What is 'the future'?

We all have a different relationship with 'the future'.

Some people are fearful, some optimistic. Others say they never think about 'their future', but we all hold some type of emotional bond, with this thing, termed 'the future.'

So what then is 'the future'?

The dictionary defines it as; "The time yet to come", but this is hardly a satisfying capturing of the concept.

Because this definition is so deeply superficial, it's more useful to explore the notion in a bit more detail.

To start with, 'the future' is not a single destination, but rather is a broad reference to the unfolding continuum of time that lies beyond this present moment.

There are indeed multiple futures available to us that are shaped by the complex interplay of our own choices, chance, and change beyond our control.

For this reason these futures can also be thought of as the realm of possibility and really the only place we have any kind of influence in directing (try going back in time to change what has already happened).

Because these futures don't as yet exists, when working with futures your best exploration tools include anticipation (the existing conscious and subconscious pictures that you hold in your mind) and imagination (your ability to actively generate new visions of what you want, what you imagine might happen, what you believe will happen and things that you discover could happen.

You can now start to appreciate that our relationship with these futures is very much governed by our deeply held emotional and psychological response to the conscious and subconscious images that we hold onto in our minds - images that normally go unsurfaced and unchallenged throughout our lives.

These images can be enabling and empowering, or they can hold us back from ever achieving our potential. They can serve as the dreams we chase, or the shadow conspirator that keeps us from ever trying.

So working with futures is really a task that involves working with the relationship we have with these images.

Because...depending on our relationship with them, we are either motivated to act to create the future that we want, or we convince ourselves that the present will last forever (which obviously it doesn't) and make the choice to not make any change to our actions - believing that we will always receive the present result in response.

What you can also hopefully see through this rather lengthy explanation is the close connection between 'futures work' and 'strategy'.

Strategy is only as good, as the quality of the relationship the organisation has with the futures, to which it relates.