Life Conversations: Futurist

This moment is all you have - Ashish

Getting to work in the space of innovation and transformation, looking out and predicting future trends is an essential part of my role. However, we all know as humans; we are not the best predictor of the future. That does not stop us from planning and predicting specific hypothesis that we then work towards.

Here are some lessons I have learned doing this for years.

1. I will start with the most controversial thought here. An excellent futurist timeframe of thinking should be limited to ‘yesterday,’ not next 10-15 years. To predict the future, we have to update our hypothesis continually. What better input than what we learned yesterday? Futurism fails when we hold on too strongly to specific potential and not update it based on what we learned yesterday.

2. Futurist doesn’t spend all day thinking about the future. They use ‘the future’ as an excuse to think deeply. Questions like, what people are doing right now; where they are going; and what is making them do what they are doing? It is about carving time to ask such deep questions.

3. Thinking is an integral part of being a futurist. Reclaim holidays and weekends as distraction-free thinking zones. Walk, meditate, look out the window, watching humans go about their way, and write down observations that you can refer to in future.

4. Imperial College of London talks about the 3P - Past, Present, and the Probable Future. For all the three P’s, ask yourself what assumptions are you making and what is the basis of those assumptions?

'Futurist' is an attitude and approach rather than a title!