The planning framework we use at Creating the Future turns most other planning frameworks inside out.
Instead of beginning with today and moving forward to create goals (planning in reactive mode, responding to today’s issues), we instead begin at the future we want, tethering our plans to that future, and reverse engineering back to today. That back-casting thought framework creates a critical path based on cause-and-effect, paving a solid path of conducive conditions that will lead to the future we all wantt.
The power of that causality-driven planning (vs. idea-driven planning) is discussed in numerous articles and books and videos, including this TEDx talk.
Whenever or wherever this framework is taught, one of the most commonly asked questions is about the use of data – the environmental scans and SWOT analyses and needs assessments and other research that is typically done prior to planning. When we tether a plan to the future, rather than reacting to the present, where is the place for all that data in such a plan?
We hope this short video helps answer that question for you. And we’d love to know what your experience has been with this approach!
This is amazingly helpful at languaging the purpose of phase 1 and 2 and also helps articulate why tethering our plans to today hems in our imagination by framing the plan as “today minus the problem.” Thanks Hildy.