Systems thinking is a discipline, and it has its own vocabulary and maps. It is one of several frameworks that have been developed to help people work effectively with systems, understanding the implications of interdependent parts and enabling them to make robust decisions in uncertain, emerging and unclear space.

You can’t problem-solve your way into the future – problem-solving works on what is happening today by applying what has worked in the past.

Once you are clear on how you got to where you are and what you have learned from that, you can begin to look at what is possible and start to explore how your organisation got to its present situation, adapting the exercise so that you can learn from its history. Only then will you ready for the next steps.

Rather, it is what is termed a wicked problem, where no definition can be agreed between stakeholders and which cannot be completely ‘solved’.

Messes are exacerbated by complexity. Complexity tends to encourage fragmented thinking (which isn’t a good thing if you want to manage a mess) by making it more difficult to get to a shared, agreed understanding of a mess.

A system has a purpose, even if it is changing and emerging or you can’t see what it is (or it isn’t a system)

The differences between simple problems and wicked problems affect the way you deal with them, so it is very important to understand (and agree) how to talk about and work with these problems. This means challenging every assumption you have that an obstacle, problem or mess is made up of a simple or tame problem – it is very likely that it is neit

Strategic Foresight starts with you, personally. You make the choice of how you want to engage with the future. Do you want to let it happen to you? Or would you prefer to do some work to understand what may happen, figure out what you can influence and then put that into action?

In terms of Strategic Foresight, messes are obstacles in your path to a preferred future – the “what could stop you” influencing not just the future that you want to get to, but also how you get there.