Foresight-Driven Enterprise Design for What's Next.
Better decisions when the future is unclear, that's the whole point. As leaders, we know the hardest calls arrive before the facts do. If that's the seat you sit in, this is for you. It's about making that call well, and acting on it with confidence once you have.
A few things will help you get the most of this.
Hold the ideas here loosely. Think of them as mental models, practical ways to work through hard questions rather than the last word on them. New models and methods appear all the time, be critical of these models but remember to share yours, after all, "all models are wrong, but some are useful,” and the useful ones tend to build on the work of others rather than replace it. The point is not help you with decision-making.
The whole publication centres on one idea, the foresight-driven enterprise. I take the definition from enterprise.design, which describes an enterprise as "an endeavour of people with a shared ambition". A foresight-driven one that studies change to be better prepared and comfortable with uncertainty rather than waiting for a specific future to arrive. Such enterprises use structured foresight methods to explore plausible futures and build toward the future it wants, while staying ready for the others that may arrive.
That's what I write about here, foresight-driven enterprise design, almost every week. It is the intersection of applied strategic foresight and enterprise design. It's plain language and real methods, the ones I use with the leaders I work with. You get practical ideas on foresight, strategy, and strategy execution.
And it helps to know who's writing this. I'm a strategist and a storyteller, a practitioner and a researcher. I came up through enterprise architecture and strategic foresight. Formally trained in both disciplines and over the past 15+ years I've helped leaders design the systems their organisations depend on, and tell the stories that get people to understand, support, and commit to change. Both halves matter, because a design nobody believes in never gets built.
You’ll notice I mostly steer clear of the word “futurist”. It’s been worn thin by hype, and I’d rather keep a line between claiming the title and doing the work. My job is to put strategic foresight to practical use alongside the disciplines of strategic planning and enterprise design (including enterprise architecture). The researchers and practitioners who built these fields have my respect, and this newsletter builds on their work and mental models.
If you want to think like a futurist, plan like a strategist, and build like an architect, subscribe below.
