Foresight as a field | Hinesight....for Foresight

I’ve noted my plunge into the foresight literature in support of my topic “Integrating Forsight into Organizations.” It’s raised several topics. For instance, I want to revisit what we call what we do, but before focusing on the name, for which I’ll use foresight as the placeholder, where does foresight “stand?”

A first question if we’re going to integrate foresight into organizations, what do we mean by foresight? Okay, it’s a bit academic, but hey, we’re an academic program. And for you practitioners, if some asks you what you do, and what is it exactly, it is very helpful to have a ready answer. In fact, we have our UH Foresight students prepare an Elevator Speech for just this contingency. Anyone who has been caught off-guard by this will appreciate tackling it. First, a few definitions might help. The Cambridge Online Dictionary says:

Capability: the ability to do something
Field: an area of activity or interest
Discipline: a particular area of study, especially a subject studied at a college or university
Profession: any type of work which needs special training or a particular skill, often one which is respected because it involves a high level of education

So, yes, it meets the capability test, although there would be question over what the “something” is. The literature review suggests that foresight can at the very least be called a field. It’s been around for half a century, there are established organizations, some academic programs, consulting companies, and a fledgling professional association. While it hasn’t quite coalesced, I’d argue that it’s all part of the maturation process. But even that is contentious. Mike Marien suggested back in 2002 that the claim that foresight is a field is one of seven disabling myths: “for those who persist in proclaiming that there is a ‘field’, I simply ask that you tell me who is in it, and who is not, and why. I have never seen any instance where those who claim a field try to make this distinction. And the more I look at a wide variety of futures-thinkers, the more confused the picture gets.”

Good questions by Mike. Let’s address those in an upcoming post. Stay tuned. Andy Hines

About Andy Hines

Dr. Andy Hines is Program Coordinator at the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight, bringing together the experience he earned as an organizational, consulting, and academic futurist. He is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight.

Before that, he was Managing Director of Social Technologies/Innovaro, and served as an Adjunct Professor with the university since 2004. Hines enjoyed earlier careers as a consulting and organizational futurist. He was a partner with Coates & Jarratt, Inc., a think tank and consulting firm that specialized in the study of the future. He was also Futurist & Senior Ideation Leader at Dow Chemical with a mission of using futures tools and knowledge to turn ideas into new business opportunities. Before that, Hines established and ran the Global Trends Program for the Kellogg Company.

Hines is motivated by a professional hunger to make foresight practical and useful, and he believes that foresight can help deliver the insight that is so needed in today’s organizations and the world. His goal, he says, is to infect as many change agents as possible with this message. Thus, he has honed a skill set designed to make foresight more actionable in organizations.

In this pursuit, he has authored five books: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape (No Limits Publishing, 2011); Thinking About the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight (Social Technologies, 2007); 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society (Oak Hill, 1997); and Managing Your Future as an Association (ASAE, 1994) and has another in the hands of publishers: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education. He has also authored dozens of articles, speeches, and workshops, including the 2003 Emerald Literati Awards’ Outstanding Paper accolade for best article published in Foresight for “An Audit for Organizational Futurists” and the 2008 award for “Scenarios: The State of the Art.” He has appeared on several radio and television programs, PBS Houston, KRIV-26 News, and the CBS “Early Show.” He also co-founded and is former Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.

About Andy Hines

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