Ensuring Culture Does Not Eat Strategy for Breakfast

Abstract

For foresight to be useful to organizations, it must have seven dimensions. The first is that the journey is learning focused and not about particular forecasts or strategic targets. The journey is continuous, adaptive, and narrative-based. Second, for organizations to transform, they must challenge their used future: practices they continue that do not match their desired vision. Third, as the rate of technological change is dramatic, often exponential, it is necessary for organizations to search for emerging issues—novel disruptors that can challenge standard operating procedures. Fourth, they need alternative futures or scenarios, as they best capture uncertainty and allow for novel possibilities. The fifth is inclusion, or the question of “who is not in the room?” Sixth, for a new future to successfully emerge, it must have a supportive worldview and underlying narrative or metaphor. And, seventh, they need a vision, neither too far nor too near, one that enables and ennobles.