Advancing into the Future: The 21st Century Change Management Professional

While we work with clients across all industries and sectors, there are certain individuals who “take” to Strategic Foresight based on the nature of their role. To that end, it is no surprise that change management professionals recognize the power of foresight when they are responsible for the design and implementation of change efforts both large and small.

Sobotics: Wired for Next Part 2

“The robots are coming!” This phrase has been used in countless books, articles and news programs over the past several years to describe the march of our mechanical counterparts toward their enshrinement as an indispensable part of our daily lives – and for good reason. Of course, the robots actually came a long time ago. As a matter of fact, the word “robot” was first used in writer Karel Capek’s 1920 science fiction play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). In contrast…

Designing Our Future — Futuring Our Design

Recently I’ve been asking myself, “Why don’t we see more design-oriented firms incorporating and utilizing the power of futures thinking and foresight?” And I’m definitely not alone in this line of thinking, because something really exciting has been emerging in various design disciplines, companies and educational institutions across the globe. In growing numbers, designers are realizing that it isn’t sufficient to only create things that are beautiful or maximize productivity, but that design must also understand deep patterns and trends,…

Creator Trend Card Deck Sources

The Wicked Opportunities® Creator Economy Pack Sources This edition of the Wicked Opportunities Card Decks explores the Creator Economy. Individual participation and crowd-funded innovation are spurring the transition to a new economy. Consumers are choosing experiences over physical goods, and technologies such as 3D printing, virtual reality and drones are creating an environment where access to assets trumps ownership. Below are the sources utilized in the Creator Economy Pack trend cards: Authentic ExperiencesPush: Travelers Seek More Authentic Experiences; Agents And Tour…

Why Natural Foresight® Makes Your Organization Healthier

Here’s a secret about futures thinking and foresight: It should be a natural part of your organizational processes and operations, an organic component of your business culture. In other words, foresight should naturally flow from organizational design, being just as commonplace and essential to a business as leadership development, human relations, strategy, planning, or talent management. Yet foresight is often ignored or sidelined in organizational development because we tend to view company-building as a highly quantifiable process, as if we…

What Ancient Cartography Can Teach Us about the Future

As futurists, we never claim to be able to predict the future. Predicting means you reject all possible outcomes in favor of one that you’re certain will come to pass. With the rapid pace of change and increased complexity of today’s environment, a predictive approach is only effective in the short term at best, and at worst, it’s dangerous.

The Future of Work in South Africa

We are entering an economy where jobs as we know them are rapidly changing and in many cases disappearing: where technology and humans are changing how and where we work. So, what will the world of work look like in 2030? We often hear buzzwords like ‘collaboration’, the ‘gig economy’, and ‘artificial intelligence’, and see companies forming around these ideas (like Rainfin, TaskRabbit, and the Bebot AI in Japan, respectively), but what are the implications of these trends and how might…

What Can Strategic Foresight Do For You?

The field of Strategic Foresight was born decades ago. Traditionally, it has been relegated to academic circles and small teams within large corporations. But today, in this increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment, it’s much more obvious that every organization, and every individual, needs foresight. In its most basic form, Strategic Foresight gives us a framework to identify emerging trends and issues, and then use this insight to map out possible futures. These well-informed maps of the future allows…

Foresight Movement Takes Hold in Africa with TFS Cape Town

Each of our TFS cohorts is special, but the first ever group in South Africa was in a league all its own. Many of our participants have a sense of excitement when it comes to learning foresight, but in our Cape Town session, there was a sense of urgency and energy that made the session come to life. As our South African partner Wilhelmina Linell puts it in her Profiles in VUCA piece, “We have a survivalist mentality in South Africa.…

Finding Opportunity in the Fast-Paced Apparel Industry

PVH is one of the largest apparel companies in the world with 30,000 associates in more than 40 countries and iconic American brands such as Calvin Klein, IZOD, and Tommy Hilfiger. What role do you play in this huge operation? I lead a team that is focused on the future of supply chains, and how PVH should be operating in that future space. We’re not responsible for day-to-day supply chain operations, but we explore, build, and implement how they’re going…