Future Trends
This method helps groups identify and prioritize key trends that will impact their industry in the next 3 years. By exploring the opportunities and challenges these trends present, teams can develop proactive strategies for the future.
Use this method when you need to help a team anticipate future changes, identify potential business opportunities, and develop strategic responses to emerging trends.
Solves: Lack of strategic foresight, reactive decision-making, failure to adapt to changing market conditions.
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Step 1: Introduce the workshop's purpose, emphasizing the focus on transformative trends and organizational responses. (5 minutes)
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Step 2: Conduct a 'Stinky Fish' exercise to surface anxieties and uncertainties about the future. Frame the context around digital impacts. (20 minutes)
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Step 3: Facilitate a brainstorming session across four categories: Business, User Behavior, Talent Demands, and Technology. Allocate 5 minutes per category. (20 minutes)
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Step 4: Guide the group to prioritize the identified trends using dot voting. Each participant gets 8 votes. (5 minutes)
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Step 5: Divide participants into smaller groups to explore the top three trends, focusing on opportunities, consequences, and potential risks. Provide a trend template for each group. (20 minutes)
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Step 6: Have each group present their findings and ideas to the larger group. (10-20 minutes)
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Step 7: Conduct a check-out, inviting each participant to share one positive insight about the future. (5 minutes)
- Provide examples of trends to stimulate brainstorming, especially if the group is struggling to get started.
- Emphasize the difference between trends and fads to ensure the discussion focuses on lasting changes.
- Use different categories for brainstorming, depending on the industry or focus of the workshop.
- Incorporate external research or expert opinions to inform the trend identification process.