Designing tomorrow to act today: the Desirable Futures Toolbox to align the organization toward shared horizons.
Desirable futures are the concrete projection of an organization's goals over time. The Desirable Futures Toolbox is Tipic's proprietary set of tools designed to help teams overcome current crises by leveraging their deep aspirations. It is not about predicting the future, but about actively framing the versions of tomorrow that drive us to evolve our behaviors today.
Designing your own desirable futures allows for aligning individual desires with collective strategy, breaking down motivation across different levels: individual, team, and organization. Clearly defining where you want to go is the necessary condition for tracing the direction to innovate effectively and generate a positive and lasting impact.
Desirable futures are the force that enables people to embrace change. Imagine the future today to make it possible tomorrow.
How to use the Desirable Futures Toolbox
Anchoring and Alignment
Before projecting into the future, consolidate the foundations of your present.
Step 1: Recall Purpose and Values.
Take the shared Purpose and guiding values defined in previous phases and place them at the base of your work: they are the engine that fuels the tension toward the future.
Step 2: Connect to Global Goals.
Select the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that, consistent with your purpose, give a coherent and measurable direction to your desirable futures.
Multi-level Projection
Use the canvas to explore the impact of your vision across different temporal and relational scales.
Step 3: Define the Time Horizon.
Choose the milestones to measure yourself against: from today to the next 5 or 10 years, up to outlining utopian scenarios.
Step 4: Map the Futures (Micro, Meso, Macro).
Answer key questions: what do you want to see happen tangibly for yourselves as individuals, for your organization, and for the entire ecosystem?
Strategic Synthesis
Step 5: Compose the Future Statement.
Join all the points into a coherent narrative: "We exist because (Purpose), with these values, to achieve these goals, in order to realize this desirable future."
Frequently asked questions about the Desirable Futures Toolbox
What are desirable futures?
Desirable futures are the concrete projection of an organization's goals over time: not predictions, but actively framed versions of tomorrow, capable of pushing people to evolve their behaviours today. They are the force that allows individuals, teams, and organizations to embrace change.
What is the Desirable Futures Toolbox?
It is the set of proprietary tools developed by TIPIC to help teams overcome current crises by leveraging their deep aspirations: starting from purpose and values, it guides you to project the vision across multiple time horizons and levels (individual, organization, system), up to composing a shared Statement of Future.
How do you use the Desirable Futures Toolbox?
First consolidate the foundations: purpose, guiding values, and the Sustainable Development Goals consistent with your aims. Then project: choose the time milestones (from today to 5–10 years, up to utopian scenarios) and map what you want to happen at micro, meso, and macro level. Finally, synthesize everything into a coherent narrative.
What role do the SDGs play in desirable futures?
The UN Sustainable Development Goals give desirable futures a coherent, measurable direction: selecting the SDGs aligned with your purpose anchors the organization's aspirations to recognized global goals, making the vision comparable and credible to all stakeholders.
Where can I download the Desirable Futures Toolbox?
You can download TIPIC's Desirable Futures Toolbox for free from this page, in English and Italian, with the multilevel projection canvas and the structure of the Statement of Future.
