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Exploring futures

More than one future is possible.

Explore what could come next, develop a preferred direction and work back to what can begin now.

What this is about

Many decisions begin with a picture of the future we never consciously chose.

We all carry ideas about how things will unfold—or how they ought to. They can feel like facts when, in reality, they describe only one of several possible futures.

The next step in your career may seem obvious, even though you have never properly considered the life that would come with it. Self-employment may represent freedom, leadership may promise greater influence, or less responsibility may appear to offer relief. These images can provide direction. They can also obscure other possibilities.

Futures thinking is not about predicting a single outcome. It makes several possible futures concrete enough to change how you see the present. Which of them do you actually want? What might count against it? And what would need to begin now to make that future more likely?

When this perspective helps

When it is not only the next step that is unclear, but the direction itself.

More than one future feels possible.

There is no shortage of options. What is less clear is how they would actually differ—and which one offers a direction that feels right.

The obvious path is not the future you want.

Your career so far may point towards a logical next step. But the life or way of working that comes with it no longer feels convincing.

Change has made earlier assumptions about the future less certain.

Technology, organisations, markets or personal circumstances may have changed what seems realistic, desirable or sustainable.

You know what you want to move away from, but not what you want to move towards.

There are good reasons to change your current situation. But those reasons have not yet produced a clear picture of what you would prefer instead.

How we work with futures

Make the possibilities real, then work out what they mean for today.

Open up the possibilities. We look at what is changing and the different futures that could emerge. We also examine the expectations and assumptions that may be narrowing the view without being noticed. This makes it easier to see beyond the most obvious path.

Develop a preferred future. We bring each possibility into everyday life. What would your work, responsibilities, learning, relationships and pace of life look like? What would you gain? What would be difficult? What would need to be in place? Comparing them makes it clearer which direction feels worth pursuing—and could work in real life.

Work back to today. We start with the future you want and ask what would need to happen before it could become real. This turns a broad direction into practical next steps that can be tried, learned from and developed further.

Bringing it back to the present

The work starts now.

A future becomes useful when it changes how you see and act in the present.

We work backwards from the future you want. What decisions, experiences and relationships would have helped you reach it? What skills or room to manoeuvre would you need? What can you influence directly—and what would need to be observed, negotiated or tested first?

The first move might be a conversation, a change in responsibility, a time-limited experiment or a deliberate decision not to pursue something. What you learn helps sharpen the direction and clarify what should come next.

A direction that can evolve

A preferred future is a direction, not a fixed destination.

New developments, experiences and decisions will change what seems possible or worthwhile. We continue to test the direction against reality and adjust it as we learn. It provides orientation without closing down what becomes clearer along the way.

Several light paths branching through a dark space

Research

Anticipatory Literacy Coaching

The futures we imagine already shape the present—through what we expect, fear, hope for or regard as inevitable.

Once those influences are visible, the assumptions and stories behind them can be questioned. Small experiments can then show which new possibilities are worth developing.

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Contact

If you want to work out what you are moving towards.

Send me a few lines about what is happening and the possibilities you are considering. That is enough to begin.

Send an email