Five things you need to know about the future

A quick read on why foresight matters.

I wrote this article about 10 years ago as a contribution to someone else’s blog and it summarises some key points about why foresight matters in the present.

1. It’s coming, so get ready
Some form of future is inevitable but it will never exist in a tangible sense today. Because the future is also open in terms of possibilities, we need to ensure that our thinking is equally open to being responsive to changes that are here, emerging or yet to surface. The future requires us to continually seek the new and novel in the present.

2. It’s uncertain, so get used to it
Uncertainty and complexity characterise our futures - or at least the context we find ourselves in today, from which our futures will emerge. There is little point trying to reduce complexity or to seek certainty about our futures, rather we need to immerse ourselves in it to find what we were missing.

3. It’s unpredictable, so stop trying
This one is simple. You can’t predict the future except by luck. The word infers certainty,…