Futuristics

PRINCIPLES:
A) Greater openness: Presenting perspectives and information as transparently and reflexively as possible, as they pertain to your opinion on the future;

B) Wider participation: Actively encouraging as many perspectives and opinions about ‘the future of XYZ’ as is possible to come together in a collaborative and transparent way;

C) Willingness to be challenged (flexibility): Participants must not have a rigid perspective on the future, no matter how well informed, to enable the collective creative inquiry;

D) Establishing context: Greater understanding of the past and present (as they pertain to the focal topic) must be developed among all participants before discussing the future;

E) Generating greater concern for consequences: The potential futures consequences of the focal topic should become known by everyone that participates. (Ie. What are all the possible impacts and future implications? What does this topic impact on? What impacts upon the topic? Etc);

F) Surfacing and clearly identify assumptions: The process must be managed in such a way that leads to the surfacing and open identification of assumptions about ‘the future of XYZ’. The assumptions can then become known by all and challenged, where this is appropriate;

G) Learning loops: Feeding this back to all participants in a way that enables people to review and comment on the perspectives of others and widen everyone’s perspective/viewpoint; and

H) An integral view: Using the most comprehensive scanning and interpretation model possible.

PROPOSED FIVE-STEP PROCESS

1. Clearly define the scope of the futures exercise
What aspect of the future are you interested in? What timeframe? In order to begin a futures process you must first reduce your scope from infinity while being cognisant of what may be missed due to this.

2. Clearly articulate the purpose of the exercise
The purpose of the exercise must be explicit and up-front with no hidden agendas – participants must know why they are coming together, expectations (of sponsor, on participants) and for how long…

2.1 With the scope and purpose defined, design the futures process: What foresight tools and methodologies will be used? What overall foresight process is to be conducted?

3. Seek the widest possible level of participation
Ask the following sorts of questions and seek the widest possible level of participation: Which experts are most knowledgeable on the topic? Which additional people are passionate about it (but not ‘experts’)? Who knows nothing about it? Who needs to be involved? Who has an ‘interest’ (vested or otherwise) in being involved? Who might have a really interesting perspective on the topic?

4. Explain the ‘ground rules’ of the process (as per the principles outlined above)

5. Run the collaborative ‘open source’ futures thinking process (as per the principles)

5.1 Establish the context (sharing information, conduct/commission research, etc);
5.2 Openly share alternative perspectives and divergent opinions on ‘the possible future of XYZ’
5.3 Ensure the “action learning process” has many iterations (challenge, reflect, challenge, etc) and is facilitated to surface, clearly identify and share assumptions about the future
5.4 Generate rigorously developed and imaginative vision/pictures of ‘the future of XYZ’)