Foresight on the Inside (Back to the Futures #8)
Let’s be honest: many organizations don’t resist foresight out of disinterest in the futures. It’s often a reaction to how the futures challenges established ways of working.
July and August brought this tension into focus. Whether through client calls, workshops, podcast recordings, or summer reflections, one thing stood out: foresight creates friction where comfort has taken root.
Resistance most often doesn't stem from a lack of tools (Why organizations resist foresight). It grows out of structural incentives, cultural habits, and leadership bandwidth. KPIs that reward short-term output. A discomfort with ambiguity. Systems that prioritize stability over adaptability.
At ANTICIPATE, we’re preparing to launch two major foresight transformation projects inside organizations. The opportunity is clear, but so is the challenge.
That’s why we’re shifting how we frame and facilitate (Lessons from facilitating foresight). We don't necessarily have to turn everyone into professional futurists. It’s about creating conditions where foresight becomes useful, usable, and used. Where the work sticks even when leadership changes. Where trust is built, and relevance made visible.
If you’ve seen great foresight efforts fizzle—or never fully land—you’re not alone (Why embedding foresight is easier said than done). It happens more than it should. But with the right approach, that friction can become momentum.
This issue is about understanding those barriers and finding ways through them.
Let’s dive in.
LOOKING BACK
📍 Futures of Impact Investing Our global foresight study on the futures of impact investing has been delivered—now awaiting publication. The work explores how the field is evolving from a niche into a mainstream force, with over $1.5 trillion in assets under management and growing interest from sovereign wealth funds, pension schemes, and institutional capital. The question is no longer whether impact matters—but how to align capital with the world we want to build.
📍 ConsilioCircle: Cybersecurity In partnership with ConsilioNexus Danmark, we facilitated a closed foresight dialogue on cybersecurity, as a question of trust, governance, and organizational resilience. As digital risks multiply, we need more strategic conversations about the systems we rely on.
📍 Selling Foresight Masterclass Together with Chloé de Ruffray, we hosted our first Masterclass and this one Selling Foresight was attended live or on replay by over 150 participants. We unpacked common obstacles, shared practical strategies, and launched the Irresistible Foresight Canvas. Missed it? Watch the replay and stay tuned for the October edition.
📍 Summer Spotlight Series Throughout July, we revisited some of our most impactful collaborations:
📍 Megatrends PRISM Framework Our Megatrend PRISM tool gained traction this summer as a go-to method for exploring complex futures through Possibilities, Risks, Inquiries, Signals, and Mindsets. Built for strategy sprints, leadership sessions, and reflection workshops. Download the report
📍 Service Relaunch & New Faces We refreshed our full service overview—spanning advisory, learning, research, and immersion formats. Explore the offer!
📍 Two Years of ANTICIPATE We quietly marked our second anniversary with plans for a celebratory event later in the year. A look back
📍 What Even Is Foresight? We wrote a short explainer for those asking what foresight really is and how it works in practice. Read the article
📍 Futuresstorm Article Mathias’ piece on Futuresstorm was featured in the APF’s Compass magazine—an intuitive, lightweight foresight tool now used across sectors. Explore the method
📍 Democracy as a Living System A new article asks what it would mean to treat democracy not as fixed, but evolving. Read here
📍 AI Week We ended August with a packed week of talks and workshops on AI and foresight:
Futurecrafting workshop on AI in design and creaitivity
Reflections on AI & foresight for research
LOOKING AHEAD
📍 ANTICIPATE Academy Relaunch We’ve officially relaunched our training and learning offerings under the ANTICIPATE Academy umbrella. Expect masterclasses, bootcamps, and organizational trainings, plus—very soon—our first self-paced course on how to work with the futures. Join the waitlist
📍 Vienna: Rights, Memory, Futures In early September, we’re heading to Vienna to support the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and AIT in a foresight initiative on the futures of fundamental rights in Europe. A layered city with rich urban and democratic heritage, Vienna will also be the setting for coffee chats, camera walks, and maybe even a pop-up workshop. Let us know if you’re around.
📍 YONDERS Mentorship We're supporting the YONDERS project by mentoring young cultural entrepreneurs and contributing training materials to build long-term foresight capacity in the creative sector.
📍 New Podcast Conversations Incoming Find our founder Mathias Behn Bjørnhof on upcoming episodes of the Culture Connectors podcast and on one about facilitating futures.
📍 ConsilioCircle on Megatrends Our next peer dialogue with ConsilioNexus will explore how senior leaders are working with megatrends as both signal and strategy. Stay tuned for reflections later in September.
📍 Ljubljana Forum: Cities of Wellbeing We’ll be heading to Ljubljana to speak and facilitate a workshop on anticipating futures cities that are designed for wellbeing, equity, and resilience.
📍 Thought for Future Festival We're contributing to this student-led futures & sustainability event with a Three Horizons session designed to move ideas into long-term action.
📍 Speaking in Copenhagen Mathias will be sharing thoughts on AI and futures at a Copenhagen-based college incubator, engaging students and young entrepreneurs in how to lead with curiosity and anticipation.
📍 Find Your Futures Voice Our one-on-one mentoring program is underway with a stellar first cohort. Through structured reflection, sparring, and support, we’re helping individuals clarify their voice, purpose, and practice in the futures field.
SIGNAL / SPECULATION
Speculative Futures Archive We’ve begun collecting examples of speculative futures work, across design, fiction, and activism. Explore the WIP archive
SPOTLIGHT
Become Futures Ready
Set up your organization for long-term success by continuous scanning of trends and signals, building an internal foresight team, shaping a forward-oriented culture and leverage futures scenarios for your organization. Read more here
Get in touch via hi@anticipate.dk to learn more about how we can help you
EVENTS
We have updated our Futures & Foresight calendar with a host of new events and conferences! A few highlights for the fall:
Here’s a brief list of the upcoming futures conferences with links:
Asia Pacific Futures Network Conference 2025: Can AI Create Ethical & Green Futures?📍 Oct 16–17, New Taipei City, Taiwan
Foresight practitioners and researchers gather at Tamkang University to explore AI, ethics, and sustainability in futures thinking.
African Futures Conference 2025: Insight, Imagination, Action📍 Oct 21–22, Pretoria, South Africa
Africa’s leading platform for futures dialogue, uniting changemakers across the continent for two days of bold, collaborative foresight.
Dubai Future Forum 2025📍 Nov 18–19, Dubai, UAE
Hosted at the Museum of the Future, this global gathering of futurists, policymakers, and industry leaders explores the biggest questions shaping tomorrow. See you there!
Back to the Futures is your monthly glimpse into what we’re doing at ANTICIPATE. If you’d like to collaborate, bring foresight into your work, or just stay more plugged into the futures space, we’d love to hear from you at hi@anticipate.dk.
Until next time, stay curious.
—The ANTICIPATE Team
