Futures Fluency
We can be agents of change for the future
Learn the models to navigate the future
Our plans are not ephemeral. We can use tools to make them more concrete and actionable. Like any problem that has a long term consequence – health, weight, financial success – small, initial changes can make a huge impact on where you will end up and a course correction now can save your business from ruin, or position you for success. Learn to read the future sooner rather than later.
Futures Fluency will help you and your business
Develop confidence
With new terminology, access to tools and models, you can make futures plans with more confidence.
Understand what can be changed
Certain factors in the future cannot be changed and we need to learn how to respond to them, and determine what other factors are under our influence.
Understand change
Understanding how change happens, how we respond to it and why it seems so chaotic, allows us to make more practical plans with greater chance of success.
Visioning
With unique and appropriate scenarios to your business sector, you can start to weave a powerful vision for change.
How the program works
Time investment
The Futures Fluency program is presented over 2 days. Besides the volume of material to learn, this program requires an understanding of the philosophy of futures thinking, so conversation and practical exercises are required to have a deeper and more valuable understanding of the outcomes. This program can be presented both online or in person. Group size can be discussed.
Should the time investment prove too costly, you may consider the shorter “How to Think Like a Futurist” workshop which can be completed, online in a 3 hour live session.
Resources
Participants will receive a copy of Charlotte’s book, Futures Alchemist. On completion, participants will receive a Certificate of Completion of the Futures Fluency course as well as a designed set of Scenarios and a set of Trend Cards, developed from this particular course. A digital workbook will also be shared by email, prior to the sessions.
The program outline
1. Gather Intelligence
- Futures Key Concepts
- How to develop a futures thinking mindset and the benefit of design thinking.
The identification of fads, trends, megatrends and bubbles. - Characteristics of the future and how to manage uncertainty.
- Horizon scanning for weak signals
2. Manage Change
- How to view the drivers of change to scan for future changes.
- How to manage the expectation of changes both inbound and outbound.
- PESTLE analysis and Driver Mapping
- Axes of Uncertainty
3. Describe the Future
- How to read and interpret various visions of the future.
- How to cast and communicate your vision for the future.
- How to develop multiple and personalised scenarios for the future.
- The Futures Wheel and longer term implications of potential changes.
- The power of narrative, including Nostalgia Narratives and Causal Layered Analysis
- The development of artifacts or immersive models to explain and experience the future.
4. Test Strategy
- Road Mapping changes for the future
- Back Casting
- Reporting of findings to others