By Toshi Hoo, Director, IFTF Emerging Media Lab The facts are sobering: According to a 2012 report by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, more than 65 percent of those released from California’s prison system return within three years. …

On a hot July day in Northern California, IFTF researchers Ben Hamamoto and Rachel Maguire, with almost 30 years of experience in futures work between them, sat down to reflect on health-focused forecasts they had developed over ten years ago, focusing particularly on those predictions that did not unfold as…

By Sami Makelainen, IFTF Research Affiliate The Perils of Pure Optimism Most of us think about the future dozens of times per day; sometimes it’s about what we’re going to have for lunch, other times it’s daydreaming about some bigger goals or decisions. Daydreaming isn’t just a waste of time; it can be a powerful…

By Mike Hyzy, Senior Principal Consultant, Daugherty Business Solutions In the rapidly evolving world of product management, there’s a stark realization that by the time you build a product to fit today’s needs, those needs are obsolete. The product cycle, even in its most “agile” form, could take months to…

By Mary Martin, PhD; Mindfulness Educator and Author As a mindfulness practitioner and teacher, I tend to notice things about my own experiences. I wasn’t a pessimist or optimist prior to IFTF’s Imagination Leadership Training, despite research that says optimists tend to be happier, healthier, and live longer. Just as…

By Jeremy Kirshbaum, IFTF Research Affiliate and Founder of Handshake.fyi Over the last decade, violent insurgency and unrest in the Northeast of Nigeria, especially Borno State, has had a negative impact on children’s access to education and learning, with nearly 75 percent, or just over 1.4 million children out of…

By Mark Frauenfelder, IFTF Editorial Director Computer scientist Alan Kay is often credited for saying, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” In truth, no one really knows who said it first. But the quote fits Kay. …

By Alison Lingane, co-founder of Project Equity Employee ownership offers multiple benefits to businesses, owners, employees, and the local economy, including faster growth, higher profits, better wages and benefits, and business retention. Mainstream lenders face challenges in financing employee ownership transitions, but specialized and nonprofit loan funds play a crucial…

By Dr. Jorge Camacho, Research Affiliate, Institute for the Future In 2016, a group of cognitive scientists at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, developed a series of experiments that illustrate the essence of foresight in a deceptively simple form. The first of these experiments was performed with children…