Tanja Schindler

Future Cities in Dezember 2018 in Berlin

In Dezember, I co-facilitated a workshop on future of food in the context of future cities in Berlin.

Cross Innovation Conference - Future of Mobility in November 2018 in Hamburg

Back in Nov 2018, I enjoyed facilitating a workshop at the Cross-Innovation Conference in Hamburg on the topic Future of Mobility.

Digital Mind Change in October 2018 in Munich

The Digital Mind Change Vol.2 in Munich was inspiring and full of thought exchanges. If you have missed my workshop, you have the chance to get a glance of my presentation in the link below. Thee wrong business culture is the barrier no1 of the digital transformation. In my workshop, we talked about how to set the right mindset and which futures tool can help to transform your organization.

FTA 2018

Tanja and Michael attended the Joint Research Centre (JRC) FTA2018 conference - 'Future in the making' which brought together international minds to explore new challenges of policymaking and exchange ideas about future-oriented frames and methods in order to respond to them. Here we presented our new 'THE CIRCULAR FORESIGHT PROCESS'. This new approach allows a methodical interaction of Horizon Scanning and Scenario Building which is based on monitored data and allows ongoing discussions about occurring impacts.

The centrepiece of our new approach is the idea of creating dynamic 'Landscapes of Change' rather than static images of the future that do not only help organizations to understand change but builds the basis for developing future-proof strategies. How to create landscapes of change? Foresight offers a range of tools for processes that focus on quantitative & qualitative, normative & explorative, as well as individual & participative methods. By combining these various methods with futures thinking and relevant data such as indicators but also real-time online data as well as internal and external knowledge, we are able to create those landscape. It allows us to understand change and systems by mapping present developments (industry changes, disruptions, emerging issues etc), finding relations between them and deriving possible future impacts (lead by questions such as how does that effect politics, my business and our society? How do we as an organisation have to adapt to it?). Only this dynamic and diverse approach enables organisations to close the gap between the present and the future.

Future Expert Day in Berlin

The desire to foretell the future is as old as humanity itself and similarly unrealistic. However, a realistic approach of possible futures via the method called "foresight" is actually feasible. Tanja Schindler, foresight specialist and high potential of the scene, captivates by the combination of scientific methods and coupled with a high entrepreneurial demand. As a senior consultant at 4strat, the tool "Foresight Strategy Cockpit" paves the way for a gradual digitalization of the discipline of "foresight".

Read in the full interview, where Tanja explains the difference between forecasts and trends and why it necessary to closely observe yourself and oursociety.

SCIP Conference 2017 in Cascais, Portugal

Two weeks ago, I was speaking at the SCIP Conference in Portugal, where I introduced the concept of Futures Intelligence as next step of today's Competitor's Intelligence. In times of continuous change, organizations cannot rely on data from the present or past. Their future competitors don't even exist, yet. Therefore, it is necessary to think in diverse pathways of the future, to explore what's beyond today's horizon.

Strategic Foresight can build the bridge from traditional Competitive Intelligence to a Futures Intelligence that considers future threats and opportunities and identifies new market and competitor movements. It helps to manage today’s complexity by outlining the future and its possible appearances and creates the opportunity to actively shape the future instead of being reactive in the present.

During a Learning Lab Session, I explained how to manage actively potential threats and opportunities caused by the increasing complexity of the market and competitive environment. Instead of being paralyzed by possible future changes and threats, a Futures Intelligence Systems helps organizations to adapt to the future and being ahead of the current method of mapping the present. By thinking of possible and plausible futures, Strategic Foresight opens a new pathway to manage this complex business environment.

This new and holistic approach to a Futures Intelligence System outshines current methods of Competitive Intelligence and offers any practitioner a new diversifying set of skills. By changing the company’s focus to the future, the participants learned how to manage uncertainty with purpose and how to intentionally make decisions that actively shape the future business environment of their organizations.

With the presentation of the Foresight Strategy Cockpit - an innovative online platform - the participants learned how to manage the future in the most intelligent and effective way. The hands-on approach of how to introduce a Futures Intelligence System within organization showed a collaborative method to manage a Strategic Foresight process within a team of analysts.