Feeling blue? Chin up, get to work, there’s lots of thinking and planning to

Yes, the election left me gobsmacked.

But this is no time to act like a deer in the headlights. Hundreds in my community and across the US are already thinking and planning to prepare to act strategically.

You don’t have to be for or against the incoming administration to recognize that a lot is going to change.

As a board and strategy consultant, I’m troubled that very few of the boards with whom I’m working are talking about planning for scenarios that might be heading their way. While front line advocacy organizations are already moving forward, I’m not seeing discussions happening in very many other sectors.

I understand that there is considerable uncertainty. I recognize that it might feel like a waste of time to talk about the unknown.

But isn’t that your job as a governing board? Shouldn’t you be considering best case, worst case and starting to prepare a plan of action? Haven’t you enough evidence of the policy changes that are likely to be made to start planning for those changes?

Your board has a lot of thinking and planning to do.

Need an example? We’ve already in a profoundly new world order. Jobs are vanishing fast, not necessarily because of global trade, but because what can be automated will. And there are very few jobs that can’t be automated.

What does this mean for your clients? What about your donors? Your community? Your employees?

Here’s another: How is the shifting landscape of philanthropic giving affecting your organization, where the rich are giving more and the rest of everyone less?

And the big one: What policies have the new administration and the majority party been championing over the last eight years or eight months? How will that affect us?

If there was every a time for both strategic and generative thinking, it’s now.

When the proverbial sh*t hits the fan, it may be too late to mobilize a satisfactory response.

• I’ve felt that way at least three times before in my voting life. But yes, this one seems completely different. Having been a member of Amnesty International for more than four decades, I’ve read the stories on how democracy can be lost seemingly overnight.