Introducing the TrendsWatch 2018 Scenarios
Category:
Future Forecasting
Why Tell Stories About the Future? Plans based on one anticipated future are brittle: they are prone to failure if the underlying assumptions turn out to be wrong. Many a strategic plan has …
Gorilla Warfare: How to Handle Exhibition Errors
Category:
Alliance Blog
It’s not a matter of if, but when. Whether an exhibition is 500 square feet with a few labels and a curator’s catalogue, or a whopping 50,000 square feet with hundreds of graphic panels and …
Futurist Friday: Humans Need Not Apply (Even Us Creative Types)
Category:
Center for the Future of Museums Blog
We’re entering an era in which robots are not only building but also driving cars, chatbots are delivering customer service, and artificial intelligence is preparing legal briefs and …
Gearing up to Explore the Museum of Tomorrow
Category:
Center for the Future of Museums Blog
We are in full annual meeting prep mode here at AAM, getting ready to offer you a great experience in Houston. Since this year the whole meeting pretty much revolves around the future, CFM …
Saying No: A Practical Guide
Category:
Alliance Blog
Most of us in the museum field feel we have too much work and too little time. No matter how much we get done, our to-do lists never seem to get any shorter—only longer by leaps and bounds. …
Strategic Foresight Toolkit
Get your copy today! Why and how to use this toolkit This new resource provides a comprehensive introduction to strategic foresight—a vital skill set that enables individuals and …
Living in a Wild Future
Category:
Center for the Future of Museums Blog
In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic upended the world for Americans and American museums, my job shifted from focusing on the far future to the immediate present. As museum leaders …
Throwback Thursday: Revisiting the Ransolm
Category:
Center for the Future of Museums Blog
CFM’s latest forecasting report, TrendsWatch 2014, has been out a month now, and I have been getting great feedback. The magic chip reports the paper has been opened over 1,700 times. …
Wild Times: In which social service nonprofits save the day.
Category:
Future Forecasting
Introduction to This Scenario A wild card scenario explores the kind of low-probability, high-impact event that can disrupt the best-laid plans. Though you shouldn’t obsess about these …
Revisiting Wild Times: The Loss of Nonprofit Status
Category:
Center for the Future of Museums Blog
In 2018 I published a scenario titled “Wild Times” set in a version of 2040 in which museums lost their nonprofit status due to a combination of political attacks, economic stress, and a …