FUTURES

Vision-led planning in an uncertain world

Long exposure shot of cars travelling along a street at night.

What does the future look like? In a rapidly changing world, can we truly plan for it? The climate emergency, remote working, artificial intelligence and the need for resilience and social transformation make it clear: relying on the past to plan the future is no longer adequate. We need bold, vision-led planning to enable robust decision making.

What can we do for you?

FUTURES (Future Uncertainty Toolkit for Understanding and Responding to an Evolving Society) is an approach that has been designed by Mott MacDonald and the University of the West of England to support decision making at the strategic planning stage.

View our FUTURES guide

Develop vision-led plans

Using collaborative foresight tools with a diverse set of stakeholders, decision-makers and citizens, FUTURES helps government and planning bodies at all levels to consider their preferred future and accommodate the uncertainties that are outside of their control.

Forge a resilient strategy

Ultimately, FUTURES helps develop a resilient and shared strategy to achieve success whether this is for a nation, a region, a city or a town. It can also assist the successful deployment of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and connected automated mobility.

Build consensus

Difficult decisions lie ahead if we are to tackle some of society’s biggest challenges, and political and public opposition is a significant barrier to progress. FUTURES provides accessible tools that manage conflict, open up new thinking and encourage diverse and shared conversations to overcome differences in opinion and pave the way to success.

SIX SIMPLE STEPS TO HELP YOU NAVIGATE THE FUTURE

We recognise that organisations start at different levels of knowledge and experience. Depending on your objectives, you may need to use one, some or all of the six stages in our FUTURES toolkit.

Expose the uncertainties you face.

We can:

Establish the drivers of change and critical uncertainties that will inform the development of your unique scenario set.
Create scenarios that communicate different possible futures through narratives, stories and visualisation to enable everyone to understand the challenges and opportunities of the future.

Identify steps you could take to realise your vision.

We can:

Identify barriers to achieving your goals using ‘What's Stopping Us?’ which helps prioritise challenges and develop actionable strategies to overcome them.
Generate innovative solutions to challenges by using ‘How Can We?’ which promotes collaborative brainstorming to identify steps for achieving your objectives.

Identify the best steps for your strategy that are resilient to the uncertainties.

We can:

Rank options effectively using Prioritising Options, which helps evaluate and select the most impactful choices in policy development.
Test policy robustness against the scenarios using Stress Testing, which evaluates how well policies can withstand unexpected challenges and disruptive events, ensuring they remain effective under various scenarios.

Keep revisiting your strategy and be prepared to adjust.

We can:

Define a desirable future using Backcasting, which starts with envisioning long-term goals and then works backwards to identify the necessary steps to achieve those objectives.
Establish clear policy pathways using Roadmapping, which outlines strategic initiatives and timelines to align stakeholders and guide effective policy development and implementation.

Red tram at a stop during twilight in Newcastle, Australia.

Our experience

We’ve helped government and planning bodies across many sectors to plan for the future. Some of our recent work has included:

Department for Transport (DfT), UK

We deliver the DfT’s Futures Programme and have provided over £2 million in ‘Futures and Foresight’ advisory support since 2019, with over 30 projects successfully delivered. These have included exploring the future of rail, road mapping technology options for decarbonising transport and considering the potential role of AI in transport and society.
Transport for the North (TfN), UK

We have updated TfN's Future Travel Scenarios (FTS) to better reflect emerging key drivers of change, enabling not only TfN but also its partners to develop robust, adaptive and resilient plans. We facilitated increased collaboration and consensus around the FTS that strengthened partnerships at local, regional, and national levels.
Cheshire West and Chester Council, UK

We played a pivotal role in assisting CW&CC in developing a vision that served as the cornerstone of their Local Transport Plan 5. It involved collaboration and co-creation with council officers and members, which was a significant first for the council. We also tailored TfN’s FTS to the specific context of CW&CC to identify key opportunities and challenges for transport in the borough.

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