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A Guide to Harnessing the Power of Foresight

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Unlock Your Company’s Full Potential

A Guide to Harnessing the Power of Foresight

GUEST POST from Teresa Spangler

Foresight is the superpower of the 21st century business world, allowing companies to see beyond the horizon and seize opportunities before they become trends.

Innovation has always been the driving force behind progress and growth in the business world. However, in today’s rapidly changing landscape, it has become even more essential to stay ahead of the curve and uncover major shifts and hidden opportunities to remain competitive. Companies that can harness the power of foresight and innovate in response to changing market conditions will be well-positioned to succeed in the years ahead.

So, what exactly is foresight, and how can it be leveraged to drive innovation? Simply put, foresight is the ability to anticipate and prepare for future trends and developments. It involves a deep understanding of the current landscape and an awareness of emerging technologies, consumer preferences, and macroeconomic forces. By staying attuned to these trends and developments, companies can stay ahead of the curve and take advantage of new opportunities.

Company leaders can take several key actions to tap into the power of foresight and drive innovation in their organizations. Here are a few steps to get started:

1. Develop a culture of innovation: To truly drive innovation, creating a culture that encourages and supports creative thinking and risk-taking is essential. This can be accomplished through a variety of means, including:

  • Encouraging open and transparent communication among employees
  • Providing opportunities for employees to share their ideas and collaborate with others
  • Offering training and development programs that help employees develop new skills and knowledge
  • Encouraging a “fail fast, learn fast” mentality

2. Invest in research and development: To stay ahead of the curve and uncover new opportunities, companies must be willing to invest in research and development. This could involve dedicating resources to exploring new technologies, conducting market research, or experimenting with new business models.

  • Protect your ideas is easier now leveraging the blockchain, sign up and protect your ideas at no charge for the first three and manage the features along the sprint cycles. Link

3. Foster partnerships and collaborations: Collaboration is key to unlocking the full potential of innovation. By working with other companies, universities, and organizations, companies can access new ideas, technologies, and expertise that would be difficult to acquire on their own.

  • Your best customers want to be your most collaborative partners. How are you engaging them in foresight and planning for the future?
  • Stay connected to customers: Understanding customer needs and preferences is critical to driving innovation. Companies should regularly engage with customers and solicit feedback to stay attuned to their changing needs.

4. Embrace new technologies: Technology is driving many of the significant shifts and hidden opportunities in the business world. Companies that are able to embrace new technologies and leverage them to improve their products and services will be well-positioned to succeed. Seems so simple these days, but there are so many new technologies.

  • Bring in experts to keep you abreast of new ways technologies are integrating
  • Explore a new technology in with a different set of filters – break it down and break down how you might use it to innovation.

5. Be open to change: Finally, companies must be willing to embrace change and be flexible in their approach. The world is constantly evolving, and companies that are able to adapt and evolve in response to new trends and developments will be better positioned to succeed. Are you tired of hearing BE OPEN TO CHANGE? I imagine so, it’s fatiguing all the change we’ve been through the last 4 years however, change in the world is accelerating, keeping pace can be daunting.

  • Ensure you have people with eyes on the future
  • Create foresight team and create scenarios of your future
  • Imagine the best possible change but also imagine the downside “what ifs”

The business world is changing rapidly, and companies that can stay ahead of the curve and innovate in response to shifting market conditions will be well-positioned to succeed. By tapping into the power of foresight and taking the necessary steps to drive innovation, company leaders can unlock new opportunities and stay ahead of the competition. So why wait? Start taking action today and seize the opportunities that lie ahead.

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of December 2022

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of December 2022Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are December’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. Forbidden Truth About Innovation — by Robyn Bolton

  2. A Letter to Innovation Santa — by John Bessant

  3. Preserving Ecosystems as an Innovation Superpower — by Pete Foley

  4. What is a Chief Innovation Officer? — by Art Inteligencia

  5. If You Can Be One Thing – Be Effective — by Mike Shipulski

  6. How to Drive Fear Out of Innovation — by Teresa Spangler

  7. 3 Steps to Find the Horse’s A** In Your Company (and Create Space for Innovation) — by Robyn Bolton

  8. Six Ways to Stop Gen-Z from Quiet Quitting — by Shep Hyken

  9. Overcoming the Top 3 Barriers to Customer-Centricity — by Alain Thys

  10. Designing Innovation – Accelerating Creativity via Innovation Strategy — by Douglas Ferguson

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in November that continue to resonate with people:

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

Have something to contribute?

Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last three years:

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What are Strategic and Market Foresight?

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What are Strategic and Market Foresight?

by Braden Kelley

In my previous article What’s Next – Through the Looking Glass we explored the notion that time is not linear and this is a key part of the FutureHacking™ mindset.

To paraphrase, we get to the future not in a straight line, but by hopping from lily pad to lily pad and as we do so our landings create ripples outward in all directions and our jump direction choices and the amplitude of the ripples at each waypoint determines the shape of our path choice and our view on the potential future. And ultimately futurology and futurism are the disciplines of exploring potential, possible and preferable futures.

