Future Savvy: Quality in Foresight

May 27 2009

Studies & Workshops

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Adam Gordon leads foresight workshops, decision-making sessions, scenario planning, and futures research engagements in the following categories (customized to need):
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1. BRIEFINGS

On-day point-of-decision briefings. In-company round-tables,
business breakfasts
In these short sessions, industry foresight perspectives are brought directly to in-company leadership discussions and decision process, allowing forward perspectives to mesh with company and industry wisdom as key decisions are being made.
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2. FACILITATED STUDIES AND WORKSHOPS

“Deep Dives,” Idea Factories, and Scenario Building
These are longer-term engagements where managers surface and critically explore their perspectives on future market, industry, technology, and regulatory conditions. While bringing cross-industry future perspectives, the facilitator is also a catalyst – helping a group unlock its own knowledge, providing high-energy, interactive, creative techniques to stimulate fresh thinking (and hard-boiled rationalism to rein in future-fantasy,) and then extracting and clarify key learning.

Each workshop is different, but a typical study-workshop may go through the following phases:

Horizon Scanning: identifying and considering external forces, and how they are influencing a particular industry, sector or decision situation. Adam’s ongoing horizon scanning process — created in alliances with other providers — is put at your disposal.

DEFT Analysis of Trends: isolating important trends, and their underlying Drivers, Enablers, Friction, and Turner-Blockers, a proprietary method for better foresight developed in Future Savvy and related articles.

Scenario Building: Proving structures whereby decision-makers mentally prepare for changing and unexpected conditions. Rather than predict the future, we challenge the assumptions that underpin our “official view,” and open up the cone of plausible uncertainty, developing understanding of the real range of outcomes that institutions should be planning for.

3. RESEARCH & LEARNING JOURNEYS

These are independently researched studies-of-the-future in specific industries or markets or issue-topic areas. They incorporate a broad synthesis of current and foresight literature, and feature forecast filtering techniques as outlined in Future Savvy. They typically also feature “learning-journeys”: going into the real world observe and evaluate cross-industry, future-oriented, user preferences, and practices.
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4. TURNING FORESIGHT INTO VALUE

Developing a high-quality view of an industry or sector future is only part 1. Part 2 is about applying it to managment decisions going forward, adapting frameworks, embedding it in practice. That is, turning foresight into value. In this phase we narrow down, make choices, and turn future concepts and insights into tactical plans and action steps. This is achieved, in part, through a powerful set of tools for finding innovative products and services (or policy changes) and integrating them into existing offerings. Together, we link what’s effective today with what’s achievable tomorrow, and create a path between the two. This may typically involve, new product & service development; R&D planning and funding; human resources development; M&A or other resources acquisition; or financial restructuring.

Sample companies & institutions worked with, consulted for, trained for, etc: