building an emerging technology and futures capacity in your organization
TRANSCRIPT
Building an Emerging
Technology and Futures Capacity in
Your Organizatio
nEDUCAUSEEDUCAUSE
October 2015October 2015
1. Mindset2. Methods3. Organizational
layers4. Your thoughts
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1. Mindset Adding new habits of mind Allowing mental space to
step outside immediate crises and routine
Reduce reliance on history, a kind of path dependency
Be social about it3
2. Grappling with the future: 2. Grappling with the future: methodsmethods
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Environmental scan
•Trends identified, tested, projected
FTTE reports, January-December 2013FTTE reports, January-December 2013
Trend tracking and Trend tracking and analysisanalysis
Scenarios Scenarios Stories about futures Event and response Creativity
Roles and times Emergent practices
and patterns
Consume the literatureConsume the literature• Technology
writing• Education
writing• Popular culture• Science fiction• Design
Domain deep dive
Assemble experts Seminar-style
exploration Brainstorm and cross-
fertilize Multidimensional
forecasting 10
Syntheses and connections Syntheses and connections
Integrate methods Environmental scan->scenario
drivers Delphi reports -> Identify trends Test trends by extrapolation Environmental scan -> Identify
trends
3. Organizational layersStarting close by: Your department Campus populations
faculty support staff students
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3. Organizational layersFarther out: local community professional networks world at large
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Practical actionsPractical actions
Use methods in-house Nudge staff into becoming method
practitioners Use methods in campus community,
looking for expertise Check for institutional interest and
support (i.e., library futures collection)
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Practical actionsPractical actionsTake advantage of outside projects
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Practical actionsPractical actionsTrack trends and signals from the world
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Practical actionsPractical actionsObserve humans and their use of technologies
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Practical actionsPractical actions• Identify useful future-oriented people
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The futures-oriented The futures-oriented organizationorganizationWhat it looks like in process: Thinking of the future Gathering intelligence Working together with
futures methods
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The futures-oriented The futures-oriented organizationorganization Sharing observations +
ideas internally “ “ “ “ externally Collaborating with the
campus and beyond
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http://bryanalexander.org
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