By Linda Fisher Thornton
Due to the uncertainty and constant change we’re experiencing during the pandemic, every organization should be considering how to adapt to multiple COVID-19 scenarios. Global futurists have already provided us with a variety of possible global scenarios to use in our planning.
Based on data and global input, these robust scenarios will help us prepare for foreseeable outcomes. While we can’t “plan” in the traditional sense, we can imagine possible futures and how the work we do will be impacted by them.
Each organization on the list below provides a unique perspective on possible futures with COVID-19. The formats include a video overview, map and reports. Review these scenarios with your teams and answer the critical questions that follow.
Scenarios For a Future With COVID-19:
Scenarios Video, Institute For the Future
Pandemic Map, Institute For the Future
COVID-19 Scenarios, The Millennium Project
How COVID-19 is Changing the World: A Statistical Perspective, United Nations Statistics Division
Ask your team to help you answer the following questions:
- How will we need to reimagine what we consider to be our “success” in each scenario?
- How can we adapt our work to thrive in each possible scenario?
- Where are our greatest risks and what can we do now to reduce them?
We could guess what’s going to happen, but we don’t need to. Hard-working global futurists have already done the work. Let’s use what they’ve learned to help us navigate the coming year.
Leading in Context 