Futuring isn’t about predicting the future. It’s about preparing for it, widening your aperture, and building the organizational muscles that help you pivot when unexpected events hit. In this Asked and Answered episode of Creative Confidence Podcast, Jennifer Lo, futurist at IDEO, takes on audience questions about future-forward leadership, the ROI of futuring, and how to get started in the field.

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5 Things Leaders Should Know About Bringing Futuring into Their Organization

1. Leadership sets the tone.

Futuring only works if leaders are open-minded. Not everyone in the C-suite needs to be a futurist, but you do need someone in leadership who can “poke and provoke” and expand the horizon for the rest of the team.

2. Balance bold futures with today’s reality.

A healthy leadership team balances visionary futurists with grounded operators. The creative tension between forward-looking strategy and present-day execution sparks better ideas.

3. The value of futuring is clearest when it’s missing.

It’s hard to prove the ROI of futuring in a spreadsheet. But as Jennifer notes, “you may not always feel the ROI when it’s present, but you certainly feel it when it isn’t.” The pandemic was a stark example of organizations caught flat-footed.

4. AI is a powerful assistant, but not a futurist.

Generative AI can scan vast trend reports quickly, but it can’t yet connect unusual signals in the creative ways humans can. Jennifer uses it for desk research but stresses that imagination and synthesis remain uniquely human. She also sees AI as a powerful resource for pattern recognition in history—surfacing past examples and precedents that would otherwise take hours of research to uncover.

5. Getting started is about curiosity.

You don’t need a PhD to practice futures thinking. Most futurists are self-taught, following voices in the field, taking workshops, and layering futuring on top of another area of expertise. Jennifer’s advice: “Don’t douse your curiosity. Keep your antenna up everywhere.”

Missed the first episode?

These tips came directly from our community’s response to the original podcast episode with Jennifer Lo on How to Think Like a Futurist.

In that conversation, Jennifer explored how futuring isn’t about predicting the future; it’s about preparing for it. She shared why foresight is an essential leadership capability, how to make the case for it inside your organization, and practical steps to start building a future-forward leadership practice.

If you haven’t listened yet, we highly recommend it:

Read more from Jennifer Lo

• How to Think Like a Futurist: A Leader’s Guide to Strategic Foresight and Better Decision Making

• Why Every Company Needs a Futurist-in-Residence

• Why Futurists Start with a Backward Glance

• The “Used Future” Trap

Ready to put these ideas into practice?

If you want to strengthen your ability to look ahead, explore possibilities, and shape a strategic path forward, check out IDEO U’s Designing Strategy course. You’ll learn how to reframe complex challenges, evaluate possibilities creatively, and systematically explore strategic options to prepare your organization for the future.