How to Assess Your Organisation’s Readiness for Futures Thinking Success.
Change isn’t just a part of doing business—it’s a constant. But with rapid technological advancements, shifting economic landscapes, geopolitical tensions and evolving customer behaviours, the challenge for today’s leaders isn’t merely surviving this change—it’s staying ahead of it. Organisations that can anticipate and adapt to change gain a significant competitive edge. That’s where the Futures Thinking Readiness Assessment comes in.
This comprehensive assessment tool asks 12 questions to provide organisations with the ability to evaluate how well-equipped they are to anticipate, prepare for, and shape their futures. By identifying gaps in leadership alignment, futures thinking capabilities, adaptability, and resource allocation, it offers valuable insights for taking actionable steps toward building organisational resilience and agility.
If you’ve been wondering how your organisation can better position itself to thrive amid uncertainty, this assessment can be the starting point you need to transform challenges into opportunities.
The Purpose of the Futures Thinking Readiness Assessment.
At its core, the Futures Thinking Readiness Assessment is designed to support leaders tasked with making high-impact decisions in an increasingly complex and unpredictable world.
It aligns with insight & foresight's A Futures Thinking Engagement Framework creating a powerful futures thinking development system. Completing the assessment helps you understand how to define your current capabilities and make the best use of A Futures Thinking Engagement Framework.
Much like strategic planning defines a roadmap for success, this assessment enables organisations to answer critical questions that determine their readiness for their futures, such as:
Are we aligned on a clear, unified vision for our futures?
Are we effectively monitoring and interpreting trends shaping our industry?
Can we adapt quickly and decisively when market disruptions occur?
Do we have the resources, tools, and skills to apply futures thinking effectively?
By tackling these questions head-on, the assessment serves as a powerful diagnostic tool, allowing organisations to pinpoint their maturity levels in key areas, uncover opportunities for improvement, and take actionable steps to get ready for a range of futures.
What’s more, this tool is applicable across industries—from finance and healthcare to technology and consumer goods—offering a tailored yet universal approach to enhancing futures thinking capabilities.
Futures Thinking is Strategic Thinking.
Good strategy starts with good strategic thinking. This is especially true in today’s fast-paced, interconnected world where all futures are highly uncertain. In times of change, optionality becomes crucial for success. Futures thinking expands an organisation's breadth of options by considering a larger set of possible futures and looking at what response options could be available in these alternate scenarios. This helps leaders move away from the traditional linear thinking process bounded by historical data and instead adopt a more open, exploratory mindset. By incorporating futures thinking into their strategic thinking, leaders build a more resilient and adaptable decision-making process, and create better strategy.
Key Attributes of the Futures Thinking Readiness Assessment.
The assessment asks 12 questions structured across four core attributes, each focusing on a critical element of futures thinking readiness.
Attribute 1. Leadership & Vision Alignment.
Why it matters:
Successful organisations require cohesive and aligned leadership to drive long-term success. Misalignment leads to silos, fragmented decision-making, and missed opportunities.
What it assesses:
Clarity and communication of a unified vision across leadership teams.
Leadership’s ability to prioritise long-term strategic objectives over short-term gains.
Adoption of new methodologies like futures thinking to guide decision-making.
Attribute 2. Futures Thinking Capabilities.
Why it matters:
The ability to anticipate trends and disruptions is foundational to making informed, future-ready decisions.
What it assesses:
Use of tools like trend analysis, scenario planning, and horizon scanning.
Delegation of responsibilities for monitoring and synthesising emerging signals.
Balance between data-driven insights and creative approaches to forecasting.
Attribute 3. Adaptability to Change.
Why it matters:
The ability to adjust quickly to regulatory, operational, or market changes often determines whether an organisation thrives or falters.
What it assesses:
Speed and effectiveness in responding to market and industry shifts.
Empowerment of employees to contribute meaningfully during transitions.
Regular review processes to improve decision-making frameworks.
Attribute 4. Resource Availability.
Why it matters:
A future-ready organisation needs more than great ideas—it requires the budget, expertise, and tools to bring those ideas to life.
What it assesses:
Investments in foresight activities, innovation, and research.
Availability of external partnerships for specialised expertise.
Accessibility of advanced technologies for data analysis and scenario planning.
Assessing futures thinking across these four attributes allows for a comprehensive understanding of an organisation's readiness to navigate uncertainty and drive futures thinking in a structured way. It highlights areas for improvement and identifies potential opportunities to strengthen the organisation's future readiness.
Assessment Ratings.
After completing the 12 questions in the Futures Thinking Readiness Assessment, participants are presented with an overall assessment score based on their responses. This score is an indicator of their organisation's readiness for futures thinking, with a higher score indicating a stronger understanding and application of key concepts. The assessment also provides a breakdown of scores across the four attributes: leadership & vision alignment, futures thinking capabilities, adaptability to change and resource availability. This allows organisations to identify specific areas where they may require further development to improve their overall readiness for futures thinking.
The Futures Thinking Readiness Assessment rates organisations across three levels:
Emerging Futures Thinking - Your organisation is beginning its futures thinking journey and has significant opportunities for growth.
Progressing Futures Thinking - Your organisation has a good foundation and will benefit from further alignment or resource planning to maximise the benefits of futures thinking.
Transforming Futures Thinking - Your organisation is highly ready to adopt and implement A Futures Thinking Engagement Framework at an advanced level. You’re well-positioned to leverage sophisticated foresight tools and methods in your strategy work.
A Futures Thinking Development System.
The Futures Thinking Readiness Assessment combined with A Futures Thinking Engagement Framework creates a futures thinking development system that supports businesses in building a future-ready mindset and culture. The assessment provides a baseline for where your organisation currently stands in terms of your futures thinking capabilities, while the framework offers a step-by-step process for building futures thinking capability and capacity throughout your organisation.
From Assessment to Futures Thinking.
The first step towards building a future-ready business is to assess your current state of readiness. Our Futures Thinking Readiness Assessment provides a comprehensive evaluation of your organisation's ability to anticipate and adapt to potential disruptions. With this assessment, you will gain valuable insights into areas where your company can improve its futures thinking capabilities.
From Futures Thinking to Actioning.
Once the assessment has been completed, insight & foresight can work with you to implement A Futures Thinking Engagement Framework aligned to your specific goals and needs. This framework includes customised activities, tools, and resources that will enable your organisation to be more agile, adaptive, and innovative in its decision-making processes. Our team at insight & foresight can also provide ongoing support and guidance to help you successfully implement the framework and see tangible results.
“Futures thinking without actioning is just unused creative thinking.”
It is important for organisations to take actionable steps towards incorporating futures thinking into their operations and decision-making processes AND use these outputs to deliver tangible results.
Calibrating A Futures Thinking Engagement Framework.
The results from the assessment both overall and for each attribute allow insight & foresight to calibrate the framework at three carefully defined stages: Stage 1. Understand, Stage 2. Analyse & Apply, Stage 3. Evaluate & Create.
Lets look at each stage in more detail:
Stage 1: Understanding.
This stage is all about putting in place the building blocks for futures thinking; searching and identifying signals of change that could impact your business, making sense of the signals you identify and starting to use foresight tools and methods to create scenarios. It's about setting the stage for futures focused decision making by developing a deeper understanding of the external forces and trends that could shape your business environment.
This stage aligns with the emerging futures thinking rating from the assessment.
Stage 2: Analyse & Apply.
In this stage, you will continue to enhance your signal scanning work and start to use scenario planning to explore the potential impact of the identified signals of change on your business. This step involves creating specific situations within the scenarios you have created and analysing how your company would respond to these situations. This analysis will help you to identify potential risks, opportunities, and key decisions that need to be made in order to navigate the future successfully. At this stage you should also be using your futures thinking outputs as data in our decision making.
We also encourage you to start introducing souvenirs into your work. These tangible objects, such as photos, magazine, postcards or mementos, can serve as reminders of your insights and help to keep the futures you explore in focus. They can also facilitate discussions and spark creative thinking among your team. Remember, innovation comes from fresh perspectives and open-mindedness.
This stage aligns with the progressing futures thinking rating from the assessment.
Stage 3: Evaluate & Create.
You should now have well developed futures thinking processes in place and be comfortable working through all components of the framework and applying your learnings to your decision making. Building on these systems and skills will see you cycling through the framework again and again, refining your strategies and adapting to changes. Your business will have an ongoing flow of robust futures thinking outputs that can be constantly evaluated and used to create innovative solutions and plans for your futures. You will be able to more confidently make decisions in the face of uncertainty, knowing that you have a strong foundation of strategic foresight.
This stage aligns with the transforming futures thinking rating from the assessment.
Space & Sparring.
A Futures Thinking Engagement Framework has 2 critical enablers that support robust futures thinking and are critical to high quality outputs.
