The strategic foresight imperative: Leadership and navigating the future

Abstract

Mainstream strategy and leadership continues to reveal a gap in understanding the role of foresight in the strategy and decision making process. Current conditions of turbulent change and uncertainty demands leadership capabilities that anticipate aspects of the future and enable organizations to proactively navigate such change. Leaders are called upon to provide enabling environments that are significantly different to the recent past and develop a 'living organizational strategy'. The paper explores the relationship between psychological obstacles to thinking about the future, the roles of leaders, strategic foresight and their connectedness to moving from reaction to becoming strategically ambidextrous. The strategic foresight concept is proposed to be a critical leadership capability required to embrace the future. It also provides a framework for foresight education in leadership development.