Foresight FAQ: What It Is and How It Works
Frequently asked questions about futures, foresight, methodologies, ANTICIPATE and much more
What is ANTICIPATE?
ANTICIPATE is a strategic foresight agency helping organisations anticipate change and create long-term impact. We work across sectors - climate, governance, innovation, technology, democracy and sustainability - by combining futures thinking with actionable strategies.
Our goal is to help you explore what might happen, and to shape what should.
What do you actually do at ANTICIPATE?
ANTICIPATE designs and leads foresight processes, training programmes, strategic workshops and innovation labs. Our work ranges from helping governments rethink public policy to guiding companies through uncertainty and long-term planning.
Our tools include scenario development, megatrends analysis, horizon scanning, foresight training, futures prototyping and more.
What is foresight?
Foresight is the practice of exploring what might lie ahead in a structured way, so we can make better decisions today. The point is to expand our field of view. It helps us ask different questions, spot weak signals, and challenge assumptions.
At ANTICIPATE, we see foresight as a way to stretch thinking, align teams around what matters, and act with more clarity in times of change. We have tried to answer the question in more detail elsewhere, because people ask us often: What Even Is Foresight?
Why should organisations work with foresight?
Foresight earns its place because the world does not stand still. It helps you prepare for shifts you cannot control and identify the ones you can shape. It supports better strategies, more resilient decisions, and bolder innovation.
Whether you are planning next year or looking ten years ahead, foresight helps you think more long-term, more creatively, and more systemically. Here are ten reasons to.
What makes your approach different?
What sets ANTICIPATE apart is that we make futures work tangible. Our ACT Foresight Framework is a theory of change model designed to guide teams through three phases.
Anticipate - Spot weak signals, emerging trends, and long-term shifts
Create - Build strategic responses and prototype future opportunities
Transform - Align people, partnerships, and strategy to make change happen
We blend participatory methods, strategy tools, and systems thinking. The aim throughout is clarity and co-creation, with none of the black-box mystique.
Read about our approach: The ACT Framework
What kind of organisations do you work with?
We work with all types, honestly. ANTICIPATE's clients are forward-looking organisations across the public and private sectors, from Fortune 500 companies and (inter)governmental agencies to municipalities, SMEs and NGOs. Some want to futures-prepare their strategy, others want to strengthen internal foresight capacity.
Many come to us when they face uncertainty and need direction.
Do you offer futurist trainings or courses in futures and foresight?
Yes, ANTICIPATE runs both tailored foresight capability-building programmes for teams and open learning experiences and courses through ANTICIPATE Academy. These include team trainings, executive foresight programmes, and self-paced online modules that are on the way.
All of it is rooted in real-world practice and our tested frameworks.
Contact us to learn more.
What are Megatrends and how do you use them?
Megatrends are long-term, structural shifts that shape the landscape in which you operate. We have developed the ANTICIPATE Megatrends Framework, a set of eight global shifts that help organisations explore risk, reframe strategy, and unlock new questions.
We also offer exercises and workshops using ANTICIPATE's PRISM model to turn megatrends insights into strategy.
Do you facilitate foresight workshops?
All the time. ANTICIPATE runs everything from one-day sprints and multi-day strategy retreats to global participatory processes. Our workshops are immersive, collaborative, and designed to stretch your thinking, whether the focus is visioning, future strategy, innovation, a specific theme, or building shared direction.
Reach out to learn more.
Can you help us build internal foresight capacity?
Yes, and it is some of the work we enjoy most. We have built foresight frameworks and foresight systems, as well as trained teams inside consultancies, NGOs, ministries, universities and companies to apply foresight in their daily work. This often includes tailored toolkits, coaching, and train-the-trainer models.
We also help organisations assess their futures readiness and strengthen internal culture for long-term thinking.
Where and how have your insights been applied?
ANTICIPATE's work has shaped strategies for climate adaptation, future cities, human rights, circular business models, democratic innovation, and much more. We bring cross-sector experience and draw on lessons from more than 55 global foresight projects across 5 continents.
Who’s behind ANTICIPATE?
ANTICIPATE was founded by Mathias Behn Bjørnhof, a professional futurist and leading foresight strategist with extensive experience leading foresight projects across sectors and regions. He previously worked at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, is part of international foresight networks, and regularly speaks at global forums on future governance, cities, and innovation. With Mathias at the core, we collaborate with freelancers and partners to create impact.