Space - Creating space for futures thinking involves carving out time and resources to dedicate towards exploring potential futures. This means setting aside traditional methods of decision-making that may be constrained by short-term goals and immediate pressures. Instead, space allows you to take a step back and think more broadly about the possible paths your business could take. By prioritising space for futures thinking, you open up opportunities for creativity, innovation, and strategic planning. It also allows you to incorporate diverse perspectives and data sources into your decision-making process, leading to more robust outcomes.
Sparring - Sparring refers to the act of engaging with in robust and authentic conversations to explore alternate points of view and diverse opinions. It involves challenging assumptions and pushing boundaries to uncover blind spots and identify potential opportunities. By actively seeking out sparring partners, you can enhance your decision-making capabilities and gain valuable insights into emerging trends and market shifts.
At every stage of your futures thinking journey you should look to these enablers to support and expand your practice.
Benefits of A Futures Thinking Engagement Framework.
The benefits of using our framework include:
1. Strategic Clarity.
Gain a clear understanding of your organisation’s strengths and limitations across a range of futures. This clarity allows leadership teams to focus on priority areas and build a roadmap for improving results.
2. Leadership Cohesion.
Improve alignment across the leadership team, ensuring that every decision reflects a shared, long-term vision. A cohesive leadership team is better equipped to navigate uncertainty and inspire confidence across the organisation.
3. Enhanced Agility.
Develop the mindset, tools, and processes needed to adapt swiftly to unforeseen disruptions while staying focused on long-term objectives.
4. Innovative Opportunities.
Our framework encourages organisations to think beyond traditional boundaries, uncovering new growth opportunities and value creation through “what if” scenarios.
5. Long-Term Sustainability.
By embedding futures thinking into organisational processes, you position your business to thrive in a volatile, interconnected world.
These benefits of futures thinking are essential for long-term operational sustainability and success. They allow organisations to anticipate changes, plan for multiple scenarios, and take proactive steps towards shaping futures instead of merely reacting to them. This not only leads to a more resilient organisation but also fosters an innovative and forward-thinking culture that can drive growth and maintain competitiveness in the market.
Longitudinal Benchmarking of Futures Thinking Readiness.
Over time insight & foresight plans that the Futures Thinking Readiness Assessment will report data at an industry classification level. This data will be de-identified and aggregated in order to enable businesses to benchmark their readiness at an industry level and identify areas for improvement in futures thinking capabilities, resource allocation, and leadership alignment above industry averages. By participating in this assessment, participants will be amongst to the first to receive industry benchmarking data once data volumes have reached a sufficient level.
As our work evolves, the Futures Thinking Readiness Assessment will be continuously updated and improved through collaboration with our clients and industry experts. This means that by participating, you will also have the opportunity to shape and inform future versions of the assessment, ensuring its continued relevance and effectiveness for decision-makers and leaders.
Encouraging Proactive Foresight.
Whether your organisation is new to futures thinking or already implementing basic foresight tools and methods, the Futures Thinking Readiness Assessment offers a structured, meaningful way to evaluate your futures thinking maturity and discover areas for improvement. Combined with A Futures Thinking Engagement Framework, it provides a comprehensive system for developing and embedding foresight practices within your organisation.
Here’s why now is the time to act:
The pace of change is accelerating faster than ever.
New competitors and disruptions are entering every marketplace.
Futures thinking is no longer optional—it’s essential for strategic resilience.
How prepared is your organisation to lead with confidence amidst uncertainty?
Take the Next Step to Tomorrow, Today.
Futures don't wait. Equip your organisation with the tools to not only respond to change but to shape it.
Take the Futures Thinking Readiness Assessment today and start building a future-ready organisation capable of thriving in an ever-changing world.
References.
As always we are grateful to the thinkers and creators who have gone before us and provided a foundation for our work.
Grim, Terry. (2009). Foresight Maturity Model (FMM): Achieving Best Practices in the Foresight Field. Journal of Futures Studies. 13.
Grabtchak, A. Stucki, M. & Mäki-Teeri, M. “Building Foresight Capabilities: Introducing Futures Platform’s Foresight Maturity Model” @ https://www.futuresplatform.com/blog/foresight-maturity-model-developing-foresight-capabilities
Hines, A., & Bishop, P. (2006). Thinking about the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight. Washington, DC: Social Technologies.
Rohrbeck, R. (2010). Corporate Foresight: Towards a Maturity Model for the Future Orientation of a Firm. Heidelberg: Springer Science & Business Media.
Rohrbeck, R., & Kum, M.E. (2018). Corporate foresight and its impact on firm performance: A longitudinal analysis. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 129, 105–16.
