From our position as a world-leader in applying futures studies and foresight methodologies to specific societal and business challenges, the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies has designed a targeted applied strategic foresight course.
In the course, we upskill our course participants with a structured process for understanding dynamics of change, planning for alternative scenarios, and futures-orienting organisational strategy through applied strategic foresight and futures studies. The course is built around maximum engagement and actionable, hands-on learning, with the right blend between relevant theory and tangible strategic foresight tools for your professional work. Our course facilitators bring their knowledge and expertise from working daily with strategic foresight and futures-oriented issues.
The course is a popular choice for decision-makers, innovation managers, strategic planners, business developers, designers, and people who want to get a head-start working strategically with the future.
In addition to our open courses, we also offer courses exclusively for your organisation or business if you want to work closely with your colleagues on learning how to apply strategic foresight.
Strategic foresight is not about making numerous wild (and often vague) guesses about the future. Rather, it is a structured process focused on guiding thinking, identifying opportunities, and building resilience in the face of uncertainty and complexity – thus improving organisational decision-making by considering alternative futures and challenging underlying assumptions.
The course guides participants through CIFS' approach to applied strategic foresight. The core modules covered in the course are:
Using the Future - Become familiar with how to “use the future” through strategic foresight, and why the capability to develop insights about future alternatives to guide strategic thinking has never been more important.
Exploring dynamics of change - Learn the process of exploring dynamics of change as the “bedrock”-practice of strategic foresight, e.g. by applying the Futures Triangle as an explorative tool.
Discovering key strategic uncertainties - Learn how to identify and make sense of the uncertainties that matter the most by understanding the degree of uncertainty surrounding impactful strategic issues.
Building futures scenarios - Learn how to frame and develop robust alternative futures scenarios and discover alternative futures perspectives that have relevance for decision-making.
Transitioning from foresight to strategy - Learn how to understand the strategic implications of alternative futures and how to transition into futures-informed strategic decision-making.
The course is facilitated live-online in four sessions, with 3,5 hours per live session (including 30-minute break).
The course consists of a mixture of live-online instruction and hands-on online workshop activities facilitated by CIFS advisors/futurists with years of global experience. Throughout, we will contextualise and discuss what we have learned.
Seats are limited to secure close interaction and feedback in the group.
We offer different options tailored to different time zones. We add new course dates on a rolling basis. The following course dates are currently available:
To sign-up and secure your seat, please add the course date of your preference to the cart and proceed to checkout.
For Futures Partners and Futures Members, please sign-up using the special sign-up form here.
In case of cancellation, please read our course cancellation policy.