The Power of Prospection: An Introduction to Innovating From Everywhere.
Innovation is a buzzword that we hear all the time, but unless you're part of an R&D, product or design team, it's easy to feel like it's something that happens in a vacuum and has no relevance to your day-to-day life. However, research has shown that prospection—our innate human ability to envision futures and anticipate what might happen next—is an important first step towards innovation. When we leverage prospection effectively, we can gain agency over our futures and choose how we want to engage with them despite understanding (and accepting!) that not everything is within our control.
"All of an organism's experience stretches from the present moment back into the past, while all of the organism's prospects for meeting its needs or improving its situation start from the present and stretch forward in time."*
This concept of the present moment as a launching pad for our future selves is prospection. It's about intentionally using information from the present to inform our decisions and plan for futures. It enables us to anticipate trends, spot opportunities, and make decisions that will positively shape futures.
Prospection is a valuable skill because it helps us to remain agile while remaining rooted in our values. It allows us to innovate from everywhere —whether that's within our organisations, between different industries, or even in completely new spaces—allowing us to create and influence radical futures for ourselves and our businesses.
Prospection isn't just useful in theory; it has widespread implications for real-world problem solving and innovation. By proactively envisioning futures, we can begin to identify and explore opportunities that may not have been on our radar previously. This can give us the confidence to take risks, experiment with new ideas and challenge accepted norms to create new pathways to achieve our goals and new ways of working.
Additionally, prospection allows us to better understand the implications of our decisions both now and in a range of futures. This can help us to make more thoughtful, considered choices that lead to long-term success rather than impulsive actions that may have unintended consequences further down the line.
At the heart of prospection is a sense of hope and optimism —both for ourselves and our world. It gives us an understanding that while we can't control everything, we have the power to influence our futures through intentional decision-making and proactive planning. And as long as we continue to embrace this forward-looking philosophy of continuous learning, experimentation and growth, the possibilities are endless.
Why prospection matters.
Humans have been using prospection as a tool for millennia; think about the early humans who used their imagination to create tools, build shelters, and discover new sources of food. It's only recently that research** has focused on understanding how this instinct manifests itself in today's world. What researchers have found is that effective prospection helps us identify opportunities for progress despite any uncertainties or obstacles we may face along the way. It also allows us to develop creative solutions by combining existing knowledge with new ideas and shifting our focus from the present to imagining what could be. By doing this, we can make connections between different elements of our business and see how they influence one another.
Prospection also helps us to become more adaptable, allowing us to quickly adjust our expectations and plans when presented with unexpected obstacles. This agility can be invaluable in a world where it’s increasingly difficult to anticipate all the variables that may come up along the way.
How to leverage the art of prospection.
Prospection involves more than just thinking about what might happen next—it’s an active process of envisioning futures and testing different possibilities to create something new. To become better at prospection, there are a few specific steps we can take:
Decide on your goal or outcome: What is it that you want to achieve? Consider both long-term goals and short-term objectives.
Gather as much relevant information as possible: Research the current state of your industry or field, both domestically and globally. You can also look at emerging change and trends that could play a role in influencing what happens next.
Write down all the possible scenarios: List out all the possible combinations of emerging change and trends that you are focusing on and group them into scenarios. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and include ideas that may seem far-fetched at first. Try to create a preferred scenario, a probable scenario, a possible scenario and a wildcard scenario.
Prioritise and explore the scenarios: Look at your current plans and assess how they would fare in each scenario, then look at how you could change your current plans to maximise the opportunities in each scenario. Prioritise the scenarios that could provide the best opportunities for your goal or desired outcome.
Plan and take action: Once you’ve identified the best path forward, develop a plan of action and start taking steps towards achieving your goal.
By leveraging the power of prospection, we can become innovators in any part of our lives—whether it’s at work or in our personal lives. We can use prospection to think about futures and explore what’s possible, creating new solutions or uncovering opportunities for progress. By doing so, we can gain agency over our futures and choose how we want to engage with them despite understanding that not everything is within our control.
