Future Focus:
Eyes on the Journey Ahead

Effective leaders create meaning, focus, and direction. Leading people into the future means taking them into unknown territory. Forecasts can depend upon the experts' interests ­ which may not be yours. It is certainly unlikely that what drives the success of your organisation now will be what drives its success in the next five or ten years. Achieving a successful, productive growth in a changing environment requires creating a culture of adaptability.

Storytelling in your organisation is not an optional extra.
Stories are being, and will be, told. They form the basis of your culture, and are embedded in it. Do you want to be part of creating and influencing them? Do you want to learn to influence the future, and avoid blind spots and habitual behaviours that may be hobbling your organisation's effectiveness?

Scenario building is a vital part of the success of any organisation. It frees people from outmoded worldviews, helping them see solutions outside current constraints. Scenario building offers two vital boosts to the well-being of your organisation. For the longer term, it helps you define strategies for major changes which may surface, sometimes suddenly and unexpectedly, with surprising impacts. Secondly, and more immediately, it teaches flexibility of thought and response, it cuts through the day-to-day assumptions which can blinker an organisation, and it creates a positive self-belief that, whatever happens, we can cope with it. Also ­ it's fun to do (as our incasting scenario exercise will demonstrate)!

Scanning the entire horizon for emerging change is an information-age survival skill. Change can bubble up from anywhere and everywhere ­ just keeping on top of shifts in your own market and moves by your immediate competitors is not enough if you want to rewrite the rules of the game and outpace the field. Winning organisations scout far ahead and far afield for emerging opportunities and potential clients.

Transforming your organisation into a learning organisation
begins with actively searching out emerging issues of change,
and thinking through their potential impacts: it is the foundation of foresight.

The workshop will be interactive, informative, educational, and enjoyable.

Investment:
Your time, enthusiasm, imagination, and £350 per person (which includes coffees, lunch, a detailed workbook,
and wine to finish the event.)

Option:
We would be happy to tailor an in-house programme to your exact needs.

Marie Mosely is a Business Psychologist, International Speaker and Broadcaster. Her specialist areas include: Mergers, Acquisitions, Partnerships, Re-Structures ­ getting the people factor right; Co-Operation and Profitability; Managing Stress and Creating Energy; The Art and Impact of Corporate Storytelling. Marie is a Member of the Media Panel of the British Psychological Society and a former Director of the Professional Speakers Association of Europe. Her clients include some of the most successful organisations in the world.

Wendy Schultz is a Futures Research Consultant. Her clarity and enthusiasm in conveying both the possibilities presented by the future, and the tools to address those possibilities, have won her accolades from peers, clients, and students. She is a Fellow of the World Futures Studies Federation, Design Council Coordinator for Shaping Tomorrow, a Contributing Editor and essayist for the Catalog of Tomorrow, a member of the UK Futurists Network, and visiting faculty at the University of Houston. Her specialties are designing, teaching, and facilitating participatory foresight tools; examples of which are available at http://www.infinitefutures.com/.

30th April 2003, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. BOOKINGS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.
21st May 2003, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. BOOKINGS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.
The workshop will begin at 10:00 a.m., but coffee, croissants, and introductions
will be available from 9:30 a.m. for early arrivals.
Lunch will be served in the Private Dining Rooms overlooking the River Quad.
The workshop will finish at 5:00 p.m. with evaluations and a selection of wines.
Please join us for a productive and pleasant day.
agenda. | materials. [not available until two weeks prior to workshop: fresh issues of change.]

Anticipate more workshops offered in September 2003! Email us for updates.

Where?

Embed the skills of foresight in your organisation: join us for a day retreat
in the beautiful setting of Wolfson College, University of Oxford,
and learn how to tell the stories of your own successful future.
Oxford is easily accessible by car, train, air or bus.
Map: North Oxford and Wolfson College | Information: Oxford hotels and inns.

By mail:
Participants may register by printing out the workshop flyer, filling out the registration form, and mailing it,
along with a check made payable to Dr. Wendy Schultz, to 86 Rewley Road, Oxford, OX1 2RQ.
[Future Focus Brochure: Adobe Acrobat .pdf file.] [Future Focus Registration Form: Word .doc file.]

Online:
Online registration is made possible via Infinite Futures UK at PayPal, a secure on-line payment service used globally.
If you have never used PayPal before, you will be asked to register, free, in order to link your payment with your email address. You will then be able to use a credit card [Visa, MasterCard, American Express] for payment.

Fifth Wave Workshops.

Alvin Toffler described the agicultural, industrial, and information ages
as the first three waves of human civilization.
Many analysts say genomics, biogenetics, and nanotechnology will be the fourth wave.
It's time to prepare for the fifth wave --
innovations in communication, learning, and human consciousness.

simple. clear. powerful. training for foresight, leadership, and collaboration.