Institute For The Future

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

This is a moment to think boldly about the future.

If the COVID-19 crisis has taught us anything, it’s that we need to take preparedness to a new level. We need to think longer—not weeks, not months, but years longer.  

4 Scenarios

We can start with four alternative scenarios—four very different visions of how the future might unfold in the wake of the crisis. Economic growth. Health constraints. Political collapse. Social transformation.

Download the full map here. >>

Executive Director, Marina Gorbis takes us on a journey through IFTF’s post-Covid alternative scenarios
to identify the leverage points for transformation in the coming decade and beyond.

Exploring the Scenarios

But scanning these possibilities, we quickly recognize that we’re already looking collapse in the eye. As fast as Covid-19 has spread through the world population, a deeper underlying disease is careening through our body politic, revealing the fractures in the systems of our daily lives.

Read Marina Gorbis' essay, Post-Pandemic Transformation: Building a Mutualist Future.

7 System Failures

Just as the novel coronavirus first showed up in the most vulnerable people in our society — the old, the sick, the working poor and racially oppressed — it has also taken aim at the widespread frailties in our social, economic, and political institutions. Our broken health systems. Extraordinary economic inequality. Racial injustice. Brittle supply chains. Political division. A frayed social fabric. And of course, an impending climate emergency.

As these systems fail, however, they also open pathways to something new—to truly bold visions of transformation that reinvent the way we work as a society, as an economy, and as friends and neighbors. At the same time, these system failures call on us to take bold actions today.

Transforming the Future

The future starts in conversation. Groups of just five or six people can launch a new future in three steps. First, identify patterns from the past that we can no longer ignore. Next, look for signals of reinvention—innovations that point to a different kind of future. Then, focus on future-forward actions that can transform our lives, our communities, and our world.

A Toolkit for Transformation

Look inside for all the tools your need to start your own community conversations. A guide to getting started. Three decks of cards—Patterns from the Past, Innovations for the Future, and Actions for Transformation. There's even a facilitator’s guide with detailed instructions for two paths to work: the fast path and the long game. The kit will take you through the process of sorting the data, signals, and actions to create an action roadmap.

Ready to get started?
Download the toolkit now and start talking.

1. Orientation Guide
2. Patterns from the Past
3. Innovations for the Future
4. Action for Transformation
5. Facilitator's Guide
6. Reference Index

With Special Thanks

This work was made possible through the generous support of our partners the Blue Shield of California Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, California Endowment and The California Wellness Foundation with the goal of helping communities and organizations think systematically about the future in a post-pandemic world.

In addition, we are grateful for the thoughtful contributions of the many guest voices in our forecast workshops for the post-pandemic future. They continue to help shape our work.

Contact Us

For more information on this and other research from Institute for the Future, please email IFTF Executive Producer Jean Hagan  |  jhagan@iftf.org.