Which futures will appear?
There are many different variations of futures emerging. It may sound far fetched but technology is advancing faster than ever before. Robotics and artificial intelligence could well advance to autonomous thought and action at some stage in the future. Robots may dance.
Foresight is not used to predict what or when events will occur; rather, it aids in preparing for what may happen next. The use of foresight in our planning can help us consider the potential consequences so we may prepare for them ahead of time, rather than just reacting once things change.
insight & foresight explains foresight as the ability to look ahead in order to prepare for what might happen next. This is not about predicting the future; rather, it is about examining a variety of potential, plausible, probable, and desired futures in order to better understand what may happen and prepare for it.
Foresight may be utilised at any point in an organisation's life cycle. For example, it might be used to investigate new market possibilities, assess the influence of disruptive technologies on existing products or services offered, or understand changes in customer behaviour.
When you plan and make decisions for impact and future growth, you should use foresight to explore a range of futures. This will help you see what might happen next so that you can better prepare for it in advance. Explore the options, then decide which path is most likely to achieve your mission, purpose or vision with less risk and uncertainty, and greater reliability.
Foresight helps you achieve this because it is about thinking ahead to spot the trends, issues and signals that could be important to your future success. It helps you think through how these changes might affect your business, customers and stakeholders. It helps you build contingency plans for these events, even before an event occurs. This way, you can respond more quickly to what might happen next because you already have a plan ready to go .
Forward thinking leaders allocate time to learning about the current trends, issues and signals that could be important to their business in the future with foresight tools and techniques so you can see what might happen next. This is the best way you can prepare to make decisions for impact and future growth.
