When problem solving we often look at existing, above-ground signals.

Problems are analyzed after they emerge, fueling the space for which we solve.

Responding to signals that have already emerged is a bit like looking backward: acting in the present by reacting to signals created in the past. In this process foresight becomes hindsight.

Strategic foresight takes place in the present moment, but detached from the limitations and capabilities of the present.

Strategies are predicated upon unchanging principles; human nature, inevitabilities, truths. Rooted by the past, they are not confined to it, as the future is where these ideas actually reside.

Opportunity finding requires an open mind, and suspended disbelief. You have to trust that opportunity will present itself and immerse yourself in research, and allow yourself to daydream and experiment.

Go far beyond the problem, don’t just study it, get underneath it, study its roots, and the soil, the air, the sun, that feeds it. Study its growth, and the changes in these conditions, and imagine a future if these continued, stopped, reversed, or amplified.

How would they converge with other intersectional trends? What opportunities would present themselves?