FUTURES METHODOLOGIES, TOOLS, AND PROCESSES
(Updated on a regular basis. Please check back soon!)
Thinking and Feeling Differently: An Emerging Worldview for the New Millennium
We all have been socialized to accept unconscious, fundamental assumptions, such as the world is the center of the universe with the sun revolving around it and the world is Flat! By changing four fundamental, unconscious assumptions we would revolutionize the way we perceive the world and, as a consequence, behave quite differently , much as people changed behavior after they came to accept Galileo’s perception of a round planet encircling the sun.
Who should attend: People interested in making the world a better place.
What you’ll learn: The secret to thinking and feeling differently, which then empowers us to change our behavior
How this knowledge can be applied: This knowledge will enable persons to be more effective leaders and improve the quality of their lives in most every category.Harry J. Bury, adjunct professor, Organizational Behavior, Baldwin Wallace College. Berea, Ohio
key worlds: future, spirituality, politics
issues area: Future Methodologies and Process; Social and Cultural Trends; Values and SpiritualityBrave New World
The forces that are creating a Brave New World and shaping our future will be discussed. The implications such changes have for business today, how to identify opportunities for leadership amidst shifting realities, and what it takes to create brave new worlds of their own are the focus of this presentation.
These are challenging times for organizations in all sectors, and for those that are holding onto an advantage, it is a slippery proposition at best. It is indeed tough out there: just as an increasing interconnected global economy requires a broader perspective, competing pressures from near-term priorities and shortened planning horizons cloud the picture. Issuing a challenge to eliminate short-sightedness, this speaker shows how a wining strategy is one that applies foresight to market forces, champions proprietary opportunities, and invents a future that can be chosen and planned for.
Who should attend: Anyone involved in strategy, innovation and/or leadership initiatives for themselves or their clients.
What will they learn: Attendees will learn the four forces shaping the future; three universal laws of change; two essential process phases for strategy and innovation; and the single most important act you must take to capture sustainable proprietary advantage?
How can this new knowledge be applied: Attendees will leave with a deep appreciation of how the four forces of change are transforming societies, economies, and the way we live. They will understand how to connect purpose with meaning for their customers, as well as to their arena of proprietary Finally, they will identify opportunities and dangers affecting their industry, which of them can be leveraged for the future, and how they impact the decisions they make today.Cecily Sommers, president, The Push Institute, Minneapolis, Minnesota
key words: strategy, innovation, trends, leadership
issue areas: Futures Methodologies and Processes; Social and Cultural Trends; Technology and ScienceUsing Biomimicry to Create the Future
Biomimicry is design inspired by nature. In this session we will look at the 16 fundamental patterns nature uses to design. Intentional futures are design, and designs exist in the future. We will use this complementary pair of concepts to explore how you can use biological knowledge to enhance your future’s ability.
Who should attend: Futurist, systems educators, and interested professionals
What will they learn: The basic of biominicry: the three philosophical approaches and the fundamental patterns.
How can this new knowledge be applied: Everything changes. Knowing the basis of change from a biological stand-point gives the attendee a much broader range of options to deal with change and to design for changeCurt McNamara, senior electrical engineer, Logic Product Development, Minneapolis, Minnesota
key words: biomimicry, systems, patterns
issue areas: Futures Methodologies and Processes, Technology and Science, Resources and EnvironmentWhat’s Happening at the Intersection of Foresight, Innovation, and Design
The fields of foresight, innovation, and design are playing an increasingly prominent role in competitive strategy. Each has a story to tell about how the future could unfold. Foresight seeks to anticipate future needs; design seeks to meditate human experience; and innovation seeks to create scalable solutions. So what happens when these three disciplines meet? What new products, concepts, ideas, and solutions emerge, and how will this intersection impact people, places, and products in the future?
Who should attend: Designers, strategic planners, innovation leaders, and foresight professionals.
What you’ll learn: Participants will learn about case studies and best practices for foresight and design within organizations. In addition, professionals in foresight and design will discover a collaborative model to enhance innovation within an organization.
How this knowledge can be applied: Attendees can use the case studies, best practices, and collaborative model to improve how they use design and foresight in their organizations.Michele Bowman, futurist, FringeHog, Waltham, Massachusetts
Sandra Burchsted, futurist and co-producer, FringeHog; author, Shaping the Future, Webster, Texas
Adam Gordon, director, The Future Studio; author, Future Savvy (forthcoming), Cardiff, United Kingdom
Wayne Pethrick, senior design strategist, Concept Studio, Pitney Bowes, Inc.; co-author, Future Frequencies, Shelton, Connecticutkey words: foresight, innovation, design, planning, product development, strategy
issue areas: Futures Methodologies, Tools, and Processes; Social and Cultural TrendsFutures Communication: From Traditional to Digital
Join us in a mixed reality presentation on communicating in the future. Think about the future in creative ways. Develop futures insights by unlocking the potential of both sides of the brain.
This session explores the realm of immersive experiential learning and how it can be used in communicating possible futures. Learn how storytelling, role play, playback theater, simulation, and games add enormously to the experience. Reflect how extensive and challenging 48-hour experiences can add to the learning.
