Do you remember the first time you picked up and played with a kaleidoscope?
With every twist, light bounced off ordinary objects in the room and refracted through the lens to produce wondrous and intricate designs. Whether you used a simple homemade tube filled with beads, strings, and paper clips, or a higher-end prism adorned with colored plastic, glass, or marbles, the angled mirrors allowed you to change your view and create an infinite array of beautiful new images – no two alike.
We love kaleidoscopes because they combine the beauty of stained-glass windows, the majesty of sunsets, and the surprise of fireworks. The unique design of kaleidoscopes provides new and unusual visual experiences, particularly in environments where darkness and uncertainty surround bright light. While it’s disorienting at first, the simple method of combining light and movement in new ways gives the viewer an enhanced field of vision.
Kaleidoscopes are one of our favorite tools to help you deepen your field of vision and think like a futurist. Kaleidoscopes prompt us to see and think differently. Futures thinking is like picking up a kaleidoscope for the first time. It allows you to look at the ordinary world and see the world in a new and beautiful way.
The Futures Framework, which we explain in detail in the book What Comest Next? works like a kaleidoscope. As you consider the four forces and each of themes at the eight intersections, you will start to see fresh possibilities for your future. With enough twists, we’ll show you how to combine these insights into a clearer vision of the future.
The approach helps you systematically consider what comes next through a particular set of lenses to foresee a range of possibilities, identify options, plan, and shape the future. Not only will it help you have more clarity about what comes next, but we also show you, based on that clarity, how to realize that future in a structured, systematic, and actionable way.
If you are ready to change your perspective and see the future differently, start here!