How do we get started working with you?
Working with ANTICIPATE usually starts with a free, non-binding discovery call, where we explore what challenges or needs you might have and whether our approach fits that scope.
Whether you are looking for a keynote, a full foresight process, or a sparring partner for your strategy team, we are happy to help clarify the direction and co-create the right format for you. And when we agree on a project, one of the first steps is always a 1-2 hour kick-off meeting to set each project up in the best way.
Is foresight the same as future scenarios?
Scenarios are one core way to explore possible futures, and foresight covers a good deal more. It includes trend analysis, sensemaking, prototyping, strategic responses, and capacity building.
We often start with signals and trends, and one goal is always the same - to turn insight into action.
Who uses foresight?
A lot of organisations, actually - companies, governments, city planners, NGOs and foundations. Really anyone who wants to be better prepared and more futures-oriented, and the foresight momentum is building.
Some want to explore big shifts, others want to stress-test strategies and some want to involve teams and build a stronger sense of direction. We have worked with almost all types and sizes.
How do you apply foresight in practice?
In practice we usually start by mapping what is changing around us, and what is not, exploring global megatrends and signals of change and identifying what they could mean.
From there we open up future directions through tools like ANTICIPATE's ACT Foresight Framework, our Megatrends PRISM, or strategic response sprints. Each process is tailored, and the aim is the same - to go from awareness to action.
How is foresight different from strategy?
Foresight helps expand the space in which strategy is made. It brings in longer time horizons, more uncertainty, and a broader set of possibilities.
Where strategy often focuses on goals and plans, foresight makes space for exploration, pattern recognition, and deeper reflection. In the best cases, the two work hand in hand.
How do you deal with uncertainty?
We treat uncertainty as something to work with. It is a fact of life and a feature we can use to be better prepared, an indication that the future can take different directions, and foresight gives us ways to navigate that.
We explore a range of futures, identify critical uncertainties, and prepare for multiple outcomes.
Is foresight only for long-term planning?
Foresight supports decisions next quarter as readily as decisions ten years out. We use it as a tool to anticipate what could happen and make more informed decisions.
Some clients use it to stress-test current strategies, while others use it to explore new directions. What matters is creating space to think differently, and bringing those insights back into action.
How do you stay updated on what’s changing, such as trends and signals?
ANTICIPATE scans global developments continuously, across technology, geopolitics, climate, governance and social change. We combine this with deep dives, interviews, and our own Megatrends Framework for framing the changes.
Tracking is only the start, though. We help teams work with what is changing in a structured and continuous way, looking from the outside-in and looking for the non-obvious.
How do you make foresight engaging for teams?
We keep sessions hands-on and grounded in your own context, which is most of what makes them land. We use visual tools, group exercises, and concrete cases that connect the big picture with the everyday. And we make the effort to learn as much as we can about your organisation, industry and team, so we can prepare the most engaging session possible.
Our workshops and trainings are built to spark insight, unlock new ideas, and create a shared language for moving forward.
Why are you called ANTICIPATE?
We chose the name ANTICIPATE because that is what foresight is really about - preparing for change before it happens. Anticipation means staying curious, open, and ready. It means having agency in decision-making because we have already thought ahead.
It is about building the capacity to respond, which makes it an active stance. And it reflects our belief that shaping the futures starts now.
What’s the different between anticipation and foresight?
Foresight is a structured method to work with the futures and bring them into strategy. Anticipation is about having the right mindset to proactively understand what could happen and act with intention.
Foresight gives us the tools, from scenarios and trend analysis to horizon scanning and uncertainty mapping. Anticipation is what we build in people and organisations - the ability to think ahead, sense what is coming, and act before it is urgent. One helps you see, the other helps you move.
Do you predict the future?
No, we do not make predictions. ANTICIPATE does not use tarot cards or crystal balls, and forecasting single outcomes is a different business from ours.
The future is not a fixed point waiting to be forecasted. We talk about futures in the plural because what will happen from now on is shaped by choices, systems, and people. Our role is to help organisations explore what is possible, so they can make wiser decisions today.
Foresight expands your imagination and prepares you for a range of futures.