How long is forever?
And how soon is never?
Most organizations are fundamentally incapable of planning ten years out. When a company promises to be carbon neutral by 2030, they’re actually saying that they may never be.
That’s because almost all the pressures on them are short-term pressures. And it doesn’t help that few people expect to be in the same job or even at the same company then. So it’s easier to simply describe something in the distant future and then “go back to work” where work means obsessing about the short term.
Of course, it’s not just companies that do this. Individuals do too, and companies are simply groups of people.
Changing our definition of ‘now’ and ‘later’ is a powerful competitive advantage.