future mapping

the why and the how

There was a widespread recognition that movements were having to react defensively to crises with short-term strategies and that this needed to be balanced with the building of longer-term visions.

Abi Knipe • Conditions to Flourish: Understanding the Ecosystem for Narrative Power

That's right. I keep going. Something in what you were just talking about reminded me of, you talked about how you're about cultural futurism now. Is that a recent shift or how did you find that place? And what does that mean in how you work?

It is and it isn't. We've always been doing our work like this, where it's always predictive. The whole... See more

Peter Spear • Jasmine Bina on Prediction & Brand

there’s simply no way around the fact that we’re pretty fed up with a certain philosophical framework in Silicon Valley. It has many names: the growth mindset. OKRs. KPIs. Even Minimalism — the predominant aesthetic of our era. But at its core, it all comes down to one thing: the relentless optimization of everything in our world.

this mindset has... See more

The Browser Company • Optimizing For Feelings

Imagining is a rigorous discipline. Imagination is our greatest national resource, one that drives value creation across the sciences, the humanities, the arts, and business. All compelling entrepreneurial ventures, transformative social movements, and technological breakthroughs begin with an inspired sense of possibility.

Seth Goldenberg • Radical Curiosity: Questioning Commonly Held Beliefs to Imagine Flourishing Futures

Our ability to make the most out of uncertainty is what creates the most potential value. We should be fueled not by a desire for a quick catharsis but by intrigue. Where certainty ends, progress begins. Our obsession with certainty has another side effect. It distorts our vision through a set of funhouse mirrors called unknown knowns.

Ozan Varol • Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life

But, then, ultimately, we get to this somewhat stark moment of conviction – a decision without certainty but with some level of instinct and belief. The work you’ve done is a big input, but then, I find there’s something else, too. It’s some combination of understanding, excitement, experience, gut, and fear. And this process repeats throughout our... See more

Mario Gabriele • Modern Meditations: Rebecca Kaden (Union Square Ventures)

challenges to long-held assumptions take place when individuals dive deeper and deeper into anticipatory imagination and provocation, and this opens the door to transformative realities that profoundly change the perspective of the foresight practitioner. Consequently, the possibility of these new worlds become an internal experience that can no

TFSX • The Future Thinker’s Dilemma

“We are so persuaded that the need for efficiency to rush from meeting to meeting, decision to decision, we're not stepping out on the balcony and really seeing it what it is.” From On Strategy Showcase: Adam Morgan on the cost of dull advertising, May 5, 2024

But it’s only when we sacrifice the certainty of answers, when we take our training wheels off, and when we dare to wander away from the street lamps that breakthroughs happen. If you stick to the familiar, you won’t find the unexpected. Those who get ahead in this century will dance with the great unknown and find danger, rather than comfort, in