One of the functions of an organization, of any organism, is to anticipate the future, so that those relationships can persist over time.

Kelly frames organizations as living systems: like organisms, they survive by maintaining stable internal relationships (roles, processes, norms) amid changing external conditions. “Anticipate the future” points to forecasting, sensing, and adaptive planning—building slack, learning loops, and scenario-thinking so the organization can keep its identity and cooperative relationships intact over time. The emphasis is less on prediction-as-certainty than on preparedness: anticipating likely shifts (markets, technologies, environments) allows the system to adjust before shocks break coordination. In this view, strategy and governance are evolutionary functions—mechanisms that help a complex network persist by continually updating its expectations about what comes next.