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“… as a Foresight practitioner, we look at the possibilities, the alternatives and not […] exactly what’s going to happen. [We’re not saying], “This is the future.” But we’re saying, “The future could be many things, so what do we do now to best prepare ourselves for those outcomes?  ” – Leah Zaidi

 

Leah Zaidi, Founder, Multiverse Design

“… I think the simplest way I can describe it is that it’s a combination of intent and integrity – saying what you’re going to do and then doing what you’re going to say. And in the middle spot between intent of doing something on purpose and integrity, having something to stand on following through something like reflection, you know, why you’re doing it and the willingness and the readiness to reflect on the action both during and after.”

 

On the dangers of dismissing Dystopias

“There’s a number of reasons why we should pay close attention to Dystopias. A lot of people don’t want to because that’s the depiction of the negative future, as opposed to the bright, happy stuff that we all really want. But the fact is that they are just as real and they exist. You could point to a map and point to places in the world that are experiencing severe systemic breakdown. 

[…] The other reason why we want to pay attention to dystopias that I think is critical. Is that. Dystopias are written as a warning […] about what happens when we don’t take action in the present. What happens when we get complacent? And when you look at Dystopias for children in particular [they are] pathways to rebellion. They’re about, [asking], What do you do when faced with authority figures who are abusing their power? When you are put into circumstances that are not acceptable, how do you react?”

 

On using the ‘Seven Foundations Model’ to build future states of a new world

“The model essentially is a breakdown of what I think are these seven key elements of any given system that exist regardless of the system that we’re looking at, regardless of the point in time that we’re looking at, and these seven elements are always at play. Sometimes some of them are suppressed, but they’re always there. But the seven elements are the political, the economic, the philosophical, the environmental, the scientific and technological, the artistic or aesthetic and the social. And these seven factors again are always interacting with each other.

[…] world building in general is really about creating comprehensive scenarios. So I described it as creating a complex prototype of the future. […] And so the goal of the model is to create a coherent world, a future state that we can operate within. By looking at all seven at once, we kind of build for coherence, which is plausibility and having something that’s realistic, that feels complete, that we can operate within. […] And really we’re trying to get away from our present day thinking and extrapolations of those and trying to get into different radical visions of the future that are not based in present day reality. That forces us to think outside of what we know in the current paradigm.”

 

On widely believed misconceptions around Futurists

“So I think partly we have some misconceptions right now about who a Futurist is and what a Futurist does. I think part of that is because the field is still sorting it out for itself. […] When the work that we’re doing deals with complexity and it deals with things like policy, it’s really important that we know what we’re doing and that we have experienced practitioners doing that work because there’s potential for real harm to come out of it when you do that work poorly. And so having a certain level of standards I think is going to be important going forward and being able to distinguish them.”

 

Questions from our conversation

[00:59] True or false, Futurists can save the world?

[01:46] What is a Futurist; what does it mean to be one?

[4:39] What inspired you to take this path?

[05:31] Thinking about all this information that we have at any given time, do you feel like there are signals that we missed before that are being identified now, or do you feel like it’s more like sifting through the noise to find real true connections?

[08:24] Are your constraints more typically time-based or are they other constraints as well?

[08:57] With a 10,000 year horizon, where would you start to break that down?

[10:37] Why would you say that it’s dangerous to dismiss Dystopias?

[13:15]  What are the positive values and lessons we can learn from Dystopias?

[15:08] Would you say that Speculative Designs are naturally Utilitarian?

[22:49] In one of your works ‘Job Ads From the Future’, you distilled it down quite well into three trends [climate change, the battle for an equal, just and democratic society, and the rise of artificial intelligence] , but what was the process for identifying this and why was it these three trends?

[26:48] Do you feel like there might be areas or methods of Speculative Design and Strategic Foresight that you feel are not working and that need to be re-examined?

[31:14] Can you give us a background of your world building model?

[34:01] Is there an example of a project that you’ve worked on that utilises your world building model?

[35:24] Do you feel like your method is better applied when approaching specific areas or sectors maybe?

[36:12]  Do you find that there are other tools that can strengthen the world-building model as well?

[37:17] Are there any misconceptions that you feel like you need to talk about?

[40:08] Do you consider being a Futurist a skill that you can hone, and do you feel like it’s teachable or do you feel like there’s an innate trait that Futurists have?

[41:46] What do you have more space for in 2021?

 

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About The Future Of Now series

Our goal at More Space For Light with The Future of Now (FON) series is to build a community of like-minded passionate professionals. We intend to bring together like-minded professionals to share, inspire, and explore new opportunities for growth. So you can discover new ways of working to bring back into your organisation.