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We were discussing the value proposition last week, as we often do on the APF listserv. I thought we’d discuss a couple of related propositions that we emphasize at the Houston Foresight program. The first is that we often think of ourselves as hyphenated or hybridized futurists. That is, we have combine our foresight expertise with something else. That may be subject-matter related, such as being experts in the future of energy, supply, intelligence, public policy, the environment, etc.
We also teach a basic approach to exploring the future of any topic using an integrated modular process called (Framework Foresight). We acknowledged that futurists are more differentiated at the front (framing, scanning, Futuring/scenarios). But as long as we’re capable on the back end (whatever that might be), I think we offer a nice value proposition in terms of being able to integrate the two. If you will, plugging the output of a foresight or scenario project into a “traditional” strategy process, for example, has often been pretty clunky in my experience, so we’re trying to smooth that transition with the back end of our framework (visioning, planning, acting). At the same time we acknowledge that the back end is evolving as well, whether it’s traditional strategy, or innovation, or policy analysis, or design or……The old days of pure foresight where we stopped at the forecast/scenarios/mapping are pretty much over (if they ever really existed). I think we are hybrids by necessity, but aware of where our differentiation lies – up front and in the integration w/ whatever the back is. Andy Hines
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