"The faster you accept the reality of your situation, the faster you advance" - Futurist Jim Carroll

Progress in a time on uncertainty begins the moment you stop waiting for the old world to return, and start preparing for the next one.

This is where the idea of the '7 Stages of Economic Grief' comes in. Much like the stages of personal grief, organizations often move through a predictable cycle during economic downturns. Understanding these stages, and accelerating through them, is key to resilience.

Shock: Initial disbelief and paralysis in response to sudden economic signals - plummeting markets, layoffs, uncertainty. Decision-making halts.

Denial: A refusal to accept that the downturn will last or have real consequences. Leaders believe "this will pass quickly" or "we’ll be fine."

Anger: Frustration emerges—at markets, governments, internal dysfunction. Blame takes the place of action.

Bargaining: People start seeking stop-gap solutions or temporary fixes instead of long-term strategic moves. "If we just cut this budget…"

Depression: Morale sinks as a realization settles in that the downturn is real and will last for a while. Talent leaves. Innovation slows. The organization loses momentum.

Acceptance: Reality is finally acknowledged. New strategies are discussed. Leaders begin to plan instead of panic.

Hope: Action resumes. Ideas restart. Teams regroup around future-oriented strategies.

Great leaders don’t stall in grief—they lead their way through it straight into acceptance and hope. Realize this - you can’t build the future in you are in the denial, shock, anger or bargaining phase, because none of this creates momentum. Action does.

Recovery belongs to those who race through the grief to begin moving forward.

Thats' why you need to quickly lead your team through the fog of the grieving process when a downturn begins. While others pause in paralysis, your job is to light the way forward. The best leaders do this by helping everyone move with speed through doubt and into direction. It’s not the recession that breaks companies—it’s how long they stay stuck in it.

What happens if you stay stuck in the anger, shock or denial phase? The state of absolute paralysis when a recession looms and idea factories are being turned off! The result is that they don’t just enter a potential economic recession, they go into an idea recession.

But the winners who achieve growth in a recession don't think like that.

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**#Acceptance** **#Reality** **#Progress** **#Grief** **#Recovery** **#Momentum** **#Innovation** **#Growth** **#Opportunity** **#Adaptation**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2025/05/decoding-tomorrow-your-daily-future-inspiration-when-the-world-slows-down-winners-speed-up/