Only from a continuous commitment to this exploration can any organization have any chance of ongoing success. But trying to make sense of the future and to find productive ways to shape it – feels incredibly dauting to most people.

To simplify this complexity, I created the FutureHacking™ methodology and tools to enable us average humans to become our own futurist.

“FutureHacking™ is the art and science of getting to the future first.”

This is our goal. To get better at finding the best possible path and the best ripples to amplify. Doing so optimizes our distance and chosen directions so that we arrive at our preferred future. The FutureHacking™ methodology and tools make this not only possible, but accessible, so that we’ll put in the work – and reap the benefits!

This article is another in a series designed to make foresight and futurology accessible to the average business professional. Below we will look at what Strategic and Market Foresight are and how they drive ongoing business success. First some definitions:

  • Strategic Foresight is about combining methods of futures work with those of strategic management. It is about understanding upcoming external changes in relation to internal capabilities and drivers.

  • Market Foresight is about the consideration of possible and probable futures in the organization’s relevant business environment, and about identifying new opportunities in that space.

  • Source: Aalto University

Strategic Foresight and Market Foresight are two tools in our toolbox as we sharpen our focus on the potential and possible futures as we work to define a preferable future and a path to creating it.

Market Foresight gives us permission to explore how the market we compete in is likely to change as we move forward. This includes looking at how customers may change, how their consumption of existing products and services might change, and how changing customer wants and needs will create the potential for new products, and services, and even markets. Economics, demographics, trends and other factors all have a factor to play here, and we need methods for exploring the impact of each.

Strategic Foresight gives us permission to make shifts in strategy. The magic happens when we productively look both internally and externally to identify the most important changes that we can influence AND that we would monitor. The better we can understand the external changes most likely to occur (or that we want to occur), the more focus we can bring to identifying the internal capabilities that we will need to strengthen and the capabilities that we will need to build OR to buy & integrate.

The most successful organizations do a good job of matching their timeline for strategic and capability changes to the pace of market changes that are occurring. And while not explicitly mentioned, the pacing and branching of technology is a big consideration in both Strategic Foresight and Market Foresight.

Good Market Foresight will give you a better view to where the lily pads will be, and good Strategic Foresight (and investments) will help strengthen your jumping legs and propel you through a more optimal path – increasing your chances of getting to the future first!

Public resources for those that want to learn more about Strategic Foresight:

To learn more about Market Foresight, increase your knowledge of:

  • Market Research methods
  • Trendwatching/Trendhunting
  • Innovation frameworks

FutureHacking™ is Within Our Grasp

I’ve created a collection of 20+ FutureHacking™ tools to help you be your own futurist.

These tools will be available to license soon, and I’ll be holding virtual, and possibly in-person, workshops to explain how to use these simple tools to identify a range of potential futures, to select a preferred future, and activities to help influence its realization.

I think you’ll really like them, but in the meantime, I invite you to share your thoughts on how you look at and plan for the future in the comments below.

Finally, make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter to get our weekly collection of articles, along with updates on the forthcoming FutureHacking™ set of tools.

Keep innovating!


Accelerate your change and transformation success

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Exploring the Benefits of Group Foresight

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Exploring the Benefits of Group Foresight

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Foresight is the process of predicting the future, whether it is on an individual, organizational, or industry level. Group foresight allows multiple voices and points of view to be stimulating discussions and debates, offering valuable insights for accurate future predictions. Group foresight offers multiple benefits, which has been evident in a range of case studies.

Collaboration and Critical Thinking

The first benefit of group foresight is that it encourages collaboration and critical thinking. This is important to breaking into new areas of analysis, as different perspectives and ideas can open a new dialogue on a particular topic. In a case study conducted by the University of Dayton, faculty leaders explored possible scenarios for their university’s future. The group was asked to explore the various diverse University contexts, such as the changing student demographics and the regulatory environment, among other things. Through a facilitated discussion among the participants, a collective vision for the University’s future was created, which was later implemented in the University’s strategic plan.

Understanding the External Environment

The second benefit of group foresight is that it creates an understanding of the external environment. This is especially important in industries like finance, which are under constant market fluctuation and change. Group foresight can provide a platform for discerning underlying trends in the market and seeing their potential impact on the organization’s future. In a case study conducted by the Foresight Team of the Bank of Australia, the team organized a series of workshops, where different stakeholders were invited to explore future scenarios and analyze their potential impacts. These workshops allowed the participants to gain an insight into the future of the market and the industry, thus enabling the Bank to better position itself in this constantly changing environment.

Conclusion

Group foresight is a valuable tool for organizations and businesses looking to take a deeper dive into the future. By encouraging collaboration and critical thinking, as well as understanding the external environment, group foresight provides insights on how to create and implement successful plans. These benefits are evident from a range of case studies, making it a valuable tool for any organization looking towards the future.

Bottom line: Futurology is not fortune telling. Futurists use a scientific approach to create their deliverables, but a methodology and tools like those in FutureHacking™ can empower anyone to engage in futurology themselves.

Image credit: Pixabay

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