On the evening of September 22,1970, at 10:55 pm, the BBC began airing the second episode of thesecond season of a surreal sketch comedy that, to this day, cannot bedistinctly described.

In the first skit following the opening, a mill workerapproached a woman who was quietly knitting as she sat comfortablyon a couch. “One of the cross beams has gone out askew on thetreadle,” he told her.

The woman expressed confusion and repeatedly asked the millworker to explain himself. Increasingly frustrated, he finallyburst out, “I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition!”

To the sudden sound of ominous music, in burst three men clad inred medieval vestments. The leader among them stepped forward withthe iconic pronouncement: “NOOO-body expects the SpanishInquisition!”

Thus comes the lesson all 401(k) plan sponsors must heed as theyaddress the concern of highest current concern.

Trade journal headlines are replete with suggestions, currenttopics, and perilous warnings for 401(k) plan sponsors. But thesemissives, once amassed, amount to nothing more than preparationsfor the last battle you've already fought. The world—whether it becompetitors, customers, or compliance cops—consistently speeds onestep ahead of you. What matters isn't how you solved the problemsof the past, but how you successfully anticipate (and thwart) theproblems of tomorrow.

You can research all you want about the known universe of dataregarding the retirement plan environment, but it will always bethe one stone left unturned that will ultimately do you in.

See also:

• Emerging Risks: Get Ahead of theUnexpected
• Tips for Maintaining Momentum in an Emerging RiskProgram

How do you combat an enemy you cannot see? By changingyour frame of reference. Everything, even something normallyinvisible, casts a shadow when viewed from the right angle.

So, how do you reposition yourself to catch that correctperspective? Well, that is nearly impossible to know, since ourquarry is so elusive. It's like asking, “How do I find somethingI'm not certain I'm searching for?”

To answer this, we need to borrow a phrase from subatomicparticle physics. It's called “cross section.” It refers not to aphysical area (like the length and width of “area”), but is rathera function of both time and space. Think of it as a car movingalong a highway. Its cross section is the space it occupies not ina single instant, but over the duration of several instances.

Imagine taking a picture of that moving car and keeping the lensopen for a few seconds. When you expose the film, you don't see aclean, crisp image of a single car. Instead you see the blurrysmudge of the car stretched across the highway. It's this smudgethat physicists call the “cross section.”

The practical implication of the term is this: A sedentaryobject has a smaller cross section than if that same object were inmotion. The size of the cross section is important. The bigger thecross section, the more likely the object will interact withanother object.

Going back to expecting the unexpected in 401(k) management,plan sponsors with a bigger cross section will be more likely toidentify the unexpected before it surprises them. What kind ofmotion will make their cross section larger?

The answer is quite simple and yet quite hard. The simple partis knowing what to do: Keep abreast of the latest trends in theretirement plan industry. But just don't read the headlines.Connect the dots of those headlines.

The hard part is having the time to do that, but if plansponsors can stay in motion this way, they may be in the positionto avoid being surprised by the unexpected. Indeed, they'll be ableto turn the tables and surprise the unexpected.

In fact, you might say they will be poised to pop in, clad inred vestments, loudly declaring, ““NOOO-body expects the SpanishInquisition!”

From: BenefitsPro