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Think Like a Futurist is the ground-breaking book that shows how to engage in new thinking in order to connect today's pressures with tomorrow's realities. Drawing from more than a decade of work with clients, noted futurist Cecily Sommers shows what it takes to apply long-term focus and strategies to needs as diverse as industry forecasts, innovation challenges, leadership development, and future-proofing a brand. In all her work, she shows how the skills and methodologies needed to think like a futurist can be taught to anyone, how they follow a clear, replicable structure, and how they can be scaled for groups of all sizes. Her book shares the same tools and techniques she uses with individuals and organizations to help them become unstuck from the "Permanent Present," the natural–and often disastrous–bias for projecting current conditions out into the future.

Clearly and deftly, Think Like a Futurist explains how the social, economic, and environmental crises of our time spring from just four constant and predictable forces. Once you understand how they work together to drive change, you can stake out a territory that is yours to invent and own. Think Like a Futurist also reveals future-directed activities designed to spark creative epiphanies, push past resistance, and bring the power of foresight to strategy and innovation, resulting in fresh answers to the ageless questions: Who are you? Where are you going? and What's your territory?

This is not a book about identifying trends, but rather transcending them, which is crucial in today's fast-paced world where success is often defined as movement from deadline to deadline (and crisis to crisis). Throughout, Cecily shows how to make your perspective both more elastic and comprehensive. With her approach, you'll find the long-term vision needed to see opportunities onthe horizon and understand how to realize them.

"Put down your Magic 8 Ball and pick up Think Like a Futurist. In its prescient pages you'll discover how to short circuit the habits that blind us to future trends, how to break through the walls of resistance to change, and how to find the tools you'll need to face the future with confidence."

—Daniel H. Pink Author, Drive and A Whole New Mind

"At last! A book that brings a practical and disciplined approach to creativity and future thinking that can be immediately applied."

—David Kuehler Founder, The Clay Street Project at Procter & Gamble

"Futurism isn't just a profession for an elite few, but a way of thinking that the fast pace of twenty-first century life requires for many of us. Cecily Sommers teaches us what we should have learned in business school or kindergarten—how to apply futures thinking to the challenges of daily life and enterprise."

—Howard Rheingold Author, Net Smart: How to Thrive Online

"Demonstrating a rare blend of heart, foresight, and leadership, Cecily Sommers makes her mark with Think Like a Futurist."

—Andrew Zolli Curator, Pop!Tech; author, Resilience

Cecily Sommers is the founder and president of The Push Institute, a non-profit think tank that tracks significant global trends and their implications for business, government, and the non-profit sector. A global trends analyst and popular speaker, she helps organizations understand and prepare for emerging technologies, markets, and ideas. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

	Introduction
	Part One: Know
	The Four Forces of Change
1	The Four Forces of Change
2	Resources
3	Technology
4	Demographics
5	Governance
	Part Two: New
	The Zone of Discovery
6	Prediction
7	Phase I: Define
8	Phase II: Discover
9	Phase III: Distill
10	Who Are You?
<11/TD>	Where Are You Going?
	Part Three: Do
	The 5 Percent Rule
12	The 5 Percent Rule
13	Tinkering: The Genesis of General Mills? Idea Greenhouse
	Conclusion
	Part Four: What’s Next Toolkit
	The Futurist’s Mind-Set
	Overcoming Resistance to Change
	Notes
	Acknowledgments
	About the Author

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