The new Futures Toolkit produced by the Government Office for Science in conjunction with SAMI Consulting, has been launched! Here's the launch video by Professor Dame Angela McLean, DBE FRS, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser.
Tom Wells, Deputy Director, Technology Insights, Futures & Foresight, said “We are very pleased that with SAMI’s help and comprehensive experience of using Futures tools we now have a fresh, easy to use Futures Toolkit, with a valuable set of supporting resources that Futures teams across Government and beyond can readily use in their explorations of the future.”
The Futures Toolkit was launched with a video by Professor Dame Angela McLean, DBE FRS, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser. We're really proud of this - the team from SAMI Consulting worked on it for over a year, taking the first Toolkit and radically, comprehensively rewriting, redesigning, adding depth and experience.
The Toolkit is structured around three main sections:
- An Introduction that takes you through the basics of futures thinking, including identifying a Scoping Question, particular issues of facilitating Futures workshops and ensuring impact. This section also describes seven “pathways” – collections of tools you can use to achieve particular goals.
- Descriptions of each of the 12 main tools, grouped to answer “What is changing?”, “So what for our future?” and “Now what do we do?”. We wrote, and agreed with the GO-Science team, a description for each tool, covering what the tool does, what the output is, who to involve, and how long it takes to do. The description also identifies what to watch out for and how to include more perspectives. It then walks you through the steps you take to complete the task and a brief case study.
- A section of “Further materials” discussing widening participation, experiential techniques and more advanced scenario building.
There is a unique Resource Bank that contains draft workshop facilitation worksheets built on SAMI’s own experience of running Futures workshops and designed for you to tailor to your own circumstances. The Case Study bank includes descriptions of applications of each of the Tools – provided by teams across the UK government and beyond. These are accessed via external links enabling GO-Science to keep them regularly updated.
And the final result has been getting great feedback since its soft launch earlier this year. For instance:
"We have loved collaborating with GO-Science over the years, from genomic science to the future of the subsurface to planning for our ageing population. For any policymakers interested in the role of futures in policymaking, we recommend checking out their radically refreshed Futures Toolkit" – Policy Lab.
“A big part of foresight is building on the analysis of others, and the Seven Pathways in the toolkit show the power of stacking these techniques together. This isn't something I've seen before so clearly. It means that we can follow something from understanding right through to action, all done in a collaborative way. That final step to action is too often missed, or rushed. Given the findings of the Covid Inquiry, the Liaison Committee report on strategic thinking, the UN Declaration on Future Generations and the start of a new government, this is a timely release” – James Ancell, Head of Futures and Foresight, Joint Data and Analysis Centre.
“Great to see the refresh of GO-Science's Futures Toolkit, I particularly welcome the inclusion of participatory and experiential techniques this time round” – Laurie Smith, Head of Foresight Research, Nesta.
It's a really important moment for SAMI - it proves our depth, experience, and quality.
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