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Look up. Do it right now. Lift up your head, glance at the ceiling, and then look back at your screen. In the time it’s taken you to do that, change has already happened.

During our recent Lunch & Learn event with Allister Frost, our attendees were surveyed on two very simple questions: “How do you feel about change?” and “How do you feel about uncertainty?”. The results could not have been more different. While more 80% of responses regarded change favourably, almost the same amount disliked change.

But as Allister Frost put it “change and uncertainty are two sides of the same coin”. We tend to have an emotional attachment to the status quo and 62% of us prefer to stay in our comfort zone, but that’s simply not good enough in a world where the very nature of change is changing all the time.

Allister told a story about his years working in Microsoft. A key principle that the team worked by is that if something works today, then it’s already obsolete. It’s imperative that you do the work today, to get ready for the future, and that means innovating all the time.

To help you cultivate a future-ready mindset, Allister developed the ReadyAlready Growth Cycle. The cycle is made up of five steps, forming the acronym FROST – it’s no coincidence that this is Allister’s surname!

• F: Follow
• R: React
• O: Open
• S: Surprise
• T: Tell

The first step in following this plan is to make a long list of topics that you need to master, and then pick one “thing” to FOLLOW. For example, this might be a technical skill like AI, or a soft skill like time management.

Next, learn everything you can about the topic before you decide how to REACT. Are you ready to move on the next step, or do you need to go back to FOLLOW and choose a different topic?

The next three parts of the cycle are your superpowers, and they’re better than any AI tool.

You need to OPEN your mind to change with curiosity. Think about your topic and ask the most naive questions. As an example, picture and bike and start asking why it has wheels, why the handlebars are there, and why the bike is shaped the way it is.

This leads into the SURPRISE element. Use your imagination to create the future of your “thing”. You never know what new ideas you might uncover.

Finally, TELL others about your journey around the ReadyAlready Growth Cycle and collaborate to develop even more innovative ideas.

Allister recommends that you go ahead and set yourself a challenge to use his model over the next 28 days and report back on your findings at the end. Give yourself absolute permission to change anything, and you’ll be on the road to getting yourself future-ready.