Futures scenario planning is using future intelligence to inform alternative visions of possible, probable, and preferred futures, and interpreting how those futures might impact your organisation.

Backcasting is a powerful tool that can be used to manage change and uncertainty. It can help us to identify the steps we need to take to get from where we are now to where we want to be. If you’re facing a complex challenge, backcasting could be the answer.

One way to make sense of what's happening is to think like a futurist. Futurists use foresight to examine trends and identify potential scenarios for the future. This helps them to see both the opportunities and the challenges that lie ahead.

Foresight is a critical business tool for today because it helps organisations to identify potential future opportunities and threats, adapt to rapidly changing and uncertain environments, and make better decisions. Foresight can help leaders understand the potential implications of deep changes in their industry or market, and enable them to maximise first-mover advantages.

Foresight is the ability to see beyond the present and into the future, and when used correctly, it can provide several benefits. So if you're looking for a way to boost your organisation's performance, foresight may be just what you need. In this post, we'll explore five benefits of using foresight in business. Keep reading to learn more!

In today's rapidly changing world, it is more important than ever to be able to manage uncertainty and fast-paced change. Many organisations struggle with this, but there are ways to manage it effectively. Here are 10 tips to help you get started.

The future is now. The pace of change and innovation has never been so fast or relentless. As a result, organisations need to plan for impact and growth with an eye on the future - which means using futures intelligence: trends, signals, emerging changes data to build foresight.

The ACNC data set selected for analysis comprises 3,914 Large ($1M+ annual revenue) Australian charity entities with DGR Item 1 or 4 and ACNC Group entities who have submitted audited financial statements and conducted activities in 2019. These entities represent $102B of annual revenue, ~%60 of the total 2019 revenue reported by Australian charity entities to the ACNC.

Innovation is a tricky beast. It's not always clear that the risks outweigh the rewards. For those of us in for-purpose organisations, getting the business case right to fund innovation is critical; uncertainty can be a roadblock, but it doesn't have to be.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to using strategic foresight in your business. The key is to experiment, find what works for you, and adapt as needed.

CPQQRT stands for Context, Purpose, Quality, Quantity, Resources, and Time. It was developed by Elliot Jaques, a Canadian organisational psychologist, and first referenced in 1994 in the book "Executive leadership: a practical guide to managing complexity".

A good way to create alternative views of futures is by building scenarios. This involves bringing together different trends, phenomena, and uncertainties to understand their interdependence and joint implications.

One way that long-range planning is enhanced is through the creation of various alternative futures, which are significantly different from one another. The scenarios that planners create can be based on different assumptions about technology, demography, economics, politics, and other factors.

When it comes to planning, looking at what's in the rearview mirror is not enough. You need to look ahead through the windshield at the road ahead.

You can use the process of identifying Black Elephants, Swans and Jellyfish in your planning to drive new thinking, support diverse plans, build responsive systems and stretch your planning paradigms into longer time horizons.

Here’s two frames to help you with your planning and decision making:

Plans=knowledge+assumptions,

and

performance=Plans(reality)

Building foresight capabilities supports long-term growth plans because foresight assumes that the future is not pre-determined. The future can move in a variety of directions, to some extent influenced by the plans and decisions you make today. Foresight adds value by providing a view of possible, probable and preferred futures, which supports your planning and decision making to deliver impact and future growth.

Forward thinking leaders need to develop the ability to scan for signals, issues and trends that are developing now and create a view on how they might play across a range of futures. We also need to be able to anticipate change and get ready for what might happen next. In some cases, we need to be able to create change ourselves and help build the futures we want to see.

It can be easy to believe that tomorrow will be like today—that customers will have the same demands, that businesses will operate in the same way, or that Governments will make similar decisions. These beliefs are comforting, in part because they suggest that nothing fundamental will change in our futures. But if we believe these things about futures, then we are limiting those who come after us to live in a world that is less than what it could be.

Forward-thinking CEOs and Boards are using foresight to plan for tomorrow. They're looking 5,10,20 years into the future to see what might happen. By doing this, they're able to make today's decisions with more confidence and greater reliability.