Do you feel prepared for the future? Though we can’t predict the future we can anticipate possible futures and prepare.
But as the pace of change is overwhelming, you might be too busy to keep up with all the books, theories, and tools. Maybe you feel stressed or you can use a sounding board. Or you feel the urge to contribute to a future where you want to live and work.
Welcome – the Foresight & Futures community is for you!
Strategic Foresight & Futures
Strategic Foresight is the practice of identifying, analyzing, and anticipating future trends, uncertainties, and opportunities that might impact your (client) organization – and your personal life.
Foresight helps people and organizations prepare for uncertainty, improve resilience, and gain competitive advantage.
If you are working in a small or medium-sized company without the resources for a Foresight team – this community is for you.
If you are a self-employed consultant working with client organizations – this community is for you.
If you are new to futures thinking – this community is for you.
The UNESCO calls “futures literacy” one of the most important capabilities for the 21st century. Learn to imagine multiple futures, anticipate changes and work toward a future where you want to live and work.
Why does Strategic Foresight matter?
- There are multiple futures possible.
- We need a systems-thinking approach as many factors interact in complex ways to create surprising futures.
- It’s wise to challenge mental models and replace obsolete assumptions so we can anticipate different futures.
- We can learn more about the present through the lens of the futures, instead of limiting the futures from the perspective of the present.
- We need to adapt our strategies as we anticipate changes. People and organizations can improve their preparedness, resilience, and agility.
Prepared organizations outperform the others
Researchers at the Aarhus BSS Strategic Foresight Research Network (SFRN) developed a model that empirically evaluates a firm’s future preparedness. Their research (2018) indicates that future preparedness is a powerful predictor for organizations in becoming an outperformer in their industry.
Futures-prepared firms turned out to be 33% more profitable than the average. The researchers suggest that “many firms are not future-prepared to the right level for the pace of change in and around their industry”. How prepared is your organization? How ready are you, as a person and as a professional?
Why start now?
Our current era is a VUCA world – volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. The rate of change is accelerating and we’re globally connected and interdependent. Our challenges add up to a poly-crisis in the fields of:
- Ecology: The climate and biodiversity crises
- Geopolitics: New wars and tensions
- Politics: The breakdown of the social contract
- Technology: The accelerating digital storm
- Economy: Economic stress and transformation
- Urban: Massive demographic transformation ahead
- Culture: Social fractures caused by acceleration, fake truths, and bubbles
The poly-crisis
Organizations and people are searching for effective responses to this poly-crisis. How will this affect your company strategy? How will this impact your life?
We see automatic responses like fear, anger, grief, or denial while several systems are starting to falter.
- Some wait until “they” fix it.
- Some blame “the system”.
- Some accuse “the others”.
Are you looking forward to the future?
Many people dread it.
Many organizations hang on to the status quo for as long as they can.
Meanwhile, the future that will come true depends on what we’re doing today.
Who are we?
We are Marcella Bremer (consultant, author) and Marcel Lamers (coach, tech-wizard).
We’ve helped more than 3000 organizations globally with organizational change, leadership, and culture over the last 30 years.
We founded OCAI online (online organizational culture assessment, © Kim S. Cameron) where over 200,000 respondents assessed their culture to date.
We published Leadership & Change Magazine and two books on leadership, culture, and change.
Our online Positive Culture Academy taught more than 250 students. We trained more than 350 fellow consultants via interactive 3-day workshops on consulting about organizational change and culture.
Strategic Foresight is a part of our consulting work: what to change to be successful in the futures? How to develop a learning, agile culture?
We help people and organizations imagine, prepare for, and work toward a livable future.
As the poly-crisis deepens, we need to explore the futures, prepare for change, and work toward a future where we want to live and work.
The Foresight & Futures community is the learning space that we co-create with you.
We want to see a world where people and organizations imagine and prepare for the futures, and where they work toward the future they prefer. We believe that:
- We have to go through a transition of systems, thinking, and doing
- Exploring possible futures helps to prepare for change
- Applying foresight & change tools improves our resilience and agility
- When we bridge differences we can create shared, actionable visions
- It makes a difference if more people take action to work toward a livable future
Are you ready for the futures?
Join the Foresight & Futures community when:
- You want to upgrade your knowledge and skills in foresight, resilience, and change
- Your (client) organization needs to prepare for possible futures, and to develop agility and resilience.
- You are a leader or team member working in a small or medium-sized organization without a Foresight department
- You are a self-employed consultant or coach working with client organizations
- You are too busy to stay updated, you need a sounding board, or you want to contribute to a future where you want to live and work
The FFC is actionable, focused on practicing strategic foresight and futures thinking. It’s interactive and offers peer support in a safe learning environment. We keep you updated with original and curated content.
Boost your own and your (client) organization’s agility, resilience and success.
What is the free Foresight & Futures community?
- Join as a guest and get access to some free content
What is the subscription Foresight & Futures community?
- Subscribe for a year (or longer) and meet other learners in the member area
- Learn from videos, articles, and a toolkit of exercises and downloads
- Stay updated on the futures
- Apply futures thinking to your (organization’s) situation.
- Join the live group video call every other week to tap into our collective wisdom
- Learn from each other’s cases and advice
- Get help with your projects
- The more you engage the more you get out of this group!
As a community of subscription members:
- We engage and share ideas, best practices, and cases
- We stay for a year to develop supportive relationships
- Let’s co-create a learning culture
Let’s learn, explore, envision, prepare, and create the best possible futures together!
Strategic Foresight & Futures topics
- Understanding the present
- Futures thinking
- Scanning and understanding
- Systems and change
- Creating scenarios
- From scenarios to strategy
- Resilience and preparation
- Consulting and facilitation
When do we start?
We’re currently preparing the content and building the member area. Send us an email and we’ll keep you posted.
We hope to open the beta version by the end of June. Our first information meeting will be scheduled around April 29th.