Paul Presented to the Local Government Professionals Emerging Leaders Program on how to Use Foresight for Practical Strategy

As always our presentations are designed to maximise the value for those attending by adding to the narrative on the day. The main points were:

  • Our brains evolved to deal with a different set of risks and threats than we face in a modern world. Therefore we need tools to complement our natural capabilities and offset our blindspots.
  • Using OODA loops (Observe, Orientate, Decide and Act) is a useful framework to think about the future.
  • We need to hold multiple possible pictures of the future in our heads and continually scan the key elements of those pictures to see what is really emerging in the world.
  • A map of the landscape for each of those pictures is a useful way to think about the picture, communicate that picture to others with a common language, and to construct scanning frameworks to provide a robust methodology for thinking about and reporting on changes to the pictures.