• Understand the origins of foresight, the emerging profession, basic components of the discipline, and opportunities to participate in the field.
• Understand the steps and processes involved in adding a foresight capability to an existing strategic management process within their organization.
• Understand the value that foresight brings to their organization.
• Understand how to become active as a foresight practitioner.
Over the past decade, foresight (also known as futures and forecasting), has made significant strides in the United States (U.S.) federal government. Recently, the Defense Health Agency (DHA) integrated foresight into its own strategy management process, underscoring the critical role of foresight in informing strategic planning. Foresight is often described as “everything to the left of strategic planning”. Strategic foresight looks ten or more years into the future and provides probable scenarios regarding one or more specific topics – such as health care or artificial intelligence (AI). An extensive literature search revealed a lack of research (academic and non-academic) on the topic of integrating foresight into the organization’s strategic management process. Although strategic foresight is meant to integrate with strategy, it is often excluded from having a role in the strategy development and overall management process and is often treated as a separate and distinct discipline. This poster session will offer a comprehensive overview of the foresight capabilities and describes the process implemented at the DHA, progress made within the Agency, lessons learned, and the contributions that foresight has brought to the organization. It will detail the steps DHA took to stand up a strategic foresight capability, share the concept of operations, provide insights about connecting with foresight practitioner communities, and give recommendations for certification and training. It will also discuss an external environmental scan where DHA Foresight Specialists interviewed industry professionals from over 20 U.S. government organizations about the impact of their futures work, lessons learned, as well as guidance and advice on the process of establishing a foresight cell. The poster session will also discuss the results of an internal environmental scan conducted with DHA senior leaders that provided direction for all future work. Lastly, it will describe the Agency’s quarterly written report for senior leaders, staff members, and foresight community partners which highlights the latest trends and signals that can be used today to make strategic decisions that will impact the organization over the next ten years.