How can I incorporate anticipation into our daily practices and decision-making?

It is common for people in organisations to find that their daily work leaves little time for comprehensive, explicit and disciplined anticipation. But the future is coming and today’s decisions are consequential in it—whether or not we take time to engage with that fact. We get the future we deserve!

The answer to this question is, in part, a matter of the anticipatory activities chosen vis-a-vis organisational commitment and governance. The cases included in Anticipatory Innovation Resources make reference to both.

For anticipatory activities, there are numerous techniques and approaches that allow individuals and organisations to more fully engage with the future and many of them can be scaled according to the time available. Examples include quick horizon scanning activities such as those in the Foresight Training Manual of Policy Horizons Canada or short rounds of the game The Thing From the Future. These approaches show that there can be value, even in very short interventions. Some of the values identified by those who have experienced such interventions are listed in the page “How can I demonstrate the value of anticipation, and how can I evaluate anticipatory work?“.

For organisational commitment and governance, a full analysis can be found in the OECD’s report “Anticipatory Innovation Governance”. Case studies included in the Anticipatory Innovation Resources highlight many of the factors for success identified in that report, including:

• Supportive institutional structures
• Organisational capacity
• Learning loops
• Networks and partnerships