Applying Futures Knowledge Consciously

Trying to understand how futures thinking works cannot be separated from trying to understand how a futurist applies his/her knowledge in futures works.

Human thinking is probably the most complex process in the universe. But, very much like the phenomenon of time in which we are also comprehensively embedded in our existence; it is both extremely close to us and also extremely difficult to grasp conceptually. While recent insights from cognitive neuroscience (including cognitive psychology, neuroinformatics and evolutionary anthropology) help us to understand the neural process of futures thinking, theoretical explanations may expose other aspects which are usually overlooked by most of the futurists when they apply their knowledge unconsciously.

Futures cognition has to do with what an individual knows or learns about the future and how he/she feels about it. But, Futures metacognition deals with an individual's knowledge about his/her own futures thought processes, his/her self-awareness, self-regulation, and control of his/her own futures thought processes, and his/her beliefs about all of these matters. That is, futures metacognition has to do with the how, when, and why an individual uses what he/she knows in futures thinking and how he/she feels about the future.

The use of metacognitive behaviors in problem solving by a futurist can be well documented. To be a self-aware futurist one must possess three things: 1) Skill; 2) Meta-skill; and 3) Will. When presented with a novel problem, knowledge of the prerequisite futures skills is necessary but not sufficient for success. A futurist must be able to “orchestrate” various cognitive components to be a successful problem solver. He must be able to control his or her cognitive processes in context. Meanwhile, monitoring of progress towards a goal and understanding the task at hand along with knowing when and how to apply/change strategies, heuristics or algorithms, help a futurist to plan a course of action.

The cognitive activity of a futurist does not stop here. Evaluating the success or failure of a strategy and revising or abandoning strategies midstream based on the evaluation are more important that previous steps.

It has been shown that knowledge of metacognitive techniques is not as elective in futurists lacking the necessary prerequisite futures skills (cognitive components) to complete a task. In my point of view, high metacognitive function can compensate for IQ. In fact metacognitive ability is not strongly correlated with conventional ability. Metacognitive awareness contributes more than IQ in solving the problems of the future.

During my time as a student I found out that writing is a constructive process. There is research out there showing that writing is one way to improve the metacognitive skills in the self-regulation category necessary for the futurists to become better problem solvers. The connection between writing and futures metacognition is a two-way street. That is, as an individual’s futures metacognitive awareness improves, so does his/her ability to communicate what they know about the future. Writing is also a powerful tool for making connections between old and new futures knowledge. That is why I continue blogging at WFS and why I love to know more about futures metacognition as it increases my self-awareness and also enables me to apply my futures knowledge in a conscious way.