“Can you teach me thermodynamics in 20 minutes?”

overcoming short attention spans in foresight integration Having worked in corporate America for 15 years before joining the foresight, innovation , and strategic design firm Kedge and co-founding The Futures School, I know firsthand the challenges of integrating futures thinking in all types of organizations. For-profit entities like The Walt Disney Company (where I was charged with spearheading the first division in the company’s history focused on the future) are built with a bias toward short termism, but they are…

How Long Does the Future Last? The Lifecycle of Futures Intelligence

Environmental scanning is the lifeblood of Strategic Foresight. You can be a futurist and never make a single scenario, but you can’t be a futurist if you never scan. Scanning helps us to rewire our brains and supports our pattern and sensemaking skills. After weeks of scanning, it’s time to merge research into something tangible. A collection of scan hits and occurrences unveils that something larger is emerging– a trend! Trends deserve names and solid descriptions that include several examples…

Redefining Value for 2023

An excerpt from the Guide to the Natural Foresight® Framework According to a recent study, organizations that intentionally plan for the future outperform their peers in terms of profitability and overall valuation (Rohrbeck & Kum, 2018). The result seems intuitive to most, yet “just one in five companies strategically prepares itself for future movements in the market – and just one in 20 companies adjusts its course of action accordingly” (“Corporate Foresight Improves”, 2018, par. 3). The future moves faster…

Don’t Confuse Forecasting with Foresight

In a world that is enamored with short-term actions, incremental innovation, and quantifying everything, it’s important to understand that “forecasting” and “foresight” are not the same thing. They may have the future in common, but that does not make them equals. Forecasting uses quantitative data and trends in an attempt to fill in gaps and extrapolate outcomes. However, data by its very nature is a snapshot of the past (just as trends are the present – you know about them…

Where can I find the future?

Environmental scanning is the most critical practice for all foresight practitioners. But where to begin with sourcing interesting scan hits? The internet is an endless ocean of information, littered with misinformation and distractions. Even if you have a solid grip on how to conduct quality futures intelligence, good scan hits can be hard to come by– that is, until you know where to look. Below is a list of our favorite sources along with our community’s. Use it to kick-start…

Listmas in July

We have a tradition at TFS for a few years running- each July we hold “Listmas in July”. Toward the end of each year, futurists typically have a field day with lists. Top 10 Trends for 2022, 20 Major Trends for the Next Decade, Best Tech Trends for Your Company… You spend an afternoon reading through these lists and– voila!– you have everything you need to take your leadership, organizational development and innovation incubator to the next level. See how…

Future of Democracy Scenarios

In 2014, The Futures School and Kedge, LLC partnered with FCCP to guide them through their 2030 Futures Project. Over the course of 12 weeks, we employed our foresight tools, processes, in-depth interviews and surveys to provide a platform for FCCP and its stakeholders to build and unite around a common vision of our future.

Dear TFS: Feeling Overwhelmed

TFS: How do you establish a regular scanning practice? There’s so much information out there, and only so many hours in the day. I want to be efficient, but I also want to make sure that I’m not missing anything when I look for trends and emerging issues. Can you give me some suggestions? – Sincerely, Feeling Overwhelmed!

Strategic Foresight in Government

We often joke that since the pandemic we have not had to advocate for futures thinking to skeptics nearly as strongly as we used to. The disruption proved to be a meaningful shockwave across all disciplines, forcing us all to seriously reevaluate priorities and the antiquated systems that keep us from reaching our higher order potential. Reactionary, short-term, quantitative, and mechanical approaches are ill-equipped to carry humanity into the future, or “what got us here, won’t get us there”. Luckily,…