will shape our future (cooperation and collaboration) which are, he suggests, as different as transformation is from change. He views collaboration as co-creating the future with others. “Collaboration is a function of genuine communication.”

Massive global transformation “will happen – it is happening. And it is transforming how we work, play, learn, l9ve, and do everything. It will do more so tomorrow, and even more so next week. It will bring massive disruption for those who don’t see it coming – and massive opportunity for those who do.”

I presume to suggest that Flash Foresight should be the next business book you read. Is it that good? Yes.