For many years and several moves, I have kept a small collection of issues of Newsweek magazine that were published in 1989. That was not only the year I moved from high school to college, but also one where the … Continue reading CoupCast: An AI Predicts Revolutions
A visit at a small Californian cemetery end of November reminded me of a technique from my Foresight Mindset book that helps you focus on your next steps. We often get swamped in our daily routines and things to do, … Continue reading Eulogy from the Future
No need to read the tea leaves or look into the crystal ball. The future is surprisingly well forecastable. When we identify signals and trends, and can see building blocks, and combine them with drivers, assumptions and motivations, they can … Continue reading Discovering Drivers And Assumptions With The STEEP Methodology
Some lectures and workshops brought me to Europe the whole month of May. I also “had” to go to France and Mallorca. While I usually use the train or the plane for longer distances, this time I also had a … Continue reading Between physical quality and digital necessity
Asking questions is what distinguishes humans from primates. Even before children can speak, they start asking questions. The nature of the questions changes with age. Initially, the questions are in the form of “What is that?” then change to “Why … Continue reading Asking A Beautiful Question
A technique that helps to show the intended and unintended impact of new products and services is the future wheel. In the center is the circle with the product under consideration. The immediately adjacent circles represent the desired direct impacts … Continue reading Futures Wheel And 1st, 2nd and 3rd Order Changes [VIDEO].
What is Future Benchmarking and why is it important for organizations when developing products and services? Imagine a competitor is launching a new product or service and you want to launch the same. To do this, you analyze the competitor’s … Continue reading Future Benchmarking [VIDEO]
The future does not come out of nowhere, it builds on existing building blocks that already exist. Mankind has created a vast number of such building blocks in its history. With each additional building block, the combination possibilities increase and … Continue reading Combining Signals
In 1922, two Columbia University researchers compiled a list of 140 inventions and discoveries where the inventors, independently of each other, without knowing about each other, in different countries or even on different continents, had made the same invention or … Continue reading Lego and How to Forecast the Future
As soon as we talk about trends in public, we can easily predict that we will hear a comment like this: “That’s just hype!” And we are immediately gnawed by doubts as to whether the person is right, whether we … Continue reading Hypes versus Trends