In 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic organisations had to plan and adapt within a week to move almost their entire workforce to remote working, and those who had to remain in ‘onsite’ environments had to quickly implement safety measures. This was an unprecedented global response that many organisations would not have foreseen and had to adjust their approach to planning. Uncertainty is a constant, and to thrive organisations and individuals need to develop the skills for futures and foresight planning, to plan for the unknown, and the known. This course introduces you to futures and foresight planning and explores different frameworks to develop your skills to plan for an uncertain future and considers how you can become a more sustainable organisation in the face of continuing change and evolving employee expectations. This course is part of the Supporting hybrid working and digital transformation collection, made possible by the Higher Educational Funding Council for Wales.
Overview
Syllabus
- Introduction
- Learning outcomes
- 1 Future possibilities
- 1 Future possibilities
- 1.1 Sustainable futures
- 1.2 The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015
- 1.3 Futures planning for the world today
- 1.4 Future trends of work
- 1.5 Future global trends and risks
- 2 Futures Planning and organisational strategy
- 2 Futures Planning and organisational strategy
- 2.1 Managing expectations
- 2.2 Mission, vision, values and objectives
- 2.3 Planning for new ways of working
- 3 Identifying and understanding your 'why'
- 3 Identifying and understanding your 'why'
- 3.1 Discovering your ‘Why’
- 3.2 Preparing the workshop
- 3.3 During the workshop
- Stage 1: Gather stories and share them
- Stage 2: Identifying your themes
- Stage 3: Draft and refine your ‘Why’ statement
- 3.4 ‘How’ and ‘What’
- 3.5 Developing the ‘How’
- 4 The complexity of problems
- 4 The complexity of problems
- 4.1 Sensemaking for futures planning
- 4.2 Cynefin – making better decisions
- 5 Approaches for Futures Planning
- 5 Approaches for Futures Planning
- 5.1 Three Horizons
- 5.2 The Oxford Scenario Planning Approach
- 5.3 Introduction to Islands in the Sky
- An invitation to work with uncertainty
- 5.4 Islands in the Sky – the methodology
- Stage 1: Purpose
- Stage 2: Transactional environment
- Stage 3: Value of the relationships
- Stage 4 Part A: Uncertainties
- Stage 4 Part B: Multiple Island sketch scenarios
- Stage 5: Review the opportunities and challenges
- Stage 6: Feedback and follow up
- 5.5 Islands in the Sky – a case study
- 5.6 Better Value Sooner Safer Happier
- 5.7 Choosing an approach
- 6 Developing options – a systems thinking approach
- 6 Developing options – a systems thinking approach
- 6.1 Systems thinking tools
- 7 Agreeing the option
- 7 Agreeing the option
- 7.1 Data driven decisions
- 7.2 Stakeholder acceptance
- 7.3 What do you need to progress the plan?
- Conclusion
- References
- Acknowledgements
