Covid-19 and the Role of a Futurist

Futurist Frank Diana leads Tata Consultancy Services’ Future of Business team.  When people ask his predictions about the future he often responds, “We don’t predict, we identify and consider possible scenarios.”  He is also fond of saying that most predictions made after a crisis are wrong.  It’s not picking one future scenario to place a bet on that is the role of a futurist, rather identifying many possible scenarios and then monitoring and tracking which are becoming more likely or not – given new and continuous inputs.

What then is the role of a futurist during a pandemic like Covid-19?  As a Futurist myself working on Frank’s team I can say we focus on how Covid-19 is altering the trajectory of various trends and acting as an accelerate or inhibitor to change.  The value of course is for leaders to use these insights to best position their businesses to succeed.

Everyone needs a toolbox, and futurists are no different.  The tools of our trade look like the following:

• Technology trends

• Business trends

• Societal trends

• Drivers of change

• Statistics

• Combinatorial data

• Trajectories

• Scenarios

• Impacts

• Events

• Implications

• Catalysts

• Accelerants

• Obstacles

• Convergence

• Tipping points

• Markers

• Accelerators

• Inhibitors

• Enablers

• Patterns

• Signals

• Paradigm altering shifts

To learn more about the meaning of these words watch this recent interview with Frank https://youtu.be/WVmODN1CMNA.

• Recognize the need for new paradigms

• Frame and reframe emerging concepts and innovations

• Rehearse scenarios

• Sense, respond and adapt to new information

• Identify transformational requirements

• Explore personal, societal and organizational resilience

• Recognize threats

• Identify opportunities

• Imagine possibilities

• Connect the dots

• Document trends and shifts

• Share the insights

• Frameworks for the future

• Emerging ecosystem frameworks and value

• New era structures

• Systems of engagement

• Digital transformation strategies

• Next generation productivity

• Next generation experimentation

• Ecosystem value designs

• Platform evolutions

• Changing consumer behaviors

The purpose of all this work is to recognize patterns, understand implications, anticipate impacts and then to align and realign to be as successful as possible.

Many organizations don’t have the resources to sponsor their own Future of Business practice internally, so our team tries to share as much of what we learn as possible on the following blog sites.  Please subscribe to any and all that look useful and relevant: