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What Do Futurists Read? Check out the books on our member’s “must read” list

 
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Thinking About The Future PDF Print E-mail
Written by Andy Hines and Peter Bishop   
Saturday, 23 February 2008
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Thinking About The Future
Thinking about the Future distills the expertise of three dozen senior foresight professionals into a set of essential guidelines for carrying out successful strategic foresight. The 115 guidelines are organized into six sequential categories that mirror the phases of a strategic foresight activity, namely Framing, Scanning, Forecasting, Visioning, Planning, and Acting.

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Submitting your Most Important Futures Works Nominations PDF Print E-mail
Written by Andy Hines   
Wednesday, 06 February 2008

We encourage all members to submit Futures Works that are important in their view. If you come across a futures work that you feel is worth the attention of your APF colleagues, please submit it to the Most Important Futures Work. All you have to do is click on "submit content" and type in your recommendation.(title and citation, and why you think it is an important futures work) At the top, you'll see a drop down box that asks you to "please choose a category." Simply select "Most Important Futures Works" and then click on the save icon in the upper right, and voila. If you have trouble, feel free to email me, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

 
Introducing Most Important Futures Works for 2008 PDF Print E-mail
Written by Andy Hines   
Wednesday, 06 February 2008
the 2008 nomination period the last calendar quarter of 2007 and then all of calendar 2008 and announce the winner or winners in early 2009. Each year afterward, the awards would be on a calendar year basis.
In 2007, Peter Schwartz’s The Art of the Long View was the top vote-getter in the balloting. For this first activity, members voted for books in the recent past as well as “classics.” They had 10 votes, either choosing from a list of 20 nominated by the “Most Important Futures Works team, or writing in up to five personal choices. Starting in 2008, we are looking for nominations for just the current year. These may go beyond books to include futures works in other media as well. The team was led by Ken Harris, and consisted of Andy Hines, Amy Oberg, Cindy Frewen Wuellner, Gitte Larsen, and Oliver Markley.
The retrospective “top ten” in order of votes received:
  • Art of the Long View by Peter Schwartz
  • Foundations of Futures Studies: Human Science for a New Era by Wendell Bell
  • The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies, Richard Slaughter (ed.)
  • Limits to Growth by Donnella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jergen L. Randers and William H. Behrens
  • The State of the World (series) by The Worldwatch Institute
  • The State of the Future by Jerome Glenn and Ted Gordon
  • The Art of Conjecture by Bertrand de Jouvenel
  • Futures Research Methodology by Jerome Glenn and Ted Gordon
  • The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil
  • Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
 
Top Ten Strategic Planning Books PDF Print E-mail
Written by Andy Hines   
Tuesday, 11 December 2007

Futurists Recommend Strategic Planning Books for 2007

More Nimble Strategic Planning Approach is Enjoying Resurgence of Interest HOUSTON – Just in time for the New Year, The Association of Professional Futurists (APF) today announced its Top Ten List of Strategic Planning Books for businesses, organizations and individuals looking to apply some strategy to their planning efforts in 2007 and beyond.  “What better time of year to rethink our approach to planning for the future and add some expert strategy to the effort,” says Andy Hines, APF board member and Senior Director of Consulting at Social Technologies, a leading foresight consultancy.

The APF is a global community of practicing futurists who use an interdisciplinary approach to explore a range of plausible futures in order to more effectively prepare clients and organizations for what lies ahead. Hines, also Adjunct Professor in the Futures program at the University of Houston, recently polled APF members on their favorite strategic planning texts and synthesized their recommendations into a list that he plans to distribute to graduate students enrolled in the Futures program this Spring.  “While not as trendy as it was during the 1980s, ‘a slimmed down, more nimble approach to strategic planning’ is enjoying a resurgence of interest,” says Hines.

APF 2007 Top Ten Strategic Planning Books

  • The Strategy of Indirect Approach, by Basil Lidell-Hart, 1954; (an influential military text)
  • Strategic Planning: What Every Manager Must Know, by George Steiner, 1979, 1997; (considered by many to be
    the standard text in the field)
  • Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, by Michael Porter, 1980; (includes a Five Forces model which is considered a starting point for strategic analysis)
  • Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement, 3rd Edition, by John M. Bryson, 1995. (used by the University of Houston Futures program; companion workbook also available)
  • Strategy Safari: A Guided Tour through the Wilds of Strategic Management, by Henry Mintzburg,1998; (outlines the major schools of strategic thinking)
  • The Sixth Sense, by Kees Van der Heijden, 2002. (useful in linking strategy to foresight)
  • Seeing What's Next, by Clay Christensen, 2004. (applying ideas of Innovator's Dilemma to forecasting industry evolution)
  • Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant, by Renee Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim, 2005; (emphasizes capturing and creating new demand rather than focusing on battling existing competitors in the existing spaces)
  • Simplified Strategic Planning: A No-Nonsense Guide for Busy People Who Want Results Fast! by Robert W. Bradford and J. Peter Duncan, 2000. (used by Regent U's Strategic Foresight Master's program)
  • Strategic Management and Competitive Advantage, by Jay Barney and William Hesterly, 2005. (includes useful case study examples)

Special thanks to APF members Stephen Aguilar-Milan, Lawrence Bonney, Jim Burke, Christian Crews, Jay Gary, Mike Jackson, Herb Rubenstein, and Lloyd Walker for their contributions.
 
The History of God PDF Print E-mail
Written by Lee Shupp   
Tuesday, 28 November 2006

The History of God
The History of God
In her book, The History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Karen Armstrong, a British journalist and former nun, guides us along one of the most elusive and fascinating quests of all time - the search for God.

Examining how humans created God and gods largely in their image, Armstrong also shows us how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have overlapped and influenced one another, gently challenging the secularist history of each of these religions.

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Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire PDF Print E-mail
Written by Lee Shupp   
Tuesday, 28 November 2006

Blowback
Blowback
Blowback is a term the CIA invented to describe the unintended consequences of American policies.

In his book, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, published pre-911, Chalmers Johnson, an authority on Japan and its economy, connects the dots between American policies and numerous "blowbacks" experienced in the recent past. It serves as a wake up call for America.

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