The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Short training courses

Scenario Planning - managing for the unknown

Recommended for:

HR partners, senior line managers, internal and external consultants and all those who have concern for the successful future of the business.

Course overview:

We all know that we can’t predict the future, yet every year in our organisations we are asked to forecast, budget and plan – typically our planning consists of extrapolating from the past into the future which is reactive rather than proactive. Learn how to ‘expect the unexpected’ by thinking about different possible futures; how you can recognise which future you are moving towards and which levers you can pull in your organisation to steer a more beneficial course – minimise uncertainty and take advantage of windows of opportunity.

Course benefits:

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

  • recognise the greatest areas of future uncertainty for your organisation
  • identify the effects a range of different futures might have on your organisation and how best to respond to those effects
  • identify changes that will enable them to be more responsive not just to one but to a range of likely futures
  • identify what sort of a future is emerging in order to respond at the best time and in the best way
  • identify what each individual needs to do differently for each unfolding future
  • expand your mental models, for better, more strategic thinking and generate new opportunities
  • different futures provide a ‘wind tunnel’ to test your decision making – it becomes more robust