Futures heroes
Credit: Dawn of Hope (composite image), Radio City Music Hall, New York, 1973. © 2021 Masayoshi Sukita (Image credit: Masayoshi Sukita)
“Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.” - David Bowie
What kind of plan have you got for 2030? Have you imagined potential futures for your organisation and industry in 2030?
Does your vision help you and your organisation positively impact the world by 2030?
Have you connected with your industry to shape potential innovations for 2030?
Have you connected with your workforce and employees of tomorrow to ask them to shape potential futures they want to be a part of in 2030?
Do you have the leadership capability to shape the futures you want?
So many great questions, and exponentially more possible futures to explore here! Futures work has so much potential to support long term outcomes for our businesses, communities, industry and our state. But there are a few tips that you need to consider before you choose how you engage in futures work.
Futures thinking and futures foresight are NOT extended market research. You can’t just ask a bunch of people what they want for the future. You must support them to imagine potential futures that are complex and not always positive (utopian) or deeply negative (dystopian). There is a diverse view of the future that you have to help them step into, hear and share perspectives on and make sense of so they can understand what that might mean for them, you and the community in which we live.
Future is plural. It’s not one perfect scenario that we need to finish with. Futures work weave multiple potential stories of how the future may look together so you can extract the threads 🧶 that have impact and matter. When you walk out to a future time, view multiple perspectives of those futures, and return to the present, what you do next can be clearer and more obvious than you ever expected.
Thinking about the future isn’t manifesting it to come ‘true’. It’s not once and done. Working with organisations to shape potential futures isn’t about finitely defining the next 5-10 years. It’s about understanding what might be measures of change and transition that trigger action to nudge towards a more preferred future and forecasting and reimagining towards the horizon you want to head towards. It’s a continuous process that enables agility, clarity (over certainty) and provides hope (goal + agency + pathways) towards a better future.
All voices matter. When working on potential futures for you, your organisation or community you must consider a broad range of voices. Their perspectives may be in tension with each other and far reaching and it’s not their job to shape a single outcome for you. It’s your work to understand those perspectives and make sense of them. Age and experience, ethnicity and cultural background, gender and sexuality, literacy levels, socioeconomic status and many other factors impact how people perceive the future but they also don’t limit it either.
With your futures interest well and truly piqued. We’ve got you covered with opportunities galore this year to explore potential futures.
FUTURES PROGRAM
Wild Futures 2025 – a deep exploration into the futures leadership needed here in Tasmania. It will include exploring futures thinking and futures foresight tools, learning how to view multiple perspectives (because all voices matter) and potential trends and scenarios of where we might be headed. The program will help you consider the leadership role you wish to play in Tasmania. We’ll equip you with tools, connections and a cohort of change makers - all in real life - for human’s looking to shape our future here in Tasmania. Book a coffee chat with Katy Cooper or Ellie Mason to find out more.
Futures Consulting - by engagement - we work with multiple organisations and communities to develop and shape potential futures strategies for futures you can’t see yet. Reach out if you want to chat about how we can do that together. There are limited spots left this year so get onto that 2030 plan!
Futures Leadership - the leaders you need to support and thrive in 2030 are very different to the leaders you have running your organisation today. Talk to us about a long-term leadership capability development program that will shape your futures leadership advantage and give you bench strength to adapt, steer and respond to change, transition and uncertainty.
Reach out to learn more about how we can work with you to shape your futures and support your organisation to flourish and thrive, not just tomorrow but years from now.
Katy Cooper is an experienced Futurist, trained through The Institute for the Future, POLI-Design at Milan POLI.technic and Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies. She has also studied Disruptive Innovation with INSEAD. She holds a Graduate Diploma of Management (GradDipMgt) from Australian Institute of Business. Katy is an exceptional Experience Designer and Facilitator. She helps organisations and communities build strategic plans and leadership capability for a future they can’t see yet through her foresight-driven, whole systems design practice.