Futures Triangle 2.0: integrating the Futures Triangle with Scenario Planning
ISSN: 1463-6689
Article publication date: 13 January 2020
Issue publication date: 20 March 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Futures Triangle 2.0, a methodological advancement of the Futures Triangle method (Inayatullah, 2008), which better integrates the original method with Scenario Planning by visually representing scenarios against the three dimensions of the Triangle, i.e. pulls, pushes and weights.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explains the theoretical rationale behind the creation of the method, outlines the steps required to use it in a futures workshop or in a futures research project with a step-by-step procedure and reports a case study of its application in practice.
Findings
The Futures Triangle 2.0 encourages a deliberate and systematic discussion on the three dimensions of the Futures Triangle in each scenario and on whether scenarios differ in these attributes. The method allows the foresight researcher/practitioner to capture the valuable tensions between weights on the past on one hand and pushes of the present/pulls of the futures on the other hand, and to make sure that the scenarios differ substantially in these three attributes.
Originality/value
The method integrates the Futures Triangle and Scenario Planning in an intuitive, easily reproducible and visually pleasant graphical procedure.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author is indebted to Prof. Song Zhaoli (NUS), Prof. Wang Guofeng (UESTC), as well as to Kanoleon Kiti, Tang Huidao, Ma Junwei, and all the other students who took part in the futures workshop here reported without whom this research would not have been possible.
Citation
Fergnani, A. (2020), "Futures Triangle 2.0: integrating the Futures Triangle with Scenario Planning", Foresight, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 178-188. https://doi.org/10.1108/FS-10-2019-0092
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited