FIF Series EP 90 - Ethical Dimensions of Foresight Practice

Ethical considerations are fundamental to effective foresight work, yet they often receive less attention than methods and frameworks. Our responsibility when engaging in futures work shapes decisions, influences perspectives, and potentially impacts countless lives.

• The futures we choose to explore direct attention and resources toward certain possibilities while neglecting others
• What gets imagined gets prioritized—foresight practitioners are active participants in creating the future
• Inclusivity means considering whose perspectives are represented in our futures and whose voices are heard
• Practical approaches include diverse participation, multiple perspectives, power awareness, and accessibility
• Transparency requires making values, assumptions, and limitations visible rather than presenting work as objective
• Clearly state guiding values, acknowledge key assumptions, declare limitations, and balance presentation
• Practice consequential thinking by actively considering potential impacts of your work
• Develop an ethical framework with principles that guide your foresight practice
• Conduct ethical reviews throughout your process to reflect on whose perspectives might be missing
• Seek diverse input, practice reflexivity about your own biases, and build ethical capacity in others

Take one aspect of your current foresight work and view it explicitly through an ethical lens. Ask who is represented and who is missing, what values and assumptions underlie this work, and what responsibility you bear for how it might influence decisions. Then make one concrete change based on your reflection.

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🎧 Listen Now On:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/think-forward-conversations-with-futurists-innovators-and-big-thinkers/id1736144515

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0IOn8PZCMMC04uixlATqoO

Web: https://thinkforward.buzzsprout.com/

Thank you for joining me on this ongoing journey into the future. Until next time, stay curious, and always think forward.