Writing the Future
Strategic foresight is an organizational planning method that helps anticipate and prepare for future challenges and opportunities. The approach involves systematically exploring predictions and possibilities to inform decisions, developing a strategic view of the future. Unlike traditional forecasting, which often relies on simply extrapolating current trends, strategic foresight incorporates a broader range of potential future …
Technology forecasting is a process that involves predicting the future characteristics, development, and impacts of technologies. It helps organizations, governments, and individuals anticipate technological changes and make informed decisions to leverage future advancements effectively. The primary goal of technology forecasting is to provide a vision of the future technological landscape, allowing stakeholders to plan and …
Technology scouting is a systematic process used by organizations to identify emerging technologies that can drive innovation, growth, and competitive advantage. It involves actively searching for new technological developments outside of the organization’s current knowledge base. This process often includes monitoring academic research, patents, startups, industry trends, and competitor activities to uncover potential technological advancements …
Anthro-Vision: A New Way to See in Business and Life by Gillian Tett is an exploration of how anthropology can offer valuable insights into the business world and everyday life. Tett, an anthropologist and journalist, argues that understanding cultural and social contexts can lead to better decision-making, innovation, and problem-solving. She draws on her extensive …
Reference class forecasting is a method used to predict the outcomes of projects by comparing them to similar past projects, known as the reference class. This approach is designed to address the common issue of optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation in project planning. By relying on historical data and actual outcomes of comparable projects, reference …
Optimism bias is a cognitive bias that causes people to believe that they are less likely to experience negative events and more likely to experience positive events compared to others. This bias leads people to overestimate the probability of positive outcomes and underestimate the likelihood of adverse outcomes in their lives. The concept is rooted …
Pessimism bias is a cognitive bias where individuals overestimate the likelihood of negative outcomes and underestimate the likelihood of positive ones. This bias leads people to expect the worst-case scenario more often than is really warranted, which can affect their decision-making and overall outlook on life. Unlike optimism bias, which fosters an overly positive perspective, …
Environmental scanning is the process of systematically examining the external environment to identify and analyze trends, opportunities, and threats that could impact an organization. This practice involves continuously monitoring various external factors such as economic conditions, technological advancements, regulatory changes, and social trends. By gathering and interpreting this information, organizations can try to understand the …
An interesting way to think about note taking: the CODE concept from Tiago Forte. CODE stands for capture, organize, distill and express. Capture refers to saving the ideas and insights worth saving. That is, not the whole book you’re reading, but the really important themes and concepts that resonate with your work. Organize is self-explanatory, …
PARA is another concept from Tiago Forte’s Build a Second Brain that I like. It stands for the four main categories of information in our lives: Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives. It’s a way to organize your notes and in my case, various to do lists. See also CODE. Roughly speaking: Projects are the short-term …