This section is home to a range of resources to help individuals and organisations better understand the nature of futures work, tools, methods and approaches.
If you want to know more about implementing futures work in your organisation, and integrating these approaches into your strategic development processes, these resources will get you started by introducing you to the major concepts associated with futures and foresight.
The Global Futures Network is building an extensive set of resources on a wetpaint wiki, and you should check that out too.
Consider also joining the Education Strategy Network which is a global community of people interested in using futures approaches in education to build stronger strategy. It's free to join and puts you in touch with over 1200 people globally who are interested in creating a better future for themselves, their organisations and society in general. |
|
|
Why do futures work?
|
|
|
So we don't say silly things, even with the best of intentions!
- “Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for future development”: Roman engineer Sextus Julius Frontinus, 1st Century AD
- “Heavier than air flying machines are not possible”: Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1895
- “Space flight is hokum”: Astronomer Royal, 1956
- “Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau”: Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929
- “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out”: Decca Recording Co. rejecting The Beatles, 1962
- “640K [of RAM] ought to be enough for anybody”: Bill Gates, 1981
- "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home”: Ken Olson, founder of Digital Equipment, 1977
- “I think there is a world market for maybe 5 computers”: Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943
- “The fact that conflicts with other countries [producing civilian casualties] have been conducted away from the U.S. homeland can be considered one of the more fortunate aspects of the American experience”: Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) for the US Dept of Defence, 2001
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
