by Clem Bezold
ABSTRACT
Futures work must help in better understanding and creating the future. This requires appropriate techniques for understanding changes in the macroenvironment, the operating environment and the organization or community at hand. It also requires a shared vision for the organization or community. The Institute for Alternative Futures has evolved “aspirational futures” as a set of techniques to enable this. While it shares similarities with other approaches to futures work, it emphasizes scenario development that includes likely, challenging and visionary scenarios.