In a world where traditional decision-making frameworks are showing their limitations, the need is growing for knowledge, tools, and processes that enable more effective long-term thinking in decision-making. Yet the foresight field, like the future it seeks to explore, is not shielded from the forces of change.
Blending foresight method and theory with practical insights, Using the Future: Contributions to the Field of Foresight showcases the newest foresight-related thinking from CIFS.
A New Framework for Anticipatory Leadership, Lasse Jonasson
There’s a paradox at the heart of many leadership practices today. While leaders have the responsibility of steering their organisations through times of change and uncertainty, few dedicate time or resources to systematically exploring what might lie ahead. By combining leadership theory with strategic foresight, futurist Lasse Jonasson introduces a framework for anticipatory leadership – designed to help executives match the way they lead to the world they are likely to inhabit.
Foresight Through Provocation, Simon Fuglsang Østergaard
Provocation is an integral part of foresight processes. It serves to push people out of the comfort of linear thinking, challenging established truths and forcing a reassessment of assumptions and worldviews. In the best case, it leads to an expansion of what feels possible and plausible. A new method developed by CIFS futurist Simon Østergaard – presented here in its ‘prototype’ stage – seeks to turn this implicit byproduct of foresight into an explicit and easily accessible method.
The Business of Foresight, Joanna Lepore
Foresight takes on different shapes depending on the domain in which it is practiced. In a corporate context, it faces unique set of challenges – among them, how to demonstrate value in ROI-driven environments and how to ensure it is seen as strategic necessity rather than mere inspiration. In this essay, CIFS associated partner Joanna Lepore offers her insights and lessons drawn from her extensive experience in the world of corporate foresight.
Governance for the Long Term, Thor Svanholm
Through the Declaration on Future Generations adopted in 2024, 143 UN member states committed to integrating foresight into governance. The question now is how they will do it. Examples from New Zealand, Finland, Singapore, Wales and others have shown the way forward. Yet even well-established frameworks remain vulnerable to shifting political whims. Lasting foresight in governance depends on embedding both institutional capacity and participatory practices in society at large.
AI-mediated Futures, Sofie Hvitved, Bugge Holm Hansen
As generative AI becomes more accessible and embedded in everyday tools, it’s worth asking what role it might play in the future of foresight itself. Could AI shift from simply supporting existing foresight practices to fundamentally reshaping how we think, explore, and engage with possible futures?
A Futurist Sits Down with a Prompt Engineer, Simon Fuglsang Østergaard
Recognising that futurists are not automatically expert users of the very technologies shaping the future, futurist Simon Østergaard sat down with Morten Ravn of the company AI Revolution to explore a provocative question: how well do today’s large language models measure up against professional futurists when it comes to crafting high-quality scenarios?
Foresight for Societal Resilience, Matias Barberis, Philine Warnke
Building resilient societies requires preparing for a range of plausible futures rather than optimising for a single version of it. When combined, foresight and resilience can strengthen society’s future orientation and, when anchored in participatory processes, its social fabric as well.
The Organisational Fabric of Time, August Leo Liljenberg
The relationship between time, perceptions of time, and organisational realities is both foundational and complex. In this conversation with Tor Hernes and Majken Schultz from the Centre for Organization and Time at Copenhagen Business School, we explore how time is not just a backdrop but an active force that shapes organisational life.
A Hybrid-Method Scenario Approach for Resilience, Martin Kruse
Crafting future scenarios is rarely a textbook exercise; the complexity of the real world demands pragmatic blends of methods. In our contribution to the FutuReseilience project, which aims to strengthen European economic and social resilience, CIFS applied a hybrid approach combining Jim Dator’s generic scenario archetypes with Herman Kahn’s pragmatism and windtunneling to the Bulgarian healthcare system. Project lead and futurist Martin Kruse explains the process.