The Third Horizon

Letting go of urgency and embracing spontaneity.

After years of applying the McKinsey Three Horizons framework to articulate a business growth strategy, I find myself considering my own career — my own life — in these terms. I’ve enjoyed 35+ years serving the events industry, always trying to manage resources and find the right balance between short-, mid-, and long-term opportunities.

Now I am taking a Horizon 3, long-term view regarding my personal goals. Many of my friends can’t believe that I don’t have an immediate, short-term plan in place. But I don’t, and that’s intentional. My Horizon 1 plan is to embrace what is for me a huge disruption — unstructured time.

You might say I am working on a sustainable growth plan for Bob. It requires new behavior models that make room for spontaneity. It means thinking about technology in a different way — based more on curiosity than strategic imperatives. It means taking a more wholistic approach to the future. I will continue serving on the Freeman Board of Directors and on others. But my immediate goal is to spend more time with family and friends, and to immerse myself in various aspects of the communities I value.

I have few big regrets in life, but there have been too many days when my family needed me and I wasn’t there for them. And too many times fun or intriguing opportunities popped up that I had to let pass. I plan to grab more of those.

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