How to use the Foresighting Tool

You can draw on the Foresighting Tool at multiple points throughout the innovation journey, but it is most effective after a problem and potential solution have been identified, and as innovation teams are adapting or inventing their respective solutions. The annotations and numbering in the tool itself describe how to work through the steps.

Values

This section builds on the output of the Values Clarification Tool, through which innovation teams work together to identify and articulate their values as a team. Write your prioritised values in this first section.

Activities/actions

This section prompts you to think about the specific project activities and tasks you and your innovation team will undertake. The activities can be shared in as much, or as little detail as desired. If the tool is being used with an innovation manager or donor liaison, for example, more detail may be beneficial to equip the external party with greater insight into the innovation team’s thinking.

Anticipated challenges

This step requires innovation teams to examine the project activities they have identified as being critical to the success of your innovation, and to consider (in as much depth as possible) the ethical challenges you may face while pursuing these activities. The Ethics For Actions Tool can help with this process.

Connections

The innovation team should try to connect the values, activities, and associated challenges they have identified, by placing the ‘challenge’ notes in the appropriate place. The aim of this step is to link values and challenges with activities, to help prioritise them.

Values-driven strategies

This is the critical last step in linking the other sections. You should look at which of your team’s core values appear most relevant for each activity, and then determine how to operationalise that value in response to challenges associated with that activity.