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Future NOW Blog

Identify Your Assets and Gaps: A Foresight Tool for Action

Oct 14, 2022

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Scenarios

Plausible, Possible, Diverse

Scenarios take us into a possible future. They describe a world to come, making a systematic set of assumptions about the drivers shaping that world. They may be brief and descriptive or they may include story-like narratives that represent the point of view of personas in the future. They may include a “history of the future”—how we get from here to there.

Scenarios may come in sets that represent alternative sets of assumptions. IFTF often uses the classic set of alternative futures developed at the University of Hawaii to describe four archetypal ways of thinking about the future: growth, collapse, constraint, and transformation. As part of the Ten-Year Forecast program, we have recently developed another set called “Impossible Futures” based on a typology of scenarios that “violate” assumptions about time, probability, reality, and culture.

Scenarios are particularly valuable for stretching our strategic options. They can create a conceptual wind tunnel where we can test how well our strategies will “fly” under various conditions. They can also help us break out of our habitual thinking to inspire innovation and help build resilience.

Are you interested in building your own future scenarios? Learn about our IFTF Foresight Essentials Scenario Building training.

Examples

  • California Dreaming Map (2010)
  • Reinventing Energy Futures: Four Visions (2011)
  • Four Futures of Food (2011)
  • The Future of Youth Employment (2014)
  • Families in Flux: Imagining the Next Generation of the American Family (2020)

Learn More

For more information about the Institute for the Future and ways to work with us, contact:

Sean Ness | sness@iftf.org | 650-233-9517

  • Institute for the Future

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    What We Do

  • Who We Are
  • IFTF Vantage Partnership
  • IFTF Foresight Essentials
  • Forecasts
  • Workshops
  • Maps
  • Artifacts from the Future
  • Events
  • In the News
  • Media Center
  • Gallery
  • History of the Future

    Our Work

  • Featured Projects
  • Global Landscape
  • People + Technology
  • Health + Self

    Partner with IFTF

  • IFTF Vantage
  • IFTF Foresight Essentials
  • Research Labs
  • Partners
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy

    Future Now

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