It was during a lecture by futurist Bob Johansen that Jennifer Lo first caught what she calls “the futuring bug.” Jennifer approached him after the talk to ask for advice on how to build a futuring practice. His answer: “Whatever thread you like pulling, pull it harder.” She’s been following her curiosity ever since.

That curiosity eventually led her to IDEO, where she now serves as Senior Director of Design Futures, helping leaders and teams imagine the future they want and make tangible progress toward it. Jennifer brings deep experience from healthcare, where she led innovation at Kaiser Permanente, and now teaches foresight and design at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Public Health. She’s also a First Movers Fellow with the Aspen Institute, advancing a grounded, actionable approach to strategic foresight she calls tangible futuring.

In this episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast, host Mina Seetharaman sits down with Jennifer to explore how leaders can think like futurists—not to predict what’s coming, but to prepare for it with confidence and creativity.

Whether you’re navigating big change, shaping long-term strategy, or simply trying to inspire more forward-thinking in your team, this conversation offers practical tools and powerful mindset shifts to help.

Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

What Is Futuring and Why Should Leaders Care?

Futures thinking might sound abstract or overwhelming, but Jennifer offers a much more grounded version—what she calls near futuring. Instead of projecting 50 years out, she suggests starting in the 5–15 year range, just beyond your current strategy horizon.

“Futuring isn’t about predicting the future,” she clarifies. “It’s about making better decisions today by thinking a little bit further ahead.” The futures cone is a helpful tool for understanding the range of futures available—from the possible, to probable, and preferred.

Imagine a tidal wave headed toward you on a sandy shore. “You can ride the wave, you can get hit by the wave, or you can try to stand on the shore,” Jennifer says of ways to handle change. “And right now the shore is eroding.”

As the pace of change accelerates, standing still is no longer a viable option. Futuring gives leaders the tools to navigate uncertainty more confidently, not by guessing what’s next, but by using real data points and signals.

Improve Leadership Capabilities with Futuring Mindsets

From fear to agency

To lead effectively in uncertain times, Jennifer encourages a shift in mindset—from fear of the unknown to agency over what comes to be. Futuring, she says, isn’t just a strategic function—it’s a leadership skill that helps teams navigate ambiguity with more clarity and creativity. Making future concepts more real, through artifacts and stories, can help bring teams into the conversation and reduce the fear that often comes with big, abstract ideas.

From obstacles to possibilities

One of the most powerful tools in her toolkit is a simple question: “What would have to be true for this to work?” This reframing moves the conversation away from obstacles and toward possibilities, empowering leaders and teams to think expansively instead of getting stuck in constraints.

Preferred futures become strategic anchors

Jennifer also urges leaders to move beyond what’s possible or probable, and instead define what’s preferable. A leader with a futurist mindset asks: “What future would you be proud to help create?” 

The answer to that question helps create a vision that is more than a North Star—it becomes a strategic anchor. “The role of a leader is to define a preferred future and give your team the agency to make it real,” she says.

Three Tools to Start Thinking Like a Futurist 

You don’t need to become a futurist to apply their tools. Start with the building blocks of a futurist’s practice:

1. Signals – Small, early signs of change on the edges of culture, technology, and business. They may seem subtle, but they often point to something bigger on the horizon.
   

2. Trends – Patterns of behavior or change gaining momentum. They show what’s emerging across industries and help you spot where things might be heading next.
   

3. Drivers – The large-scale forces that shape our world—social, technological, economic, environmental, and political. These help explain why change is happening.

These tools are accessible, but creating meaning out of them comes with practice, Jennifer says. “There's an alchemy that takes signals, trends, and drivers and kind of mixes them up, and the alloy that comes from that alchemy is stories of the future.”

A Practical Approach to Everyday Futures Thinking

Jennifer shared a simple, repeatable formula for building futures thinking into your daily work:

1. Spot Signals

Look for small, unexpected developments at the edges of culture, technology, or industry. Start with trends if that’s easier—then dig deeper to find the signals hiding underneath.

2. Identify the Drivers

Ask: What’s behind this signal? What larger forces—social, economic, environmental, political—might be fueling the shift?

3. Imagine What’s Next

Ask: What if this became the norm? Then follow up with: What would that mean for our business?

“We make better decisions when we have a sense of what’s coming,” Jennifer says. She encourages leaders to look beyond their own field for inspiration, build cross-disciplinary curiosity, and track how these elements interact.