Is learning meant to be fun? How do you embed specific learning outcomes within the context of a game? What are the possibilities of the virtual world for deepening the futures experience? Teleport within a game and hear from an expert on the other side of the world. Have fun, be challenged, learn by doing, and catch up to your kids.Who should attend: Anyone interested in deepening the experience of futures for clients and learners, as well as those interested in virtual environments, new methodologies for understanding the future. This is also applicable to those who teach about the future.
What you’ll learn: Participants will learn how storytelling in many forms can deepen the learning experience of futures and lead to new insights about the future.
How this knowledge can be applied: Clients using scenarios can live in those scenarios and test their strategies; learners can reflect more deeply on the implications of the future; technologists can start to understand the implications of their technologies on humans.Elizabeth Cahill, innovation and futures consultant, Global Youth Futures, Coogee Sydney, NSW, Australia
Janine Cahill, futures consultant, Future Journeys, Coogee Sydney, NSW, Australia
Claire A. Nelson, development futurist, Inter-American Development Bank; founder, The Futures Forum, Washington, D.C.key words: futures communications, experiential learning
issue areas: Futures Methodologies, Tools, and Processes; Learning and Education; Social and Cultural Trends
Beyond Enlightenment: Translating Big Thoughts into Concrete Actions
The benefits of futuring and other long-term planning exercises are, unfortunately, all too often short-lived or overlooked because they are not well connected to the real and urgent decisions sponsoring organizations often face. The consequences are worse than wasted time and resources; failure to act breeds cynicism and resistance to future efforts to forge new strategies and direction.
A panel of seasoned scenario-planning practitioners from the Futures Strategy Group (FSG), www.futurestrat.com, will shed practical light on the critical success factors behind implementing long-term plans and strategies. This session is designed to help planning practitioners and executives from all sectors understand the most common obstacles to long-term strategy implementation and to develop practical insights into how their own planning activities can be more productive and successful. We will examine a number of case examples including both success stories and hard lessons learned across diverse organizations.Who should attend: Executives of private sector and governmental organizations with planning responsibilities. Also futurists and long-term strategy practitioners.
What you’ll learn: Participants will learn critical success factors behind executing long-term strategies based on real-life examples.
How this knowledge can be applied: Attendees will be able to incorporate, as appropriate, hard lessons learned by leading organizations that have struggled with the challenges of executing long-term strategies into their own companies.Thomas Buckley, principal, Futures Strategy Group LLC; former manager, Deloitte Consulting, Washington, D.C.
Peter Kennedy, founding principal, Futures Strategy Group LLC; former senior manager, Deloitte Consulting, Glastonbury, Connecticut
Charles Thomas, founding principal, Futures Strategy Group LLC; former vice president, The Futures Group Inc., Glastonbury, Connecticutkey words: implementation, long-term strategy
issue area: Futures Methodologies, Tools, and Processes
The Future of Futures Research
Futures Studies occupies a unique niche in social sciences research and knowledge creation today. Futurists share common methods, including environmental scanning, trend analysis, the Delphi method, scenario planning, time-series extrapolation, and computer modeling. But where did these research models come from? What disciplines and research models shaped the modern futures movement? This session: 1) explores the mental models behind futures thinking from social, political, organizational, and systems theory; 2) discusses how mid-career futurists might improve our practice; and 3) considers how futures research might enhance the specificity and relevance of futures research to organizations.
Who should attend: Business consultants, educators, students, and anyone who wants to apply futures thinking to their own professional development.
What you’ll learn: Attendees will learn about the theories and research models that undergird futures studies as an academic field and how to apply them in real world contexts.
How this knowledge can be applied: Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of futures research methodologies, both in theory and in practice.Jay Forrest, systems science consultant, San Antonio, Texas
Jay Gary, program director, M.A. in Strategic Foresight, School of Leadership Studies, Regent University, Virginia Beach, Virginia; foresight coach, PeakFutures, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Cynthia Frewen Wuellner, founder, Frewen Architects Inc., Kansas City, Missourikey words: futures studies, research methods, education
issue area: Futures Methodologies, Tools, and Processes
Forecasting: The Joint Military Intelligence College Experience
This session explains how the Joint Military Intelligence College combines an innovative approach to complexity theory along with an “intelligence variant” of the alternate futures methodology to identify the futures of state and non-state actors from a national security perspective. The session reviews these and then explains how the application of this methodology assists our graduates and undergraduates in thinking about the future. Among the challenges our students have difficulty confronting are: the overwhelming uncertainty of the future and how to organize and manage our understanding of the past.
Who should attend: Those interested in forecasting methodology, educators, and anyone interested in national security and the role of intelligence.
What you’ll learn: Attendees will learn about the character and challenges of forecasting education and experience at the Joint Military Intelligence College.
