Second to the stage was a ‘Reluctant Futurist’ namely Wendy McGuinness from Sustainable Future, an “independent think tank specialising in research and policy analysis.â€
Wendy spoke on “The Danger of Now†which, in summary, was about ensuring you take into account whereabouts you (or your project/strategy) fits in the grander scheme of things. Some takeouts from the talk were as follows:
There are three types of futures:
- Probable
- Possible
- Preferred
When testing a scenario or future one should:
- Define: Parameters, Trends, Drivers, Assumptions
- Explore: Uncertainties (and rank them)
- Build: Scenario Worlds / Write Stories / Test
- Use: Consider Implications / Review / Communicate
I found the talk to be somewhat disjointed, yet filled with amazingly wordy slides with paragraphs of text which may have reinforced a point if they had have been on screen long enough to read. It was always going to be tough to follow the first (very engaging) speaker – however, with some practice, feedback and basic presentation learning under the belt, this could have been a lot better received – so I hope I am not seen as being too harsh in my summary.
For another summary of the talk, click here to see what Missing Link said.