2010-05-29

Future Savvy : identifying trends to make better decisions, manage uncertainty, and profit from change, by Adam Gordon. American Management Association, 2009.

Illuminating study of forecasts and how individuals and organizations spin them for their own benefit. Most interesting to me were the chapters on instigating changes vs. adapting to changes. Instigators spin the forecast to influence others to create or adopt the change; adapters take the forecast and create several alternate plans so they can be in the best possible position, whichever scenario unfolds. The work ends with a condensed list of questions to ask of any forecast, and a reference to the web site: http://futuresavvy.net/.