How this knowledge can be applied: Universities, governments, and organizations can learn about the challenges of how forecasting global security intelligence is applied and what some of the pitfalls are.Mark Weisenbloom, director of graduate programs, Joint Military Intelligence College, Burke, Virginia
key words: forecasting, methodology, education, national security
issue areas: Futures Methodologies, Tools, and Processes; Learning and Education; Social and Cultural Trends
Regional Foresight: Boosting Regional Potential
In 2005 and 2006, the European Commission supported a mutual learning platform (MLP) for research and innovation in the EU regions. This platform enables regions to develop their own research and innovation strategies, a precondition for success in globalized, knowledge-based markets. MLP coaches organized training and dissemination events in three working groups: 1) regional foresight, 2) regional benchmarking, and 3) regional profiling. In a complimentary way, the RegStrat project also addressed evaluation and technology assessment.
The regional foresight working group updated and complemented existing tools and case studies and paid particular attention to regional foresight as a means to build cohesion and competitiveness. The resulting report, A Guide to the Guides, integrates regional foresight in the broader context of Strategic Policy Intelligence (SPI) tools for policy making and regional development, and presents concrete questions regarding context. In this session, three European Commission foresight experts will present A Guide to the Guides, which drew from the insight of more than 60 partners from all over Europe.Who should attend: State and local government officials as well as think-tank and academic researchers.
What you’ll learn: Participants will learn about significant foresight activities and innovations that are taking place in Europe, today.
How this knowledge can be applied: This knowledge can be applied to any region. It combines academic knowledge with practical field experiences and will aid policymakers as well as agencies, organizations, and academic institutions.Helena Acheson, head of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy and Awareness Division, Forfás, Dublin, Ireland
Günter Clar, director of regional strategy, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum, Stuttgart, Germany
Philippe Destatte, director, The Destree Institute, Namur, Belgiumkey words: foresight methodology, regional development, European experience
issue areas: Futures Methodologies, Tools, and Processes; Governance and Communities; Technology and Science
Futuring the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Exploring the Power of Futures Thinking
More than one billion people—one-sixth of the world’s population—live in extreme poverty, lacking the safe water, proper nutrition, basic health care and social services needed to survive. This means a single episode of disease, an ill-timed pregnancy, a drought, or a crop-destroying pest can be the difference between life and death. In many of the poorest countries, life expectancy is half of that in the high-income world—40 years instead of 80 years. The consequences of this poverty reach far beyond the afflicted societies. Poverty, inequality, and disease are chief causes of violent conflict, civil war, and state failures. A world with extreme poverty is a world of insecurity.
This session explores how the power of strategic foresight and futures thinking could be used to improve the planning processes to face these challenges. The session navigates the audience in an exploration of the world in 2015 with the preferred future of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals as the centerpiece.Who should attend: Anyone concerned with global poverty and inequality throughout the countries of the world.
What you’ll learn: Participants will apply a futures approach to planning and implementation using strategic foresight to achieve a policy breakthrough, which is needed to get the world’s poorest countries on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
How this knowledge can be applied: It is the hope that the ideas gained from this session will contribute to the establishment of a community of “futures” practice in the development assistance community and to the vision of “making poverty history” by achieving the Millennium Development Goals.José Luis Cordeiro, president, Venezuelan Chapter of the World Future Society; co-founder, Venezuelan Transhumanist Association (VTA); chair, Venezuelan Node of the Millennium Project, Caracas, Venezuela
Claire A. Nelson, development futurist, Inter-American Development Bank; founder, The Futures Forum, Washington, D.C.
Caroline Wagner, SRI International, Arlington, Virginia; lead research scientist, Center for International Science and Technology Policy, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.key words: poverty, United Nations, strategic foresight, population
issue areas: Futures Methodologies, Tools, and Processes; Social and Cultural Trends; Resources and Environment
Future Flow
Illustrations of the future as dark and nightmarish are common in popular culture. A typical example is Alfonso Cuaron’s recent film “Children of Men,” set in 2027, in which we see the combined destructive forces of incurable disease, nuclear war, mass migration, infertility, fascism, anarchy, all simultaneously occurring, resulting in the breakdown of civil order and hastening human extinction.
Despite the remote threat of catastrophe, we need to start with a positive belief in, and vision of, the future, in order to transcend and counter the high levels of anxiety and fear about what tomorrow holds. How do we convince the vast majority of the population to be enthusiastic about the future, to be ready to adopt change, and be willing to contribute to, believe in, and experience positive evolution? This session will deal with these and other concerns.Who should attend: Sociologists, psychologists, economists, technologists, educationalists, ethnographers, business people, and futurists.
What you’ll learn: Attendees will learn which of the key drivers of change projected to occur over the next 20 years will help societies develop a positive future for humankind and which approaches will help us adapt better and overcome our anxieties about such change.
How this knowledge can be applied: Individuals and organizations will be able to apply these thinking techniques to help create a positive future for humankind.Derek Woodgate, president, The Futures Lab; co-author, Future Frequencies, Austin, Texas
key words: civilization, future, wildcards, positive, change
issue areas: Futures Methodologies, Tools, and Processes; Social and Cultural Trendsclick here to go back to issue areas
