The process is never done (see the last tweak). Sometime we get lucky with students who are not only supremely …
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Personas in foresight
Is it just me, or has the use of personas in foresight gone quiet? We used to use them quite regularly in my consulting …
Scenario archetypes across 3 horizons
When we explain our four archetype scenarios, often someone will ask whether there is a pattern in how the four …
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Futures Chain of Custody
There is no proof in the futures business! [This includes the sexy "future-proofing" concept making the rounds - not …
Utopia is a moving target
We are probably never going to achieve utopia. What a negative, pessimistic thing to say! Have I turned sour on the …
A “Final” Tweak to the Framework Foresight cone
Final is in quotes to acknowledge that the process is never final. But there is a necessary balance to having some …
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Updating the Framework Foresight cone
It’s that time again. We’re always tweaking our core Framework Foresight process. Every few years the tweaks build up …
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Framework Foresight Video
A key mission of Houston Foresight is to introduce people to spread the use of "high-quality" foresight. In order to do …
Images and decision-making in foresight
I had a nice conversation with some colleagues on a private listserve on the role of futurists. One camp suggested that …
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Art or Science in Foresight
Of course it's not an either-or. But do the scales tip one way or another in foresight? It depends on the practitioner …
Sci Fi Futures
Our Annual Spring Gathering is an opportunity for our extended futures family to come together and socialize, and dig a …
Digging into Monitoring and Indicators
We’ve been talking a bunch about scanning. But what about the flip side – monitoring, and more specifically indicators? …
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Finding the Fringe Takes Time
Last time we talked about snowball scanning as a way to find the fringe in horizon scanning. As I thought more about, I …
Integral Futures Questions
It was great to dive back into some Integral Futures in Alternative Perspectives class this semester. The all-too-rare …
Reasonable futures timeframes
What’s an appropriate timeframe for foresight work? It’s a question we futurists often get. It’s usually coming from a …
An Integral Futures lens on security
It seems that each time I teach Integral Futures as part of Alternative Perspectives class, at least one student really …
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Evolution of Framework Foresight Part 5 Archetypes
Let me begin with proper credit to Professor Jim Dator for the concept [Jim Dator, Alternative Futures at the Manoa …
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Evolution of Framework Foresight: Drivers (part 4)
The graphic has the drivers in the rectangles. This is from a project on the future of knowledge work we did about ten …
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Evolution of Framework Foresight, Part 3
Last time we talked about the different approaches we used to develop inputs to create the ingredients for the baseline …
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Clustering, Pattern Recognition, and Synthesizing
These are a few of my favorite things (humming Sound of Music). I have been doing all three a lot lately, and talking …
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Evolution of Framework Foresight Part 2
With the history on hand, let’s now dig into some fairly significant process tweaks we’re implementing in Framework …
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Evolution of Framework Foresight (part 1)
Framework Foresight is the core method we use to teach students how to explore the future. It is deliberately designed …
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Where can we find the fringe? Scanning the fringe part 2
After our scan hit sharing session, which I shared about last week, we jumped into the formal program. Let’s focus on …
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Observations from scanning the fringe (part 1)
The Houston Foresight community devoted a day to Scanning the Fringe for its 2018 Spring Gathering on April 14th. In …
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Tool Time: Diigo for Collecting Scan Hits
One of the sessions at this weekend’s “Scanning the Fringe” event hosted by the Houston Foresight program with the …
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Introducing the Future
I’m sure there a mixed feelings at a conference when it’s time for the futurist session. What is a futurist …
Has Trump Shifted the Baseline?
This question emerged in a working session on the future of US and Mexico relations. In good Framework Foresight …
Setting up a horizon scanning system
One of the great challenges of foresight work has been to establish a consistent ongoing horizon scanning system within …
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Let’s talk about success
I was happy to see my paper “Let’s Talk about Success: A Proposed Foresight Outcomes Framework for Organizational …
APF Most Significant Futures Works Winners 2017
One of my favorite things to do each year is to coordinate the APF’s Most Significant Futures Works program. This year …
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