New Training from Next Up & Emily Shipp, Futures Psychologist

Fact: Your bran is wired to think about the future – but not always in ways that serve you well.  Our instinct is driven by short-termism – whether, for individuals, cashing in for a smaller but instant reward today, or for business leaders, short-changing longer term strategy in favour of next quarter’s results.

Yet, in uncertain times, having a futures-ready mindset and the skills to navigate disruption is becoming an increasingly critical differentiator for brands and individuals.

Specifically, if not addressed, our natural limitations in imagining and analysing the future increase the likelihood of (among other things):

• Flawed planning and strategy building due to biased interpretation of signals – for example, ignoring those that don’t fit with our personal world view or assuming existing trends will just continue.
• Formulaic analysis of the future that lacks the creative stretch needed to identify genuine whitespace and/or new risks.
• Ineffective decisions today due to a disconnection with long-term potential futures.

For businesses with foresight workstreams that don’t prioritise futures psychology as much as futures practice, there is real risk of wasted investment. For example, in delivering futures work that doesn’t gain emotional investment and ownership from key stakeholders and isn’t sufficiently challenging or disruptive. Simply, you are spending on foresight that will not shift long-term commercial and cultural behaviours.

Recognising this disconnection and the potential pitfalls is the first step to nurturing a combined mind- and skillset that is optimised to anticipate and thrive in uncertainty.

With futures psychologist Emily Shipp, we are delighted to be pioneering bespoke training to help organisations better fuse futures psychology and futures practice. This will ensure a robust foundation for shaping your preferred future and taking the right decisions today for increased resilience tomorrow.

How futures-ready is your mindset? Consider:

• Do your leaders plan for the next quarter… or the next decade?
• Are your teams rewarded for reacting fast — or thinking long?
• When was the last time your strategy process unearthed previously unforeseen potentials?

If you’d like to discuss tailored training to bridge futures psychology and practice in your organisation, to shape a culture and behaviours that are futures-ready or drive more value from your foresight, we’d love to hear from you …