Thinking about the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight

Thinking about the Future, by Andy Hines and Peter Bishop, distills the expertise of three dozen senior foresight professionals into a set of essential guidelines for carrying out successful strategic foresight. Presented in a highly scannable yet personable style, each guideline includes an explanation and rationale, key steps, a case example, and resources for further study. The 115 guidelines are organized into six sequential categories that mirror the phases of a strategic foresight activity: Framing, Scanning, Forecasting, Visioning, Planning, and Acting.

This second edition provided an opportunity to update the examples for the guidelines where they seemed dated. Otherwise, the original guidelines are intact, in the same place and order. The more significant change is the addition of a new section that provides specific “how-to” process advice to supplement the guidelines. We have been working on our approach to doing and teaching how to do foresight projects for the University of Houston Foresight Program since the book was published in 2007. The resulting “framework foresight” process is described in Section 7.0 Applying the Framework.

Executives will find both the guidelines and the framework invaluable for understanding what it takes to successfully explore the future, while analysts who actively carry out strategic foresight projects will find the book an indispensable reference that they turn to again and again.