Make the Future Tangible with Artifacts and Stories

Jennifer believes that futures thinking works best if it’s concrete, not conceptual. Here are two of her favorite exercises for making future possibilities feel more real.

• Artifacts from the future – Create something mundane (like a parking ticket or a menu) from 10 years ahead. Then ask: what does this tell us about the world it came from?
  

• Birthday party in 30 years – Invite people to imagine their own future in personal terms, like their birthday party in 2040. Who’s there? What does it feel like?
  
  

“Artifacts are better than abstracts,” Jennifer says. “They make the future feel real—and therefore actionable.”

How to Bring Futuring Into Your Organization 

If you’re wondering how to get started with futuring inside your organization, Jennifer has a clear message: don’t overcomplicate it—just begin. The key is to start small, stay grounded, and build forward from where you already are.

Start with near futures

“Start where your strategy horizon starts to fade,” Jennifer says of identifying a realistic entry point. “That’s where near-futuring begins.” If your org plans 18 months out, look at year two. If your team’s vision is five years, think about year six. This approach meets teams where they are and stretches them just far enough into new thinking. “Thinking big is important—but start small. Start near. That’s how you build a futuring culture.”

Balance futures thinking with present realities

Not everyone in the organization needs to think like a futurist—but some people absolutely should. Jennifer encourages leaders to identify and empower those who are naturally systems thinkers or horizon scanners. These individuals can help the organization look ahead, while others stay rooted in the here and now.

You don’t need to invent a new role to do this. It’s about creating space and expectation for certain people to look beyond today’s problems and scan for tomorrow’s possibilities.

Embed futuring into existing workflows

Futuring shouldn't be a one-off initiative or buried in vision decks. Jennifer emphasizes that it needs to live inside your actual processes—in planning cycles, team rituals, and decision-making conversations.

Whether it’s starting meetings by scanning signals or asking bold “what if” questions in strategy reviews, futures thinking becomes powerful when it’s baked into how the organization works.

Consider a Futurist-in-Residence

For organizations ready to take things further, Jennifer suggests creating a futurist-in-residence role—someone whose job is to build foresight capabilities, facilitate long-term thinking, and bring energy and structure to ambiguity.

What a futurist-in-residence can offer:

• Tools, frameworks, and facilitation for future-focused discussions

• Training teams to scan signals and practice foresight

• A shared language for uncertainty and long-term strategy

Futuring Expands the Aperture of Possibility

Futuring is not about finding the right answer or predicting what comes next. It’s about widening the frame, asking better questions, and making space for new ideas to emerge. Jennifer calls herself an optimistic futurist—not because she believes the future will be easy, but because she believes in our collective ability to shape it. 

“The more we can make futuring available and tangible and possible for people, the more likely they are to start thinking long-term,” she reflects. “And if everybody starts thinking long-term and systemically, we can start solving these big issues that exist—and we can design the future that we want.”

Key Takeaways

• Futuring is about preparation, not prediction. It helps leaders make better decisions today by exploring what might happen tomorrow.
  

• Start just beyond your planning horizon. Jennifer calls this “near-futuring”—a practical way to stretch your thinking without getting lost in abstraction.
  

• Ask better questions. One of Jennifer’s go-to prompts: “What would have to be true for this to work?” It shifts focus from barriers to possibilities.
  

• Make futures tangible. Use artifacts, stories, and everyday scenarios to bring long-term ideas to life and make them actionable.
  

• Futuring is a leadership skill. It fosters agency, clarity, and purpose and empowers teams to imagine and work toward a preferred future.
  

• Embed futuring in your culture. Integrate futures thinking into your planning, meetings, and team rituals—not just strategy decks.
  

• You don’t need to be a futurist to think like one. Start small. Start near. And help your organization become more future-ready, one decision at a time.

Keep Exploring: Build Your Futurist Mindset

Ready to bring futures thinking into your own work? Here are a few ways to go deeper:

Learn the Skills

• Strategic Thinking Course: Futuring and strategy go hand-in-hand. This course will help you reframe challenges, explore possibilities, and make bold, informed decisions.
  

Read More from Jennifer

• Why Every Company Needs a Futurist-in-Residence

• Why Futurists Start with a Backward Glance
  

• The “Used Future” Trap

Stay Connected

• Follow Jennifer on LinkedIn for more insights on design, futures thinking, and innovation.
  

• Join the conversation by sharing your favorite takeaways and connecting with fellow future-focused thinkers on our LinkedIn event post.

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