Ten ways
to use a futurist
What is the most interesting, unusual and curiosity-invoking degree you can get?
Try a Master of Science in Studies of the Future. Sounds far-fetched, lightweight or
just plain kooky? Think again -- it's the nexus of socratic critical thought; hard, high
scinece; humanities and the social sciences; and yes, things well beyond the edge. And you could
use a futurist, here's how:
1. Do you have a crystal ball?
The future cannot be 'predicted.' However a futurist can work with you to create
stratgies and skills to help you achieve your preferred future from within the
realm of possible futures.
2. So what do you do? I practice strategic foresight, which means I assist organizations
and individuals in dealing positively with change. I help my clients to develop
strategies and competencies to deal with change they have no control over, as
well as assisting them in creating change to achieve their desired futures, by
identifying ripples which may become dangerous swells or destructive tsunamis
of change in the future.
3. How do you get to be a futurist? Through study, accreditation and work experience.
I am completing my MSc. through the University of Houston, Clear Lake. My focus
is strategic forecasting studies and organizational visioning, with a concentration
in personal futures, media and technology futures and their impacts on corporate,
political and economic strategy.
4. Ask a futurist to help you create new products and services, revise your corporate
vision, review your values or mission statement and up-date your strategic plan.
Futurists can also enable you to gain strategic intelligence.
5. Invite a futurist to work with your leadership teams. A choice of the right
futures methodologies will allow teams to consider new options and choices.
6. Invite a futurist to give you a presentation about alternative views of the
near-term future. These will challenge in-house assumptions, highlight novel information,
help your staff to 'think laterally' and motivate them to be more proactive.
7. Ask a futurist to scan the environment and then give a presentation about the
near-future context and how it relates specifically to your organization.
8. Brief a futurist about a current problem facing your organization and ask him/her
to design and facilitate an in-house workshop process to address it.
9. Ask a futurist to identify an area of unmet social or cultural need and to
propose a strategy to actively address it.
10. Ask a futurist to demonstrate strategies for changing problems into opportunities.
(With thanks to the Futures Study Centre.)
