Introduction
Figuring out how to maintain effectiveness in a volatile and changeable environment is a pertinent goal for civil society organisations around the world. In today’s world, civil society actors must navigate geopolitical volatility, digital disruption, the intensifying impacts of climate change, and shifting models of aid and governance. This guide is designed to help organisations test the resilience of their strategy against different possible futures and adapt accordingly to ensure that their long-term visions remain relevant. The goal of using this guide is to challenge and update your existing strategy, rather than design a new strategy from scratch. By stress-testing organisational strategies against future scenarios and ensuring that they are agile enough to remain effective in different contexts, organisations can strengthen their capacity to anticipate, rather than react to, systemic shifts. In volatile times, organisations must invest in adaptability to ensure their long-term impact. This guide enables you to:
- Adapt your organisational strategy to ensure that it continues to deliver impact despite the uncertainty of the future;
- Align your teams around a shared long-term vision and co-create a pathway forward; and
- Strengthen your organisational resilience and adaptability by integrating futures practice into your leadership culture.
While this guide outlines a series of sequential exercises to support a strategic review, technical exercises alone are not enough to future-proof an organisation. The success of this initiative depends on people and their leadership, collaboration, communication and ability to build shared ownership of change. It requires soft skills, such as facilitation, negotiation and empathy, and a change management approach that fosters a collective understanding of current and potential future challenges and how the organisation can effectively and proactively respond to them. In times of uncertainty, it is essential for organisational leaders to be conscious of the personal and emotional dynamics of change processes.
