LEADING LOCAL: Planning for the Future
Foresight Training with California 100 and Institute For The Future
About this Training
Is your team, council or board having the right conversations to
anticipate risk, maximize opportunity and build a solid
foundation for your agency’s future? Are you using good
governance strategies to assess your decision-making approach and
advance systemic change?
If you want your city, county or special district to get to the
next level in policy development and implementation, this special
Leading Local session is designed for you.
In this unique training (limited to local government leaders),
attendees will be introduced to the new and evolving field of
foresight research and futures thinking.
What is futures thinking?
Policymakers, elected officials, administrators and local leaders alike all need a framework through which to assess and evaluate ethical dilemmas, anticipate and mitigate unintended consequences of their decisions and act to maximize positive outcomes that point towards preferred futures.
Futures thinking is a framework that helps policymakers and local electeds imagine — and act on — a wider range of possible outcomes for their constituents, allowing them “get ahead of the curve” when it comes to anticipating risk and regulating technological, social, environmental and other advancements.
Envision individuals and groups, thinking about the life they want to lead, the changes they want to make, and the world they want to live in — 10, 25, 50 years from now. What actions can you take today to be ready for anything, and to make lasting positive change?
How can futures thinking be applied to local government?
This special Leading Local training session is designed to bring civil service values into the practice of strategic foresight, focusing on the conversations governments must have, internally and externally, to shape the future.
Envision your agency coming up with new ways to be resilient in the face of climate change. What kinds of new buildings, resources, public spaces, policies or community services will your agency need to help people cope with extreme weather 20 years in the future?
What will this training give local leaders?
At the completion of the training, attendees will understand what futures thinking is (and, importantly what it is not), and be able to use foresight exercises to strengthen their ability to apply futures thinking to present-day policy work.
We’ll bring the tools; you bring topics of urgent priority. We use tools of foresight to take the conversation past strategic planning – and into futures thinking. We do not make predictions about the future, but we do take a closer look at what “signals of change” are, how to find them and questions to ask about them that will help you analyze them. This allows individuals and groups to make plans for different potential futures and build resilience in their planning.
This webinar is hosted by ILG in partnership with California 100 and Institute for the Future.
Who are the panelists?
- Erica L. Manuel, CEO & Executive Director, Institute for Local Government
- Karthick Ramakrishnan, PhD, Executive Director, California 100
- Jane McGonigal, PhD, Director of Game Research + Development, Institute for the Future
Who should attend?
This session is designed for senior level staff and elected officials at California cities, counties and special districts. The course is designed for individuals with little or no previous experience with “futures thinking” or creative foresight.
How do I register?
The training will be conducted live on Zoom and registration is limited to 50 students.
Register here.
Registration is free, but space is limited. We also encourage attendees to fill out this short survey after registering: https://forms.gle/FpEwAjLQdT65o9hYA
Training Resources:
There is no recording of the “Planning for the Future” webinar, but if you participated in the session, here are a few resources to solidify your new skills. These downloadable PDFs from IFTF will help you get better at thinking about the future:
