Five Principles for Thinking Like a Futurist

On the occasion of 50th anniversary of the founding of the Institute for the Future, Marina Gorbis (who has worked at IFTF for 20 years) recently shared five principles for thinking like a futurist:

• Forget about predictions.
• Focus on signals.
• Look back to see forward.
• Uncover patterns.
• Create a community.

As Gorbis puts it:

At its best, futures thinking is not about predicting the future; rather, it is about engaging people in thinking deeply about complex issues, imagining new possibilities, connecting signals into larger patterns, connecting the past with the present and the future, and making better choices today. Futures thinking skills are essential for everyone to learn in order to better navigate their own lives and to make better decisions in the face of so many transformations in our basic technologies and organizational structures. The more you practice futures thinking, the better you get.

Read the piece in full here.