Forward planning: a "discipline" intellectual

Reading a text by Michel Godet, bestselling author of "Forward Planning", rescued this interesting segment. Certainly in later grades, I will add other readings.

Anticipation not make much sense if it is not which serves to clarify the action. That is why foresight and strategy are usually inseparable. Hence the expression of strategic foresight. However, the complexity of the problems and the need to collectively raise impose the use of methods that are as rigorous and participatory as possible, in order that solutions are recognized and accepted by all. Nor should we forget the limitations imposed by the formalization of the problems, since men are also guided by intuition and passion. The models are inventions of the mind to represent a world that does not leave locked in the cage of the equations. This is beautiful because without this freedom, motivated by the desire will be without hope!. Such is the conviction that motivates us, use all the possibilities of reason, knowing all its limitations, as well as their virtues. Between intuition and reason there should be no opposition but on the contrary, complementarity. To be a "discipline" intellectually fruitful and credible, foresight needed rigor.


The debate of ideas on change, the role of men and organizations, the usefulness of the methods, it is blocked by a significant number of recurring issues reemerge to the surface whatever the arguments put forward. This occurs, for example, when we talk about the differences and relations between the concepts of foresight, planning and strategy, the interest of the probabilización of scenarios, by involvement of the complexity and specificity of studies territorial prospective. On all these matters, experience accumulated for over 30 years and captured several hundred statements, we can provide clear answers, at least from our spirit.