Foresight Tools
We have spent more than a decade researching, modeling, testing and refining the Future Today Institute’s forecasting methodology and tools.
Part of our mission at the Future Today Institute is to democratize the tools of futurists in order to empower everyone to actively plan for tomorrow. To that end, we make some of our strategic thinking frameworks and tools freely available to enable anyone to create their own preferred futures.
STRATEGIC THINKING FRAMEWORK
10 Sources of Change
Technology does not evolve on its own, in a vacuum. Even the most forward-thinking innovators are still grounded in reality, tethered to other areas of society. Trends are subjected to and shaped by external forces. Just as it’s useful to organize our thinking along a chronological path through time zones, it’s important to categorize the various dimensions of our everyday life, with technology as the primary interconnector.
In order to forecast the future of anything, you must listen for signals across these ten sources of change. Download this strategic thinking framework.
PROTOTYPING TOOL
Botness Scale
Is your organization planning to build an AI-powered chatbot? You must plan in advance for the future for voice recognition and speech. When developing your bots, we recommend that you rate your bot using the probabilities of future problems before deployment. Use this scale to rate your bot on its impact—and to determine, in advance, whether or not you’ve accidentally encoded bias into your system. Rate your bot on a scale of 0 - 10, with 10 being the highest (and preferred) score.
FUTURES FORECASTING TOOL
Trend Impact Matrix
The FTI Trend Impact Matrix helps determine what action to take on an emerging trend. Use it after completing the first five steps of FTI's forecasting methodology: 1. fringe sketch, 2. hidden pattern recognition (CIPHER), 3. asking questions to check your work, 4. calculating timing and 5. building out scenarios.
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT TOOL
Trends Map
Our Trends Map Template helps our clients and partners develop their strategy for the future. Teams work through all of FTI's forecasting steps, thinking through both the trajectory of the trend and how to take meaningful action.
STRATEGIC THINKING TOOL
Future Workforce Disruption
This calculus for future workforce disruption describes how to think about areas ripe for disruption in your community. For example, we know that automation will impact factory workers, but the practical realities of that disruption will vary around the world.
