Pulling & Pushing Assumptions to the Surface

Over the past three  days, I've been attended one of the best organized workshops on Foresight, Scenario planning and gaming that I have ever attended.

It was run by the Jack Smith and his competent team of helpers and experts in the Canadian Federal Government in Ottawa.

Although this Foresight exercise was focused on security, safety and emerging Science and Technologies (S&T) that we will likely see in 2015 and 2020, many  participants at the end of the exercise had concerns about issues that were more generic in  nature and common to all sector--the military, the government, the business world  and the NGO community.

One concern was: in a rapidly changing world ( such as the one we are in today, where smart technologies are being introduced daily, and under most people's radar screen), how do we identify the mostly tacit assumptions and worldviews that our managers, leaders and executives operate under when they are make decisions.

Everyone across all disciplines seems to be struggling with sensing, sense-making and what I call sense-portraying.

Here's an 8 step framework of a workshop that I created on the topic.

What do we take for Granted (WDWTFG) Pulling & Pushing Assumptions to the Surface  © 1985-2006 

by Walter Derzko

Stage	Description	Key issues and questions	Process
1.0	Situational Analysis	Mapping traditional and current worldviews and surfacing emerging anomalies, paradoxes and contradictions. What makes us increasingly uncomfortable? What keeps us up at night?	Individual interviews and group exercise
2.0	Assumption Surfacing	Mapping individual tacit and explicit assumptions, Why do we think the way we do?	Individual interviews
3.0	Group & Team Comparison	What’s the mental landscape of our team, our group, our corporate culture?	Group exercise
4.0	Assumption Testing	Testing our Assumption Landscape against the above anomalies, paradoxes and contradictions	Group exercise
5.0	Assumption Validation,	The first Step. Which assumptions are still valid (robust among various worldviews) and which ones seem unstable, questionable or challengeable?	Group exercise
6.0	Assumption Challenge	Moving forward. What cognitive, lateral thinking skills can we use to challenge our previous assumptions and design new ones? Where to next?	The Idea Lab exercise
7.0	Assumption Design & Reaffirmation	Creating the new path forward, The  new worldview? Sensing and Sense-making and Sense-portraying; Designing the new narrative and  the new story line	Group exercise
8.0	Assumption Fitting and Balancing	Managing In the Transition; Living in a  world of parallel /dual or multiple worldviews and assumptions	Group discussion and breakouts

If your organization is struggling with changing worldviews and hidden assumptions, send me an email.

© 2005-2006

Walter Derzko

Expert, Consultant and Guest Speaker on emerging Smart Technologies, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy "

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