C-4 Introduction to Strategic Futurist Thinking: How Do We Get From Here to There?

Envisioning positive alternative futures is the essential task of futuring. Scenarios are supposed to be stories about how we can enhance positive trends and mitigate negative trends. We futurists often propose sublime visions of what the future could be and advocate for them with great eloquence—ignoring the vested interests, cultural values, and societal inertia that would inhibit their implementation.

But futuring is not a private affair or an academic exercise to be evaluated by its internal coherence. It is a social activity that can only be judged by its consequences. Scenarios can only be judged by the odds of their being implementable—they are the truncated business plans of futurists. Business plans identify a need and how the need can be satisfied. This is the scenario part of the business plan. But, in addition, the plan proposes a strategy—how to get from here to there, how to relate to and overcome obstacles to its implementation.

Participants will learn the proper terminology for strategic futuring. They will apply this terminology to their favorite ideas or causes or client needs in workshop sessions and come out with concrete products: real-life strategies for implementable scenarios.

Highlights: Participants will leave this course with an understanding of:

• The most precise terminology of strategic thinking.
• How to construct and evaluate strategic plans.
• Concepts of the "Strategy of the Indirect Approach," the "Grand Strategic Joint," and the "Looking Backward Technique."

Additionally, participants will have at least one concrete strategic product in their hands at the conclusion of the course, and they will be provided with a bibliography of further reading.

Tsvi Bisk is director of the Center for Strategic Futurist Thinking and author of two books and more than 100 articles and essays about the future. He has coined the term "Volitional Futurism" and believes that strategic thinking is the Achilles' heel of successful futuring. He is also the THE FUTURIST magazine’s contributing editor for Strategic Thinking, Kfar Saba, Israel

Thursday, July 18, 2013

9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Register for WorldFuture 2013 and Master Courses

Add Courses, Luncheons, or Other Activities to a Previous Registration