The Burdens of Seeing the Future | Hinesight....for Foresight

Despite the foreboding title, this week I’m sharing a light “pop” article on me and the Foresight program at UH. It only took us eight years to get noticed :-). Whatever it takes, right? It is kinda fun to see how journalists/PR folks with no idea of what we do try to make sense of it. Like, what they choose to emphasize, such as “the burdens” … as I recall I laughed through most of the interview. I’m not a gloomy guy. And of course the ole crystal ball, hee hee. Overall it was very positive and useful and it’s nice to be noticed!

An excerpt to whet your appetite: “Futurist history, like all history, is worth knowing. The first official futurists started popping up after World War II, at first to assist in a more systematic approach to military planning. From there, futurists spread to the corporate sector. It wasn’t until the ’70s that futurists entered academia, aided by none other than my very own University of Houston, which in 1974 launched the Master of Science in Foresight program — the first of its kind. That’s where I studied the subject as a student and where I teach it today.” — 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