Foresight: A wonderful promise but a less tempting investment.

Why companies are reluctant to invest in this methodology, and what we can do about it.

Foresight is a pretty scary word. It's somewhat magical, and at the same time difficult to ground it to our everyday work or reality. Not only the name of the framework seems a bit diffuse, but the process and outcomes seem hard to materialize into practical solutions that can be applied to services in the short term, and in a world where Agile and Scrum reign, it seems somewhat incompatible, so what we can do about this? How can we introduce foresight in a way that it can be compatible and enriching for companies existing processes and needs? What key points do we need to consider?

“Using foresight processes can look deceptively simple. There are however, a set of foresight principles common to all good foresight work even though there is no universal agreement about how they are described or understood.” (Conway, Maree. Foresight Infused Strategy: A How-To Guide for Using Foresight in Practice, 2016)

1. The first big barrier lies here. People like at least some level of certainty, and the idea of a diffuse process or practice does not put anyone at ease. Although there are five steps that define what must be done, it is less clear on the how…