The Houston Archetype Technique (HAT) Explained

How do futurists turn research into a clear map of the future?

In this video, I put on my HAT. The Houston Archetype Technique is a method that plots archetypes across the Three Horizons framework. It’s a practical tool you can bring to your own work, whether you’re doing strategic planning or exploring a topic you care about. [Tip of the HAT to Jim Dator for the original archetype technique].

Here’s what we’ll cover:

What the Houston Archetype Technique is and where it came from
How it maps scenarios across the Three Horizons
The two transition pathways it identifies: Collapse to Transformation and New Equilibrium to Transformation
How guiding images set reasonable expectations for what the journey to transformation actually looks like.

We’ll walk through the technique using examples from my book Imagining After Capitalism, so you can see it applied to a real project and understand how you can use the HAT in your own foresight work.

Grab some popcorn — but don’t get too comfortable. We’re not just voyeurs of the future; we’re active participants in shaping it. — Andy Hines

About Andy Hines

Dr. Andy Hines is Program Coordinator at the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight, bringing together the experience he earned as an organizational, consulting, and academic futurist. He is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight.

Before that, he was Managing Director of Social Technologies/Innovaro, and served as an Adjunct Professor with the university since 2004. Hines enjoyed earlier careers as a consulting and organizational futurist. He was a partner with Coates & Jarratt, Inc., a think tank and consulting firm that specialized in the study of the future. He was also Futurist & Senior Ideation Leader at Dow Chemical with a mission of using futures tools and knowledge to turn ideas into new business opportunities. Before that, Hines established and ran the Global Trends Program for the Kellogg Company.

Hines is motivated by a professional hunger to make foresight practical and useful, and he believes that foresight can help deliver the insight that is so needed in today’s organizations and the world. His goal, he says, is to infect as many change agents as possible with this message. Thus, he has honed a skill set designed to make foresight more actionable in organizations.

In this pursuit, he has authored five books: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape (No Limits Publishing, 2011); Thinking About the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight (Social Technologies, 2007); 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society (Oak Hill, 1997); and Managing Your Future as an Association (ASAE, 1994) and has another in the hands of publishers: Teaching about the Future: The Basics of Foresight Education. He has also authored dozens of articles, speeches, and workshops, including the 2003 Emerald Literati Awards’ Outstanding Paper accolade for best article published in Foresight for “An Audit for Organizational Futurists” and the 2008 award for “Scenarios: The State of the Art.” He has appeared on several radio and television programs, PBS Houston, KRIV-26 News, and the CBS “Early Show.” He also co-founded and is former Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists.

About Andy Hines

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply