As well as giving detailed descriptions of the most common Futures tools and how to use them, the Futures Toolkit contains unique outlines of seven “pathways”. The idea is that to achieve a particular objective it will often be necessary to use several tools in succession: the pathways explain how to do that.
There were pathways in the previous edition of the Toolkit, but the interactive nature of the new design makes them much easier to use.
The seven pathways vary from short exercises to gather information to quick policy-development planning to “full-fat” thorough plans that may take several months to complete.
Each pathway is made up of several tools, coloured-coded to indicate whether they are answering “What is happening?”, “So what does that mean for us”, and “What do we do next?”. Clicking on the pathway number takes you through to a detailed description of what is involved and what tools to use. Clicking on the tool chevron takes you to the explanation of the tool itself.
Once you have arrived at a tool description, the title page shows the numbers of the pathways in which it is used, so that it is easy to return to the pathway and then move on to the next tool. Some tools are used in most pathways; others only in a few.
Of course it’s not necessary to follow a particular pathway – you can use the tools in whatever way you like. But they do help you structure your overall Futures project to achieve a particular goal and get an idea on how long the whole thing will take.
Written by Huw Williams, SAMI Principal
The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily of SAMI Consulting.
Achieve more by understanding what the future may bring. We bring skills developed over thirty years of international and national projects to create actionable, transformative strategy. Futures, foresight and scenario planning to make robust decisions in uncertain times. Find out more at www.samiconsulting.co.uk.
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