Scenario planning and looking forward

A large, wooden table dominates the center of a modern, sunlit co-working space, adorned with hand-drawn maps, vibrant flip charts covered in colourful sticky notes, and team members dressed in casual, yet professional attire, leaning over in engaged discussion, surrounded by large windows flooding ...

Explore plausible futures, stress-test strategies, and spot potholes before you drive into them—always face-to-face, collaboratively, and with what most digital frameworks ignore.

This choreography helps teams peek around the corner of tomorrow while acknowledging human limits, blind spots, and the state of the world. It combines structured foresight with obliviousness and congruence: surfacing assumptions, misalignments, and gaps between expectation and reality.

The flow

  1. Define the focal issue — choose the core question or challenge your organisation wants to explore.

  2. Identify driving forces — map external factors (technological, economic, political, social) shaping the future.

  3. Spot critical uncertainties — surface unknowns that could radically alter outcomes.

  4. Develop scenarios — sketch distinct, plausible futures.

  5. Build narratives — craft vivid stories showing how events, behaviours, and consequences might unfold in each scenario.

  6. Reflect and act — explore implications, plan strategic responses, and prepare for multiple possible futures.

  7. Monitor & adapt — track trends and revisit assumptions, keeping strategies responsive and alive.

Each step produces valuable insight on its own, yet together they create a robust, self-correcting foresight practice. By making assumptions, gaps, and incongruences visible, teams gain confidence in navigating uncertainty—without the illusion of omniscience.

Curious where to begin? Use a free connection call to get a taste of strategic foresight.