Training the Foresight Muscle
Exhaust Knowledge Potential
Strategic Future Thinking Toolbox Case Study
Starting point
Today‘s rapidly changing times call for a better understanding of future developments and seeing disruptions to ongoing trends early. Challenges emerge as decision makers are seeing an ever increasing influx of information to make sense of. The application of foresight methods can help to reduce complexity whilst engaging with possible, probable, and desirable futures. With a little guidance many of these methods can be easily applied and serve as a foundation for strategic and robust decision-making for the future.
Result and Value
Using foresight methods to engage with possible, probable, and desirable futures reduces risks and increases agility. This in turn allows organisations to be more resilient when faced with disruptive changes by enabling them to proactively shape desired futures as opposed to reacting to them.
Our approach
When it comes to foresight, how we think about the future is key. We want to help you expand your thinking in more innovative ways by stimulating creativity and systems thinking. We use foresight as a critical thinking approach to reflect on our own assumptions and uncertainties about the future. We can be limited in our ability to map out different future paths and to think of alternatives due to biases shaped by our background and unique experiences that create a frame within which we’re comfortable to explore - our goal is to expand that frame.
We can’t fully eliminate all biases but an increased awareness of our own biases allows us to challenge assumptions and reflect on these before making decisions. As for all cognitive functions, futures thinking is an active skill that can be learned and improved with practice.
There are a number of tested foresight methods that can add valuable insights and allow the systematic exploration of a topic relevant for any given business context. We have designed a process that starts with wide exploration of a topic to stimulate creativity. From there, we narrow down our focus on a few key aspects and develop these further.
