The behaviour of a mess depends more on how the different parts/problems within it interact than on how they act independently of one another. This means that you can’t really solve a mess, but you can manage it.

Recognising systems allows you to look for patterns in their interactions.

If Strategic Foresight is to be effective and successful, you must increase your self-awareness, for which you need to reflect and gain insight on how you got to where you are.

You can learn to extend your ability to think into the future and this is very important if you want to develop your Strategic Foresight muscles further.

To go and successfully explore somewhere totally unknown, you need to be prepared for whatever you may face. You need to anticipate potential needs that might arise. Sometimes you won’t have enough information, yet you still need to understand when a choice or decision has to be made.

When you use Strategic Foresight you are turning the tables by looking to the future, identifying what is possible and, most importantly, what you can influence, which puts you in a position of ability (you are ABLE to do something about a given situation).

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

For, as futurist author William Gibson said, “The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.”19

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)