Environmental scanning is the core of effective futures work and long term thinking.
One of the aims of Thinking Futures is to work with organisations to build an in-house environmental scanning capacity to embed the process in strategy development and planning processes.
Since strategy is about determining how to position yourself in the external environment to ensure a sustainable future, understanding that environment in some depth is critical to achieving that strategy. All our projects therefore begin with an environmental scanning component, typically undertaken with and by your staff to ensure knowledge transfer about how to explore the environmenttakes place.
Strategy that readies you for the future is based on insights gained from identifying, exploring, interpreting and challenging information gained through rigorous environmental scanning. Looking over the horizon or horizon scanning are terms often used to describe the monitoring of external trends and drivers of change to explore their potential impact on your organisation into the future.
To find out more about doing scanning in your organisation:
