Using Fiction to Find Your Strategy

Most executives don't use their imaginations when they plan. The authors say this is counter productive. They offer design fiction. A design technique that immerses executives and employees deeply in various possible futures, it uses artifacts such as short movies and fictitious newspaper articles. Design fiction helps companies act in the present and in the future at the same time.

Predicting what the future will look like is pointless. This is what many executives do when they plan. We do this because we have been trained to use trends and statistics to predict what will happen. Companies have a hard time reacting to changes in their environments when they should be shaping them. This is an issue for executives around the globe who miss out on important opportunities to envision and design futures.