Human-Centered Foresight: Why the Future is About People
In a world of rapid change, it’s easy to get caught up in trends and technologies, but the future is ultimately about people. Human-centered foresight puts people at the heart of the process, empowering them to shape their own destinies and create a better world. Humans are organic – we are living, breathing, and often messy. The Ask a Futurist project highlights the importance of human-centered foresight, emphasizing that organizations need people who can adapt to and capitalize on change.…
The Future Thinker’s Dilemma
Originally published on Medium on August 18, 2023 When It Comes to Thinking About the Future, Should We Push or Pull? Prop-Up or Provoke? Conserve or Challenge? Futurists, Foresighters, and Future Thinkers Need to Continually Assess What (and Whose) Future They Are Helping to Create. We Need to Acknowledge that the Practice of Futures Thinking and Foresight Has Problems I shared a post on social media around a few overlooked observations concerning the field of foresight & futures thinking that…
From Darkness to Light: How Metro de Santiago Embraced Foresight to Navigate Uncertainty
“From Darkness to Light” highlights the journey of Metro de Santiago (Metro), the public transportation system in Santiago, Chile to transform its approach to planning and decision-making in response to significant disruptions caused by social unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic. Facing Unprecedented Challenges In 2019, a fare increase triggered widespread protests, with Metro becoming a focal point of public anger and experiencing significant damage to its infrastructure. This event, coupled with the operational impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, created a…
There’s Got to be a Better Way to Quantify Foresight
If we had a dime for every time someone asked us for the ROI of foresight, well, let’s just say we wouldn’t need to entertain the question any longer. 😉 The inherent challenge of integrating foresight into established organizations and institutions is the problem of incompatibility. The measurement criteria in our current systems is essentially a different language than the solution (foresight) being proposed. “The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894,” a historical urban crisis in London and New York,…
What Disney Got Right (And Wrong) 10 Years Ago
“It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” – Yogi Berra The year is 2014. Frank and Yvette have been traveling the globe for two years, training leaders across Walt Disney International and racking up the frequent flyer miles. The Workforce of the Future initiative is reaching a critical juncture – the Advanced Practitioner training. Dubbed the “UN of Foresight”, this weeklong gathering in London includes delegates from each Disney Futures country team who are chosen to become certified…
We Belong to Stories
Sophie Strand – one of our favorite thinkers, writers, and “life-weavers” – shared in her article entitled “Myco Eco Mytho” that, “Stories don’t belong to human beings. But human beings belong to stories. Let’s enter back into the complex, tangled work of letting go of authorship and letting ourselves be told.” This call to rewild our role across time, space, and experience – past, present, and future – sets the stage for this captivating interview where Sophie covers ideas such…
Overcome Imposter’s Syndrome: 4 Resources to Confidently Explain Foresight and Its Value
Don’t we do this already? Despite the maturity of our discipline and the many documented success stories, foresight practitioners still face basic questions about the nature of our field (no, we do not carry around crystal balls to predict the future, and no, this isn’t trend hunting or market research). The confusion may not be all surprising; however. Futurists ARE unique in their craft, exploring a range of possible futures to help navigate uncertainty in the present. Many of you are…
Ready, Empowered, and Conscious: Practicing the Foresight Stool
“Future proofing” is an outdated relic Long before the recent surge in foresight’s popularity, the phrase “Future Proof” had been a staple of organizations and governments around the world. The idea of “Future Proofing” is to use the methodologies of foresight and futures thinking as a way to minimize risk; develop plans for securing relevance in the face of disruptive forces; and support efforts to centralize, quantify, predict, and mollify the future. There’s only one problem with the idea of…
Holoptic Foresight Dynamics: The “Many-Eyed” Cooperative Perception of Emergence for Co-Creation of Transformative Futures (Part 1)
It’s no secret that Futures Thinking has been growing in popularity within organizations and governments in recent years, and many of these entities now have foresight practitioners on staff. However, it is often framed within the context of more traditional practices such as strategic planning, trend analysis and research, forecasting, data mining, competitive intelligence and organizational development. Though foresight can certainly apply to and improve those practices — and reshape them to respond to the exponentially changing environment of the…
The Dragonfly’s Pact with the Future
As many of you are probably aware, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Pact for the Future, an inter-governmentally negotiated and action-oriented agreement which U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as a “step-change towards more effective, inclusive, networked multilateralism.” This landmark pact was part of the larger Summit of the Future held in New York City that “brought world leaders together to forge a new international consensus on how we deliver a better present and safeguard the future.” The summit…
