Foresight for Policy Development and Decision Making

Overview

Strategic foresight is an interdisciplinary field that uses a variety of tools and methods to explore how the future could evolve and what challenges and opportunities could emerge. Strategic foresight provides a solid foundation for policy analysis, strategy development and vision-building.

This course introduces participants to the foresight field and a core set of concepts and tools that have broad applicability. The course will help you see the issue as a system, identify the forces shaping it, explore the range of plausible futures, anticipate challenges and opportunities, and develop credible planning assumptions and strategies to cope with the uncertainties that lie ahead. Using the “learning-by-doing” approach, you will be able to share, explore, and test your understanding of how the world is changing and what it could mean for your organization. You will be exposed to a practical set of tools that are strategically useful in policy and decision-making.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand key concepts, processes, and basic terms in foresight.
• Use key foresight tools (inference, assumptions, domain map, scanning, change drivers, influence cascade mapping, system mapping, system-based scenarios, guided imaging and policy surprise diagrams).
• Understand how and when foresight can contribute to policy analysis and decision-making.
• Appreciate key considerations in preparing useful foresight.

Audience

• Anyone involved in policy analysis, strategic planning, decision support, risk assessment, or management will benefit from foresight to help them be more strategic. Suitable for both junior and senior professionals who want better tools to cope with uncertainty and complexity.

Duration

Cost

• $1095 (plus tax)

Featured Instructor

Peter Padbury is one of Canada's most experienced futurists. Over his career, he led hundreds of foresight projects that developed vision, policy and strategy with federal government departments, NGOs, business and UN agencies on a wide range of themes – from the future of primary health care in Asia to the future of the UN Security Council. Between 2008 and 2021, he was Chief Futurist at Policy Horizons Canada, one of the world's leading government foresight centers. At Horizons he led, co-led or coached a number of scanning and foresight projects using the 'Horizons Method", a unique foresight process especially suited to complex public policy questions.

Sessions