Communicating Foresight

Some issues that shape how we communicate the value of foresight and futures work.

Talking about foresight, what it is and its benefits to both individuals and organisations is often not an easy task, mainly because, even though some methods are now well known, the concept of foresight as the underpinning capacity is still new for most people. The reality is that your brain will seek to reject new information because it doesn’t match existing patterns that are already stored in your memory, so you - and everyone else - face an immediate challenge in understanding, let alone accepting the value of foresight, in most contexts.

One of the complaints within the foresight field is that explaining foresight to the public is tough, and journalists often misappropriate the term, making fun of futurists and blaming them for all sorts of things. I believe that until futurists stop making predictions, we might just deserve what we get, but that's another story.

Often the first step is to demonstrate that foresight is a way of thinking and an approach that is worth spending some …