• Junior professionals in strategy, policy, planning, innovation, or consulting who need to make long-term decisions under uncertainty
• Public sector practitioners working on strategic planning and policy development
• Master's students from diverse disciplines seeking transferable skills for navigating complex futures
• Anyone who needs to think systematically about futures in their work – from healthcare to education, from sustainability to technology

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Master the Art and Science of Futures Thinking

Join us for an intensive five-day strategic foresight workshop where you'll learn professional methodology for navigating uncertainty and shaping possible futures. Through hands-on application to a real local challenge – resilient cities in the Geneva context – you'll master essential foresight tools that can be applied to any complex, long-term strategic question.

Why Strategic Foresight? Why Now?

We face unprecedented uncertainty across every domain: technological disruption, climate change, demographic shifts, geopolitical instability, social transformation. Traditional planning approaches – based on prediction and single-future assumptions – no longer work.

Strategic foresight offers a structured methodology for:

• Navigating deep uncertainty without pretending to predict
• Exploring multiple plausible futures systematically
• Identifying robust strategies that work across different scenarios
• Building organizational and personal capacity to anticipate and adapt
• Making better long-term decisions today 

This summer school equips you to:

• Apply a complete foresight toolkit to any strategic challenge
• Facilitate scenario planning processes in your organization
• Integrate futures thinking into strategic planning and decision-making
• Build stakeholder alignment around long-term strategy
• Communicate about uncertainty and futures effectively

Whether you're a student building career skills or a professional expanding your strategic toolkit, these methodologies will transform how you approach any long-term challenge.

No prior experience with foresight methodologies required—just a commitment to rigorous thinking about uncertainty and futures.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

Core Foresight Competencies

Future Thinking & Scenario Planning
Move beyond linear predictions to explore multiple plausible futures. Learn to use horizon scanning, the futures triangle, and scenario matrices to navigate uncertainty with confidence.

Systems Thinking for Complex Challenges
Master tools like PESTEL frameworks, stakeholder analysis, and futures wheels to understand how urban nature systems interconnect with social, economic, and technological factors across time.

Strategic Decision-Making Under Uncertainty
Develop the capacity to make robust decisions that work across multiple future scenarios. Apply wind tunneling and SWOT-TOWS analysis to stress-test strategic actions.

Collaborative Sensemaking
Build collective intelligence through team-based scenario development, peer review sessions, and stakeholder engagement—essential skills for addressing wicked problems.

Adaptive Communication
Learn to translate complex future scenarios into compelling narratives and actionable recommendations for diverse stakeholders, from policymakers to community members.

ASSESSMENT & DELIVERABLES

Your work will be evaluated on three components:

1. Team Project Presentation (poster format)
   Present your 3-4 scenarios and strategic recommendations to clients and peers
2. Active Participation
   Engage fully in workshops, field visits, and peer learning activities

Note: This is a pass/fail evaluation. Responsible use of AI tools is permitted for team projects (with full attribution), but not for individual reflective essays.

It is the sole responsibility of the student to secure approval from their home institution for the transfer or recognition of academic credit for this course, in accordance with our Terms & Conditions.