Future Savvy: Quality in Foresight

Learning to judge predictions in strategic decision-making.

The skills and lessons of the Future Savvy book are available to any company or institution as a practical, onsite seminar, at a nominal price. This focused 1/2 day workshop is for leaders and decision-makers across business, government, military, and non-profit sectors who need to think clearly and critically about the future and prepare for situations they cannot predict.

What it is: The event is a targeted Future Savvy “contact session” that trains managers to think critically about forecasts, and turns this skill into knowledge about transitions in their industry and deeper insight into the choices they face as company or division leaders. It mixes briefing, interactive discussion and hands-on participation, and focuses it all directly on what’s current and important in achieving future objectives.

Further, it trains participants how to do it for themselves. While executives commonly understand the need to strategically engage with the future – how to do it remains opaque. Future-robust decision-making is based on a set of skills you can learn. This seminar shows you how.

Format: The seminar uses materials from various academic and business sources. It is practical in style and approach.

STAGE ONE – Briefing and discussion (1 hr)
A briefing introduces the tools and perspectives of Future Savvy, illustrated with mini case studies from companies in the media, retail, resources, travel, and service industries, as well as government and public-sector examples.

Among the topics covered are:
- Including friction and blockers in trend-montoring
- Understanding user utility in assessing real future outcomes
- The limits of quantitative forecasting and what else to turn to
- How and why we determine levels of future uncertainty
- Connecting forecast filtering to the strategic choices we face

Key principles, lessons, and a summary toolbox of techniques and takeaways are contained in a course workbook, which is provided at no extra cost.

STAGE TWO – Industry Exercise (1 hr):
We take the principles of stage one forward to investigate change in your industry or sector of interest, using a small-group exercise and feedback format.

STAGE THREE – Company Facilitated Discussion (1 hr):
We take the principles and discoveries from the first two sessions into a facilitated discussion based on your company or institution, or particular section or unit: probing its future challenges and opportunities. We focus on the specific change and uncertainty issues you face in your sector, right now, applying futures-thinking principles, anticipating outcomes and interpreting choices. This may become the beginning of an ongoing round-table aimed at renewing and consistently evolving your strategic positioning and competitive edge.

What you learn, how you’ll benefit: You won’t learn how to predict the future -nobody can do that. You will learn how to apply forecast filtering along with other tools in the future-strategy toolbox to improve foresight in uncertain situations, and therein enable more robust decisions and better results. You will learn practical ways to go beyond short-term thinking, and how to build this into everyday decisions. You will be able to assess the key driving forces shaping the future and critically evaluate opportunities and identify high-potential growth avenues. You will get practical insight into how foresight tools help concretely identify and tackle key decisions with future implications.
Although no workshop room ever agrees – and nor should it – there will be progress at the workshop towards a shared view of innovation challenges and key choices, and increased alignment on views of future market-product-service options.

How you can apply this knowledge: Among the new things you will be able to do directly after the seminar, are:
- Apply seminar insights directly to upcoming key decisions
- Test and improve use of others’ forecasts with Future Savvy perspectives
- Evaluate emerging issues and challenge default industry assumptions
- Assess decision-making processes and distil optimal decisions
- Identify and develop high-potential initiatives
- Develop more robust, “future-proof” options
- Enhance creativity and lateral thinking in product-service development
- Challenge your own or others’ future thinking and future preparedness.

Who should attend: The seminar is for decision-makers at all levels who need to manage and understand change in the world, their industry, and their company, and who seek the tools to advance foresight-based decision-making in their enterprise. This may include CEOs, CIOs, financial executives, section managers, and marketing and sales executives, as well as business development, strategic planning, or design & product-development teams. If you are a manager required to determine and communicate robust initiatives for navigating the future under conditions of external uncertainty, you will benefit. Similarly, the seminar is for leaders facing future uncertainty in government, public policy, civil service, and military institutions.

Why now: In recession times, paradoxically, opportunities are everywhere for those ready to take them. Prices of acquisitions fall, stress-sales rise, industries merge and change. Industry foresight enables institutions to see past the current situation and make the necessary adjustments and investments to profit from the next one. We are in the midst of significant economic and industry transitions. The enterprises that will emerge healthy and ready for the next ere will be those with embedded high-quality medium-long-term decision-making processes.

Who and how: The seminar is facilitated by Adam Gordon, author of Future Savvy, a highly credentialed and experienced practitioner in the strategic foresight field. Adam is also a regular teacher and seminar leader for business schools and corporate executive education – for more see here. The seminar is held, conveniently, at your UK or European location. Participants need to set aside one morning or afternoon (there is some optional preparation time). Price is £475 plus travel (and accommodation if necessary), which includes all materials and an unlimited number of attendees. The seminar is offered free or at reduced cost to genuine non-profit institutions and charities.

Future Savvy seminars are also available in longer format on request, or for international-travel engagements. They can be dovetailed with an institution’s existing executive education or corporate university offerings.

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