Exploring Potential Futures by Imagining If…

Understanding, preparing for, and influencing the future requires foresight

“Exploring potential futures” is a phrase we use to describe our futures and foresight process to help organizations understand, prepare for, and even influence the future. But what does that exploration look like? In this video, we share one tool we use: our Imagine If… exercise.

The exercise starts with a single premise about the future, which we use to identify second- and third-order impacts of the original premise.

Imagine if…autonomous vehicles are the dominant form of transportation

In this example, we explore the potential follow-on effects of a world where autonomous vehicles are the dominant form of transportation. After identifying a few obvious direct impacts, real insights evolve as we continue to stretch our imagination throughout the exercise.

Take, for example the “fewer auto accidents” direct impact – continuing down that path, we see impacts to hospital emergency room visits, a reduced demand for personal injury attorneys, and even increased incentives for developing new organ transplant sources.

Exploring each branch by continually asking “if this happens, then what could happen next?” supports the futures and foresight process by showing how one key change is a catalyst for a wide range of opportunities and challenges for an organization.

This exercise, combined with Toffler Associates’ 25 years of foresight experience, can help your organization see into the future and take steps to respond today. Let us help you Imagine If…