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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Futures Literacy

In collaboration with

COURSE OVERVIEW

This course will teach you about the latest ideas in planning and preparing for the future, recognised as the practice of anticipatory systems and processes. You will learn through practical activities and creating actual projects. The skills you gain will help you to think about the future in a way that is useful for your job and community. We will look at important current issues like climate change, artificial intelligence, and social inequality. This course is great for both beginners and those who already know a lot about the topic. You’ll learn how to imagine different possible futures and see how this can help you and your organisation.

Facilitator

Professor Riel Miller
Senior Fellow at: Ecole des Ponts Business School; Herbert J. Smith Centre, U. New Brunswick; Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research & Education; U. Stavanger; U. Witwatersrand; Future Africa, U. Pretoria

Riel Miller is one of the world’s leading authorities on the theory and practice of using the future to change what people see and do. He is recognized as an innovative and globally experienced project initiator, designer, and manager. He is widely published in academic journals and other media on a range of topics, from the future of the Internet to transforming strategic processes. He is an accomplished keynote speaker and facilitator.

Riel Miller started his career at the OECD in Paris in 1982 in the Economics Department. Completed his PhD in Economics at the New School for Social Research in 1987. From 1985 to 1993 he worked for the Ontario Government, in the legislature and as a senior manager in the Ontario public service (Ministries of Finance; Universities; and Industry). In 1995 he returned to the OECD to work in the International Futures Programme and with the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. In 2005 he founded an independent consultancy – xperidox (which means knowledge through experience) to advise public and private sector clients from around the world on how to use the future more effectively. From mid-2012 to early 2022 Riel served as Head of Foresight and Futures Literacy at UNESCO.


Pre-requisites:
University degree

Delivery Format:
Physical

Language:
English

Date:
27 – 29 May

Time:
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM

Location:
Emirates Towers, 3D Office

Target Audience:
Decision makers, Strategic Advisors, Futures Professionals, Policy Makers, Researchers, Scientists

Fees:

AED 6,500
Per Participant

COURSE OUTLINE

Day 1
  • Transformative Futures & Foresight vs. Strategic Foresight
  • Exploring Anticipatory Assumptions
  • Positionality and Embodiment: Facilitating Emergence
Day 2
  • Aperture Framework: Recipes for Transformation
  • Participatory Futures Approaches
  • Assessing and Evaluating Transformative Futures & Foresight

Learning Objectives and outcomes

Learning Objectives

  • Understand what futures literacy means and its importance.
  • Show that you know the main ideas about planning for the future and how to use them.
  • Recognise the planning methods that are most useful for you and start using them.
  • Use specific rules to bring futures thinking into your work or community.
  • Practice using futures thinking to understand what’s happening in the present day.

Learning outcomes

  • Decide how using a variety of planning methods can help meet your main goals.
  • Look at ways to get better at planning for the future, for both you and your organisation.
  • Get hands-on experience with proven rules for using futures thinking in different situations.

AGENDA

Participant will be awarded a certificate upon completion.

For any support and inquiries, please contact: [email protected]