Principle: Energy

Institutions are composed of people. They are cultural and social sites that do change and grow over time. They are also sites of power and often driven by habit. Foresight is not greatly valued in many working contexts, as too much time is spent dealing with the problems on the immediate horizon. The future when driven by litany (the day to day) is often simply this afternoon or tomorrow.

Foresight releases the creative and cultural potential of institutions. Foresight involves:

• Mapping futures trajectories
• Identifying whose futures are dominant, whose are peripheral
• What are the weights and pushes that define our present context?
• What emergent issues are identifiable
• What wild cards might we anticipate?
• Strategic hope – aligning our vision with today’s practice
• Playing out scenarios to open up the future
• How do we measure progress towards our goals: Organisational indicators
• Inner and outer futures – mapping agency and structure
• Integral futures work
• Hidden futures – exploring those below-the-horizon forces that tell the deep stories of our institutions

Marcus runs a range of processes that facilitate the development, strengthening and expansion of institutional foresight.

Services: Children and Education : Institutional Change : Transformations :Spirit and the Everyday : Community Building : Institutional Foresight