Foresight Lab: Embracing Uncertainty and Connecting Dots to the Future

McMaster University | Kaleigh Wisman | Dec 13, 2023

An innovative program at the DeGroote School of Business is taking an alternative approach, exploring and preparing for multiple future scenarios.

• Known as foresight thinking, this perspective has gained traction in business and government settings, and is something Canada and the world need now more than ever, says Leonard Waverman, acting director of the Foresight Lab at McMaster.
  • Foresight is looking into the future, five to 10 years out, and even into the decades ahead. We all know the future is not predetermined or predictable. However, future outcomes can be influenced by our choices in the present.
• The Foresight Lab, which launched at McMaster in 2020 to incorporate foresight thinking into academic settings, is unique in the Canadian academic landscape. No other business school in Canada has a program dedicated to futures methodologies. And no other business school in Canada integrates foresight practice into its academic programs.

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• Creating a space for external organizations and leaders to exchange ideas is another element of the Lab’s unique impact. The Foresight Lab provides the only foresight-focused hub in Canada where people from across sectors can come together to share ideas and advance their thinking.
• Neutral: We aren’t a consulting firm and we aren’t selling anything.  This makes us a neutral meeting place for businesses and non-profits to connect with each other
• The pandemic has resulted in a growing recognition of the importance of foresight work.  People are realizing the interconnectedness of issues facing our world.
• Foresight Lab developed two courses at McMaster. An undergraduate course “Imagine and Navigate the Future”  is currently being offered, as well as a graduate level course “Design Thinking and Strategic Foresight”, which is part of the blended learning MBA program.

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Candice Chow, an assistant professor of strategic management at the DeGroote School of Business:

• The essence of foresight is systems thinking and connecting the dots.  For example, supply chains tie to health care, to finance, to economics. The idea is we want to build something that allows people to imagine a future that goes beyond a particular discipline.

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