Expert and Participatory Foresight

Last we talked about three futurist roles. Along those lines are the different ways that we go about performing those roles. I suppose that types or orientations might best describe them. I see at least five types of futurist orientations in doing our work along a continuum– work that is more oriented to the futurist and the other being more oriented toward the participants.

• Outsourcing: where the futurists are handed the project by the clients, who waits for the answer with very little input, as they don’t want to bias the work through their participation.
• Buying-in: where the futurists largely drive a project, but may have client input, and come up with a vision or visions that they tried to persuade the client to adopt.
• Facilitating: where the futurists focus more on designing and guiding a process — and perhaps some content to stimulate thinking — to enable the client to come to their own point-of-view.
• Coaching: where the futurist delivers a project and trains the client to do it themselves by having them participate by teaching them and having them learn-by-doing.
• Co-creating: where the futurists and clients are more or less on equal footing and working together seamlessly.

My observation is that over the last two decades the shift has been away from the expert end and towards the participatory one. It is pretty rare these days to get an outsourced project, though it does happen occasionally. I do see merit in getting a completely fresh viewpoint in some circumstances. For the futurists, we have the benefit of control, but the absence of client input and feedback can be challenging.

Buying-in is more common, but is also on the decline. The team comes in and delivers the pitch, often together with the direct client, for the client-of-the-client.

Facilitating is where we start tipping towards a more prominent role for clients in that the futurist is clearly in a supporting and guiding role. In my experience, however, the futurist can still play an expert role here, but it is not aimed at persuading the client toward a particular point-of-view of the futurist.

Coaching is on the upswing (and probably my personal favorite) in which the client wants to learn how to use a method and the teaching takes place during a live project. The challenging aspect is to truly set aside enough time for pure coaching moments, discussions, and reflections, and not getting too caught up in the particular project.

Co-creating is also on the upswing in which futurists are team members. Part of this growth comes from the growth of organizational futurists on the inside. In other cases futurists become a true part of the client team – it could involve co-locating, although the rise of virtual teams makes this less vital.

These roles are by no means mutually exclusive and we may do some of each of them. But maybe we have a preference? So, where do you fit?– Andy Hines