Prospection supports innovation.
Prospection is a skill that can be developed and refined, like any other. Here are a few key tips for leveraging it to innovate:
Learn how to take risks and challenge the status quo. Challenging the existing norms and regulations in a company requires bold, disruptive ideas that can revolutionise how it operates. If you ever find yourself continuously asking "why" while at work, it's likely that you have the potential to bring about a much-needed disruption in your organisation. Take risks and don’t be afraid of failure. It is better to try something new and fail than to stick with the status quo and never really discover the possibilities. Make sure you understand the expectations, policies, and procedures that need to be followed for your ideas to be implemented. Once you know the boundaries, use them to challenge the status quo and come up with unique solutions that can solve problems or create more efficient processes. Don’t forget to celebrate success too - when your risks pay off and you earn recognition for inspiring change in the workplace, be sure to show gratitude and recognise your team.
Develop your ability to look at futures from multiple perspectives. This means expanding your view beyond the present and looking at various possibilities, including those that may not be immediately obvious. A diversity of opinions is critical to effective prospection. The more perspectives you have, the better you will be able to create an accurate image of what is possible across a range of futures. Also, remember to take into account all of the different variables that could come up along the way – such as potential risks, external factors, and other potential roadblocks. As Susan Scott says "No single person owns the truth about any given topic or thing — each of us owns a piece of the truth. If we welcome and leverage our differences toward common goals, we stand to build buy-in, true collaboration, stronger classrooms, schools, and communities. We stand to make the best possible decisions."***
Practice using foresight to anticipate what might happen next. Actively identify and track emerging change and trends in your sector or outside your organisation that can help inform current choices and future decisions. Think critically and objectively when considering solutions, and focus on the long-term benefits of a decision. Allocate time to reflecting on what is changing around you on an ongoing basis. Integrate the regular gathering and reviewing of external data into your planning and decision-making.
By developing our prospection skills, we can improve our ability to drive innovation and make better decisions for our organisation and ourselves. We can use the insights we gain to create more meaningful strategies that will help us stay ahead of the competition and drive progress. Finally, we can leverage foresight to identify opportunities for growth and stay on top of any changes in the market. With a combination of creativity, collaboration and strategic thinking, we can create powerful forward focused solutions that drive long-term success.
Driving innovation everywhere.
Prospection is a practice that can help us stay ahead in an ever-changing world. It’s no secret that futures are unpredictable — but by keeping a close watch on the present, we can better prepare for whatever futures bring. With prospection, we can get ahead of the curve and stay one step ahead of our competition. We can also gain valuable insights that will inform our decisions and strategies, helping us create more meaningful solutions that drive progress. By leveraging foresight, we can identify opportunities for growth and stay on top of changes in the market. Prospection will also help us innovate faster and make better decisions for our organisation, enabling us to create powerful forward-focused solutions that drive long-term success. With a combination of creativity, collaboration, and strategic thinking, prospection can help us stay ahead of the competition and drive innovation everywhere.
Prospection is an invaluable practice. By leveraging our innate human ability to envision futures and anticipate what might happen next, we can create powerful solutions and make sure that any decisions we make are well-informed and optimised for long-term success. This is the key to staying ahead of the curve in an ever-changing world — so start honing those prospection skills today!
References:
*Seligman, M. E. P., Railton, P., Baumeister, R. F., and Sripada, C. (2016). Homo Prospectus. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
**Szpunar, K. K., Spreng, R. N., and Schacter, D. L. (2014). A taxonomy of prospection: Introducing an organizational framework for future-oriented cognition. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 111, 18414–18421.
**Gilbert, D. T., and Wilson, T. D. (2007). Prospection: experiencing the future. Science 317, 1351–1354.
*** Scott Susan. (2002). Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work & in Life One Conversation at a Time. New York N.Y: Viking.
