The Future vs. Futures

“Groupthink” is a powerful social process that often shuts out alternative viewpoints. Foresight exercises can struggle to get beyond the usual linear ‘future’ to examine ‘futures’, covering more than one outcome.

In foresight, though, futures should be plural. We should look at multiple alternative possibilities. Futures, for example, can be probable, plausible, possible, or projected. The preferred ones are those that stakeholders aspire to create together.