CLEMENTIA

Professional futurists seek to achieve the highest standards of expert performance in all that they do and endeavor to live up to constructive thoughts at all times.

Professional futurists are often consultants who must meet their clients' needs; they help draw the "maps" of the future and identify the obstacles (and opportunities) along the way, yet they rarely articulate their models of thought. They are engaged in a wide range of intellectual activities to provide useful information and to advise decision makers on the possible consequences of proposed actions or inactions. They continuously improve their methods as they do their work, but usually they are undecided on following optimum models of thinking.

Once Verne Wheelwright said: "There are no professional standards, no code of ethics, no professional organizations and little public recognition or acceptance [for the futurists]." (Wheelwright, 2000). After 11 years the situation is only marginally different, yet there are similarities to what he said at that time, especially lack of futures thinking models for professional futurists that could be evolved over a period of time and get recognized by a wide range of futurist professionals and organizations.

To develop evolving models for futures thinking, some questions should be addressed firstly in relation to the nature of such models. Thinking about these questions will help us develop suggestive models in a more pragmatic manner. Answering these questions makes our minds sensitive to the social necessity of a comprehensive model for the futurist thought and leads us toward professional standards of Futures Studies (FS) in the coming future. Here are some questions:

• In what ways do futures thinking models challenge and/or support other ways of futures thinking?
• What role do these models play in the theoretical function of futurists?
• How does a notion of "futurist thought" (as evolutionary and progressive, or discontinuous and contingent) figure in such models?
• How do the models understand the relations between individual and social structures of FS or foresight?
• What are the implicit or explicit epistemological assumptions of such models—what gets to count as "futurist thought", and how is such knowledge produced?
• What aspects of FS are embedded and made visible in these models, and what aspects are excluded or rendered as invisible?
• How does the literary style or "writerliness" of the modelers imply notions of their audience and intention?
• What can we know of the specific policies shaping the theoretical desires and practices of different models of futures thinking?
• Finally, how can we contact with these models to influence usefully our own notions of futures thought, theory, research, and practice?

There is always an evolving need for developing new models of futures thinking so that be used for innovative thinking in the fields of futures thought and work. We always need new concepts that may improve the way we accomplish our missions and also the results we achieve. This can be done through moderating our thinking behavior. I’ve selected the Latin word of “CLEMENTIA” which means “moderation” to name my desired conceptual framework, as it is going to make equilibrium in the futurists' thoughts against common utopian or dystopian perspectives.

Besides, it's an acronym that stands for the first letters of nine conceptual components including: Creativity, Learning, Envisioning, Measurement, Experience, Nurturing, Teaching, Intelligence, and Analysis that all can shape reliable futures thinking models. My ultimate goal is encouraging the rise of a collective wisdom among professional futurists to follow the equilibrium found in CLEMENTIA in order to develop evolving models of futures thinking. Intelligence, Creativity, Learning, and Teaching are more remarkable items among above mentioned elements. Here, I’d like to give you a brief note about them.

A review on the literature of FS reveals that there are a number of common factors which has been considered as the constituents of futures thinking models. The first and the most important factor is “Intelligence”. One of the central features of intelligence is the ability to make models of the world, which allows more accurate predictions about the consequences of one’s actions. These models, shared with one’s group and passed on to one’s children, allow us to predict the behavior of people and the natural world. Intelligence makes it also possible to envision the future.

Meanwhile, “Creativity” is the most cited factor for futures thinking. In fact, without creativity we have nothing to do with the future and futurist thought. Foresight is derived from listening for, sensing, and characterizing futures that provoke our own creativity. Even creativity is regarded as a facilitating factor of cognition. According to Postrel, instead of trying to control and direct the future from a top-down authoritarian position, we should allow free-flowing creativity and diverse points of view to generate the future.

“Learning” is another essential element of a futures thinking model. The ability to anticipate the future begins early in life, as soon as a newborn child learns that his/her crying results in reactions from parents. Later we learn to think about the future through comprehending FS principles, rules, techniques and methods. When we try the impossible and fail, we often learn.

On the other hand, a person may change his/her learning experience into “Teaching” by “Envisioning”. In fact, a futurist is envisioning what he/she has learned by teaching FS to another person. When teaching is repeated specially by FS instructors, it “Nurtures” their futurist minds and prepares them for higher thinking.

Futures higher thinking is related to evolved futurist thinking attributes such as synthesizing futuristic thesis and antithesis by establishing new perspectives. Obviously every synthesis passes through different process of “Experience”, “Measurement” and “Analysis” and then it may be reflected in a futurist’s thinking behavior.

I think that we’ve a long way to go raising FS standards and access to FS education worldwide before we would reach the limits of how much intelligence can be “Nurtured” and sustained for futures thinking. It seems that a valuable futurist thought is a product of CLEMENTIA.

Alireza Hejazi is the founder and developer of “FuturesDiscovery.com” and the author of e-books: “Futures Discovery”, “ATLAS of futures links”, and “Top 10 Cases of Futures Studies Syllabus”. His most recent e-book is “Writing for the Future” available at:
http://www.futuresdiscovery.com.