FORESIGHT AND DECISION-MAKING

About this Course

This course is designed for anyone interested in exploring novel approaches to decision-making related to transformative change and potential future scenarios and opportunities. It delivers a detailed insight into the critical elements, approaches, methodologies, techniques and phases of foresight that are required to create a variety of future perspectives and alternative futures, while demonstrating how the implications and challenges of such outcomes impact decision-making structures and practices. In addition, it considers the specifics of foresight in terms of dealing with discontinuity rather than evolutionary change, the multiple dimensions of change, the application of emerging decision-making devices, data science and artificial intelligence tools and platforms and other support technologies, sensemaking, and human-machine interaction and interfaces. It answers the questions of how exploring future scenarios and untapped potential influences innovation decision makers in their planning, choices and actions to optimise opportunities and overcome challenges. Or how business leaders prepare for what lies ahead and develop multi-horizon leadership strategies and capabilities.

Learning Objectives

• Familiar with important concepts of foresight/futures studies and some of the basic understanding and skills required to shape future vision and potential future scenarios.
• Capable of dealing with multiple realities simultaneously, while understanding the broader perspectives about emerging issues, weak signals, trends, disruptors, influences and their implications for a plausible or preferred futures and their impact on decision-making structures and processes
• Able to “think the unthinkable” by dismantling current assumptions, working with abstraction and paradoxes and developing new paradigms and worldviews
• Knowledgeable about how essential everyday concepts and context significantly change over time
• Participant readiness to adapt to and adopt change and to deal with the unexpected, discontinuous change of multiple types
• More future focused in their professional endea
• Able to describe the benefits of foresight thinking for any job or task at management level while providing/contributing responsible solutions for appropriate decision-making and resilience-building structures, approaches and tools
• Able to develop and utilize advanced decision-making processes for foresight and its outcomes
• Have full awareness of future-focused decision-making approaches, processes and tools that leverage emerging technologies to better understand and evaluate futures scenarios, strategies and projects

Learning Outcomes

• Describe the various approaches to foresight/futures studies
• Explain why foresight can deliver actionable strategies, scenarios and direction for the longer-term future and sustainable growth that informs and facilitates strategic decision-making
• Demonstrate a process for anticipating futures that cannot be predicted
• Be familiar with decentralized thinking techniques
• Appreciation of paradoxes—loss and gain, vulnerability and strength
• Apply outcomes to a specific enterprise, opportunity or challenge
• Begin to understand the process of creating change by influencing the future through scenario building, creativity, and visualization techniques
• Contribute to the development of advances, future-relevant decision-making structures, approaches and tools combining human and machine solutions