See How 2020 Will Affect Packaging’s Future
January 12, 2021The year that just finished proved a challenge for the...
Read MoreUsing foresight to expand your strike zone
September 12, 2018Your organization is good at something, or tries to be....
Read MoreDesigning packaging for sustainability
August 28, 2018Working towards sustainability means package designs that acknowledge and respond...
Read More6 ways the future consumer will be different
August 22, 2018Powerful forces are changing how consumers think and act. As...
Read MoreHow to use cross impact analysis
March 9, 2018Sometimes a blunt-force tool is best for grinding through the...
Read MoreFuturists are presentists: The true purpose of a forecast
February 7, 2018The other day my friend Holly asked me about my...
Read MoreWhat is and What if
January 25, 2018In organizations, knowing what’s going on today across the business...
Read MoreHow much foresight can you fit?
January 18, 2018Perhaps the biggest inhibitor of foresight for organizations is time....
Read More10 years of blogging about foresight
October 26, 2017In October 2007, I started this blog. I had pent-up...
Read MoreThe future shaping the accounting industry
September 18, 2017I will be speaking in October 2017 at "Women Who...
Read MoreDo you suffer from mill-mindedness?
September 13, 2017The Mill astride the river was the town's heart. Life...
Read MoreEclipse 2017: Shared learning and our future
August 25, 2017Being a futurist means believing in progress for human society....
Read MoreWhat keeps organizations stuck in the present?
August 9, 2017What keeps an organization stuck in the present (or struggling...
Read More6 Foresight hacks
July 25, 2017Hacks are shortcuts for getting things done and being clever...
Read MoreManagement, strategy, and foresight compared
July 12, 2017This post distinguishes management, strategic planning and foresight. It suggests...
Read More8 things leaders should know about strategic foresight
June 27, 2017Today’s leaders are pressed to focus on strategic foresight and...
Read MoreDeep down, it’s about thinking differently
June 21, 2017"A professional futurist is a person who studies the future...
Read MoreInhibitors of foresight: Measurement and its pitfalls
June 12, 2017“Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything...
Read MoreFour metaphors for the classroom of the future
May 30, 2017Stepping into a 2017 classroom, a school teacher from 1917...
Read More5 stages of grief for people facing their future
May 22, 2017In her 1969 book, On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross...
Read MoreDon’t be a victim of change
May 17, 2017When you face change, your responses fall on a spectrum....
Read More7 Deadly sins of foresight
May 9, 20171. Ignoring the future (You let today's concerns give you...
Read MoreWhat magicians can teach us about foresight
May 3, 2017Don't look where the magician wants you to Magicians rely...
Read MoreThe five people you meet in bringing futures into an organization
April 25, 2017Getting an organization to pay attention to the future is...
Read MoreForesight tip: Scan the scanners
April 19, 2017Environmental scanning (also known as horizon scanning) is part of...
Read MoreConstrained foresight and what to do about it
April 12, 2017How often is foresight (or the lack of it) the...
Read MoreForesight fuels product and brand innovation
April 5, 2017You can't innovate in a vacuum. Foresight opens new space...
Read MoreThere is no everybody — facing your biases about the world
March 16, 2017Humans are good at pattern recognition. But we see patterns based...
Read MoreThe ridiculous scenario
March 14, 2017"Any useful statement about the future should at first seem...
Read MoreYou can’t be what you can’t see
March 9, 2017"If you have the words, there's always a chance that...
Read More5 foresight steps for dealing with community resistance to change
March 7, 2017I recently met a couple who are leaders in their...
Read MoreKeep an eye on the future while righting the ship
March 1, 2017In a crisis, organizations focus inward, and work to put...
Read MoreA Change Recognition Scale: Driving awareness and understanding of change
February 28, 2017When you talk about change, especially big changes in society...
Read MoreWhen only you see the future
February 28, 2017You are intuitive, a trend-spotter, comfortable with conjecture, ready to...
Read MoreConfirmation bias in foresight: Scanning to find what you already believe
February 23, 2017Confirmation bias is getting attention in American politics. It is the...
Read MoreGovernance and foresight: Views of a futurist/trustee
February 21, 2017This post accompanies “Pitfalls in Governance” Foresight needs to become...
Read MorePitfalls in governance: Views of a futurist/trustee
February 21, 2017This post addresses the non-profit governance roles of Boards of...
Read MoreForesight helps you see the forest for the trees
February 14, 2017You sit at your computer, productive, focused, dedicated to your...
Read MoreForesight is like fitness
February 8, 2017Foresight is work you do to get ready for the...
Read MoreWhy we need scenarios to be ready for the future
February 6, 2017No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking...
Read MoreFuture of Learning: The Classroom of 2030
November 6, 2015Future of Learning: The Classroom of 2030 is the fifth piece I've...
Read MoreYou make it or you take it–The two things you face when you face the future
October 21, 2015You move, always, into the future. But what future? Well,...
Read MoreThe unreasonable man
September 29, 2015"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable...
Read MoreWorkforce futures: exploring change and discovering paths forward
June 17, 2015Our great privilege in helping organizations explore their futures is...
Read MoreThe future in the small thing
June 10, 2015"Four percent," the senior agency leader said. And that stopped...
Read MoreThe future of education: How for-profit business will reshape education
September 23, 2014The Future of Education: How For-Profit Businesses Will Reshape Education...
Read MoreThe foresight gap: What too many organizations get wrong
September 17, 2014Businesses aim close. Too often, a business’s view stays on...
Read MoreFuture of Education: Nine Skills That Will Help Make Our Children Future-Ready
August 21, 2014Future of Education: Nine Skills That Will Help Make Our...
Read MoreExploring the Future for Education: Three Scenarios for 2025
July 8, 2014Exploring the Future for Education: Three Scenarios for 2025 is...
