Think Like a Futurist - Hardcover

by Cecily Sommers (Author)

Push past resistance to discover and own new business territories

Think Like a Futurist shows how to track changes, explore questions, and engage in new thinking that connects today's pressures with tomorrow's realities. Cecily Sommers shows how to apply long-term focus and strategies to needs as diverse as industry forecasts, innovation challenges, leadership development, or future-proofing a brand. By understanding intersecting potentials that one day may impact your organization, you can readily spot emerging trends and market shifts, uncovering opportunities on the horizon.

Think Like a Futurist explores such questions as: Where will new markets emerge over the next 5-10-25 years? What will be the big issues of the day? How will lifestyle, social mores, and policy adapt? And what role do we play in that future?

• Offers a clear framework for thinking like a futurist, and direction for how to integrate it in high-pressure corporate environments
• Explains how the social, economic, and environmental crises of our time spring from just four constant and predictable forces
• Reveals the three dramatic disruptions on the horizon that should be a part of every strategic conversation
• Written by Cecily Sommers the Founder and President of The Push Institute, a non-profit think tank that tracks significant global trends and their implications for business, government, and non-profit.

Filled with tools and models for a new world, this book should be required reading for strategists and innovators across disciplines.

"Refreshing. A book that does not follow today's push to be 'innovative' just to snag attention because of the current hot trending keyword. Matter of fact, Cecily Sommers' book works to get us away from simply identifying and going for a ride on the latest trend(s) in our respective industries.

Quite the contrary, rather than avoid a scientific or tactical discussion of trend identification, she works to give us the ability to go beyond trends and into the future.

Cecily has drafted a book providing a nice blend of practical reality, philosophy, and practical execution. It speaks well to current discussions about how to drive 'innovation' or, better, creativity within your businesses--however large or small.

All in, this is a book 254 pages long, including index, that is written at a practical level that, after closer study following an initial read-through, provides a methodology for anticipating the future and taking action to meet it.

Provides a methodology for anticipating the future and taking action to meet it.

Think Like a Futurist is a good read for anyone struggling with how to move their organization forward. Business leaders, product and program managers, service providers will all find the concepts Cecily introduces to be well laid-out with a reasonable amount of supporting content."--The source is a blog: http: //jtpedersen.net/2012/11/15/what-ive-read-lately-think-like-a-futurist/

Front Jacket

Think Like a Futurist is the ground-breaking book that shows how to engage in new thinking in order to connect today's pressures with tomorrow's realities. Drawing from more than a decade of work with clients, noted futurist Cecily Sommers shows what it takes to apply long-term focus and strategies to needs as diverse as industry forecasts, innovation challenges, leadership development, and future-proofing a brand. In all her work, she shows how the skills and methodologies needed to think like a futurist can be taught to anyone, how they follow a clear, replicable structure, and how they can be scaled for groups of all sizes. Her book shares the same tools and techniques she uses with individuals and organizations to help them become unstuck from the "Permanent Present," the natural-andoften disastrous-bias for projectingcurrent conditions out into the future.

Clearly and deftly, Think Like a Futurist explains how the social, economic, and environmental crises of our time spring from just four constant and predictable forces. Once you understand how they work together to drive change, you can stake out a territory that is yours to invent and own. Think Like a Futurist also reveals future-directed activities designed to spark creative epiphanies, push past resistance, and bring the power of foresight to strategy and innovation, resulting in fresh answers to the ageless questions:

Who are you? Where are you going? and What's your territory? This is not a book about identifying trends, but rather transcending them, which is crucial in today's fast-paced world where success is often defined as movement from deadline to deadline (and crisis to crisis). Throughout, Cecily shows how to make your perspective both more elastic and comprehensive. With her approach, you'll find the long-term vision needed to see opportunities on the horizon and understand how to realize them.

Author Biography

CECILY SOMMERS is the founder and president of The Push Institute, a non-profit think tank that tracks significant global trends and their implications for business, government, and the non-profit sector. A global trends analyst and popular speaker, she helps organizations understand and prepare for emerging technologies, markets, and ideas. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

For more information, please visit www.cecilysommers.com.