June 10, 2019 by Steve Gould

In reflecting on recent case studies/ consultancies, I sense a correlation between futures thinking concepts and existential philosophy / psychologies. Both seek answers to the eloquent questions. Both offer opportunity and processes for us to critique our personal contexts. Both invite us to engage, enter and exit the liminal spaces of the unknown, the unfamiliar, the uncertain and importantly the bodily feelings of the uncomfortable.

When we participate in futures thinking methods and processes, we may, (and often witnessed by myself) find ourselves questioning that which is privileged, unquestioned, known and comfortable. All personal contexts that are questioned resides in our psychological times and spaces. We may find ourselves morphing into other ways of knowing, to courageously offering up the 'self' for analysis, to question our historical identities, our cultural, political and privileged understandings of our self, our selves, and others. To evoke a contextual knowing that becomes less certain about what makes a good life. We may find ourselves open to other ways of knowing ourself in the past, present and ideally the future. We may find ourselves, less confident in our arguments of how the world is or ought to be, or should become…

What could motivate the individual to seek futures thinking experiences…? Anxiety reduction or adaptive resilience? or eudaemonia... What do you think?