Future risks and opportunities toolkit

Building strategies for the future
Published in Tools on 9 May 2011

A set of 19 cards which describe different techniques and methods, and 3 diagrams, which explain the technique, when it may be useful, the amount of expertise the tools requires, the time the tool can take to work through, how many people may benefit from being involved and a ‘how to use’ guidelines.

What can this tool be used for?

When developing future focused strategies these tools will support you identify and analyse future risks and opportunities, by yourself or as part of a group.

How do you use it?

We’d suggest physical and mental space needs to be created, enabled and hosted for dialogue between people from a variety of organisations and backgrounds. This requires time, resources and commitment. Establishing this is sometimes not an easy task. Yet we’ve fund it to be integral to support people be open to experiencing alternative ways of relating to each other.

We’d also encourage people to use the 7 C’s of appreciative conversations (Dewar 2011) when utilising these cards.

Outcomes of using this tool

The approach you take and the environment you work in when engaging in these processes will affect the outcomes.

We anticipate this tool will encourage the use of futures thinking and analysis in order to make better decisions.