The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wild card—a highly disruptive and generally unanticipated event. While few would have predicted how much change 2020 would bring to the way people and organizations work, leaders who track work trends may have had an easier transition.

For instance, those already thinking about or using collaborative platforms like Microsoft Teams or Slack, or who work in organizations that already had hybrid or remote work options for staff, may have found pandemic-related operational changes easier to manage. Organizations with savvy social media teams found ways to bypass overflowing email inboxes to connect and engage with members across a variety of channels. Two years after the start of the pandemic, these practices are common, so it’s easy to forget there was a time—only a couple of years ago—when they were less ordinary.

Trends tracking and thinking about the future are second nature for a lot of leaders, but channeling it effectively for work takes deliberate effort. In the ASAE ForesightWorks User’s Guide, Marsha Rhea, CAE, identifies four key approaches to integrating foresight thinking and practices into association work.

Strategic Planning and Strategy Development

Futures thinking is a critical element of strategic planning. But, Rhea notes, “the foresight challenge in strategic planning is to think long term.” She suggests that groups commit to exploring a 10-year horizon in their planning process, allowing for a broader consideration of potential changes.

A strategic discussion that looks out over a full decade is a big ask, so Rhea suggests working with stakeholders to prioritize key drivers of change that will provide a focus for the conversations. These drivers can also serve as primary talking points when the organization releases the strategic plan.

Risk Analysis

Risk assessment goes hand in hand with making plans, but, in thinking about the future, leaders also need to weigh the risk of failing to act. When budgets are tight and there are clear, immediate needs, it may feel necessary to put off actions that don’t seem as urgent.

Assessing when a driver of change may impact an organization or its constituents can help determine if it may have less obvious near-term repercussions. An appendix document in the User’s Guide, “Questions to Understand Timing,” advises leaders to consider complicating factors that will affect how quickly they may experience the effects of a driver of change, including:

• Is there a strong need to have the change happen, and is that need greater than the risks that may be associated with the change?
• Are there other trends that are pushing this change along?
• Are there pending regulations or laws that could dampen the change?

Innovation and Business Development

Examining a set of prioritized drivers of change may reveal that the organization needs to develop new capabilities or new products and services. As Rhea writes, “By imagining possibilities and challenges related to specific drivers of change, forward-thinking association professionals can design better futures for their members and stakeholders.”

Consider engaging member subject matter experts and staff in discussions that connect drivers of change to potential new directions. Their expertise will add practical depth to “what if” conversations.

Anticipatory Learning

When you identify drivers of change relevant to the future of your field, you’re also identifying essential learning for your members. Educating members on key drivers of change will give them the opportunity to think through how shifts will affect their work and will provide you with critical insights into their perspectives.

Rhea notes that the members that first flock to this kind of anticipatory learning will be the “pioneers and early adopters.” They can advance broader understanding of the shifts and why these topics matter to your association and your members. If getting buy-in for strategic planning is needed, it’s helpful to offer some kind of anticipatory learning, especially for key stakeholders.