Federal agencies must regularly update their strategic plans. The OMB recently mandated that the revised plans take a longer-term view. GPRA requires that plans take external factors into account and involve stakeholder input. Leading Futurists, LLC is uniquely positioned to help you fulfill these needs. Two key ways to accomplish these tasks are:
- Environmental scanning to discover and interpret external factors that could affect an agency meeting its goals and objectives.
- Building scenarios of alternative futures.
Leading Futurists has extensive experience in both of these powerful approaches to building a long-term view.
Environmental scanning
Environmental scanning is a method for discovering the external factors shaping an organization’s work. Scanning involves reviewing wide-ranging information sources, discovering forces and trends, and interpreting them for the organization. Scanning meets the OMB mandate to include a perspective “of current economic, social, demographic, environmental, international, or other conditions that are relevant to the major functions and operations of the agency.”
Scenario building
Scenarios are a method for exploring alternative futures, since we cannot, and should not depend on singular predictions about how change will unfold. Scenarios can involve key staff and stakeholders and combine their knowledge about important change. They are powerful communication tools, since they present fully formed views of future possibilities. Scenarios meet the advice the OMB to include a “forward-looking description of prospective changes in the conditions over the time period covered” by your plan.