How can we do a better job of anticipating the real future, with all its twists and turns? Enter strategic foresight, the systematic process of scanning for changes on the margins before they become major forces in the mainstream. Humanities Tennessee’s Shared Futures Lab is hosting three professional development workshops in West, Middle, and East Tennessee. Participants will gain an overview of what strategic foresight is and learn to nurture their inner futurist to help their organization plan for the future.
Elizabeth Merritt, VP of Strategic Foresight at the American Alliance of Museums & Founding Director of the Center for the Future of Museums will lead these workshops. The goal of this professional development opportunity is to provide practitioners with tools to imagine the future, manage uncertainty, take action, and integrate foresight into their operations. As the Center for the Future of Museums explains in Strategic Foresight: A Toolkit, “Foresight helps organizations create a portfolio of actions to deploy as needed and identify strategies that may succeed in a wide variety of circumstances.” Humanities Tennessee will also provide participants with the toolkit to take these practices back to their organizations.
Workshops will be held the week of August 19, 2024, from 9:30-4:30 local time at the following locations:
- Monday, August 19: Museum of Science and History, Memphis
- Wednesday, August 21: Tennessee State Museum, Nashville
- Friday, August 23: East Tennessee Historical Society, Knoxville
Out of these workshops, Humanities Tennessee will convene a Shared Futures Lab cohort from statewide participants to chart the course for later projects.
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“If you spend time thoughtfully looking around, you’ll see little clues, signals of things that might become mainstream practice in the future. By being aware of them now, you can become an early adopter. Or be better prepared to adopt it when it becomes right for your organization.”
Elizabeth Merritt