Read MoreMOOCs, Mobile and the Future of Higher Education
June 27, 2014Here is a piece I wrote for the World Innovation...
Read MoreThe clean slate scenario
May 22, 2014What would you build today if you started from scratch?...
Read MoreHey futurist, represent!
May 16, 2014If foresight is a good thing, if knowing a little...
Read MoreIn the future, there’ll be cheesecake
May 7, 2014If you are like me, when you crave a treat,...
Read MoreHow to break free of difficult history
April 29, 2014Difficult history is a historical legacy, often of conflict, that...
Read MoreThe unspoken scenario
April 24, 2014Consider for a moment what would happen if you lost...
Read MoreFuturist as Missionary, Salesperson, Politician, Counselor
April 3, 2014Ultimately, your efforts around foresight--for their relevance, for their impact,...
Read MoreEvery little act changes the future
April 1, 2014For this little thought experiment, a tip of the pen...
Read MoreWhat people say when you ask them to think about the future
March 18, 2014Here are four things I hear all the time from...
Read MoreRegret shapes the future, but so does satisfaction
March 10, 2014In a controlled study, researchers found people routinely willing to...
Read MoreIs your focus past or forward?
March 7, 2014This blog post from a couple of years ago Are You...
Read MoreOrganizational DNA and readiness for the future
May 29, 2013It can make a difference in an organization as it...
Read MoreAnachronisms
May 24, 2013For some thoughts on anachronisms in foresight and fiction writing,...
Read MoreAnachronisms
May 23, 2013In 10th grade, my English teacher, Mr. Simmons, put anachronism on...
Read MoreForesight: Seeing the big in the small
May 23, 2013A problem I face when deciding what ideas about the...
Read MoreSix things studying the future has taught me about fiction writing
May 20, 2013On my foresight blog, I posted the reverse of this:...
Read MoreSix things fiction writing taught me about foresight
May 13, 2013I have posted at johnmahaffie.com, the inverse of this theme:...
Read MoreHow a futures scenario is like a Rube Goldberg contraption
March 12, 2013One of the delightfully crazy makers who built a device...
Read MoreWhat do futurists really do?
January 10, 2013My elevator speech, unfortunately, takes more than the ten-floor standard...
Read MoreThe essential power of we in shaping the future
October 15, 2012Please note: foresightculture.com is 5 years old today. Thanks to...
Read MoreUse foresight to challenge organizational instincts
October 9, 2012In watching the organizations I serve confront change and make...
Read MoreSensemaking and strangemaking
September 27, 2012At the 2012 Association of Professional Futurists Professional Development day...
Read MoreThe weaknesses and threats of SWOT analysis
August 2, 2012Used in the typical way, SWOT analysis can do more...
Read MoreA futurist recharges his batteries
July 31, 2012I first drafted this piece for my own records, but...
Read MoreOur Role in Shaping the Future
June 27, 2012I am hoping you'll take a moment to complete a...
Read MoreThe nature of creative work: art, fiction, and futures
May 3, 2012Artists, writers, musicians, and other creative people muse over what...
Read MoreThe future is a foreign country; they do things differently there
April 30, 2012The past is a foreign country; they do things differently...
Read MoreThe unrecognized present
February 22, 2012Futurists, by definition, are supposed to talk about the future....
Read MoreThe power of silence
February 15, 2012Insights come more reliably to an undistracted mind. Have you...
Read MoreCan irony change the world?
January 24, 2012On an October 2011 visit to a college dorm hallway...
Read MorePollyanna had the right idea
January 19, 2012In a controlled study, researchers found people routinely willing to...
Read More#Consumer4Sight No. 9: Wants to play
January 12, 2012For more in this series, see #Consumer4sight The future consumer wants...
Read MoreThe past cannot be our guide to the future
January 4, 2012American strict constructionists say that the U.S. Constitution is an...
Read MoreForesightCulture’s top 12 posts of 2011
December 22, 2011Of the 41 posts to ForesightCulture during 2011, the 12...
Read More#Consumer4sight no. 8: Touch, voice and gesture
December 20, 2011Consumers now and going forward expect a screen to be...
Read More#Consumer4sight no. 7: Citizen of the world
December 16, 2011Consumers have gone global too. The consumer increasingly is and...
Read MoreExperiencing the future Part 2: How to build futures experiences
December 14, 2011I made the case in my previous post Experiencing the...
Read More#Consumer4sight No 6: Greening it up by choice or by force
December 8, 2011More consumers are greening it up – Soon regulatory and social...
Read MoreExperiencing the future Part 1: Getting beyond analysis and changing minds
December 6, 2011It’s not possible to directly experience the future, it hasn’t...
Read More#consumer4sight No. 5: We become “free range” shoppers
December 1, 2011From the series, #Consumer4sight We’ll be doing more “free range” shopping –...
Read More#Consumer4sight No. 4: Continuous digital access is becoming the core of consumer life
November 29, 2011From the series, #Consumer4sight Living a digital life means carrying...
Read More#Consumer4sight — Ideas about the future consumer
November 16, 2011Powerful forces are changing how consumers think and act. As...
Read MoreNoun = bad, verb = good
November 10, 2011Consider the difference between a plan and planning. A plan...
Read MoreA 2021 shopper’s path to purchase
November 8, 2011Technology and social changes are transforming how we shop. The...
Read MoreAsk the hard questions
November 3, 2011The thoughts here continue from my previous post, Question Continuity....
Read MoreQuestion continuity
November 1, 2011An organization’s routine strategymaking has to include ongoing explorations of...
Read MoreA typology of futurists
September 30, 2011I had the pleasure, recently, of collaborating with five other...
Read MoreSimple triage to keep sane while scanning
September 21, 2011If you work at anticipating and understanding the future, you...
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