Diary of a Parson’s Wife
Horizon Scanning
Polly Zipperlen on corporate catch phrases
About 18 months ago, one of my friends used this phrase, referring to what ‘virtual-scope’ entrepreneurs might do before investing cash into a novel and possibly risky venture. It definitely fits the bill and I find myself using it from time to time in meetings when suggesting the group look to other organisations’ strategies for similar objectives.
I cannot help but chuckle to myself when using it though, a bit tongue in cheek, recalling previous fashionable corporate catchphrases. “Thinking outside the box” comes to mind, which has always made me wonder, what would it be like to think inside the box? Are these phrases not just suggesting we look up from our immediate surroundings and explore beyond the parameter? Surely an obvious starting point before embarking on any endeavour?
But how do we know where the edges of our ‘boxes’ are? Possibly, our ‘boxes’ are simply our traditions or cultures or habits that we all seek comfort in. For example, in our family, holidays are often book-ended by a night or two at our favourite campsite on the North French Coast. Marcus and I have been staying there for about 25 years, and we have taken the boys most years since they were born.
The campsite is run by a family with identical twin boys, who we have witnessed grow from teenagers to men and who now run the business with their wives and children. It took us a while to realise that, if this campsite were in the UK, we would never have stepped over the threshold, put off by the noisy nightly entertainment and daily market. We are often the only British people staying there and, one year, we were obviously the source of some incredulity as we were asked by some French guests whether we were actually on holiday. I have no idea what else we would have been doing there!
I like to think that I am an outside-the-box kinda gal but really, I must just have a different-shaped box. Growing-up, the sides of my box were very much the M25 and now they are defined by people. On a recent camping trip with some friends, my edges felt slightly warped by the absence of Marcus and the boys. But change is inevitably looming, as Sonny enters his A-Level year and has been doing some Horizon-Scanning of his own…