The futures ready toolbox

Free working models for futures thinking

These models and exercises grew out of more than fifteen years of working with teams on Futures Ready organisations. Each model helps or forces you to look at your business or organisation from a different perspective. And each model works in any kind of team meeting, so you explore new possibilities together and know what needs to be done.

Cone of Possibilities, free working model by Futures Academy. Hand drawn futures cone: someone looks through a prism into a widening Cone, with three horizons, from probable in the middle to plausible and possible at the edges, with a jester on top and a black swan belowWorking modelCone of PossibilitiesWhich futures are you not seeing yet?View the model →Wheel of Reasoning, free working model by Futures Academy. Hand drawn reasoning wheel: a circle with the theme in the middle and eight segments, crisis, problem, threat and cause on the right, change, solution, opportunity and source on the leftWorking modelWheel of ReasoningWhere do you start to set real change in motion?View the model →Magazine Cover, free working model by Futures Academy. Hand drawn magazine cover with the question what does success look like, with space for the magazine title, a headline, bullets, an image and a quoteWorking modelMagazine CoverWhat does your success look like three years from now?View the model →Experiment Design, free working model by Futures Academy. Hand drawn If This Then That with four lines: if I start to, then there will be, because, elseWorking modelExperiment DesignWhich small experiment proves your idea works?View the model →Deep Why, free working model by Futures Academy. Hand drawn sheet with the question Why, the direction Wide towards the result and Deep towards the intent, and three levels: organisation, team and meWorking modelDeep WhyWhat really drives you, beyond the expected answer?View the model →Ladder of Abstraction, free working model by Futures Academy. Hand drawn ladder with someone climbing up, three lines on the left to zoom out, the box The future of in the middle, three lines on the right to zoom in, and a drone with a birdseye view at the topWorking modelLadder of AbstractionWhat is your research really about?View the model →