Day 18 of 21 Days of Futures Fit Learning Strategic Communication

21 Apr 2026 · 3 min

Watch on YouTube

2:56

In this short lecture, the speaker outlines the role of strategic communication within futures thinking. She first presents a four‑stage futures planning framework: (1) gathering intelligence, (2) describing and managing inevitable change, (3) envisioning alternative futures, and (4) communicating the preferred scenario. Emphasizing the third stage, she argues that describing a future is the most engaging part of futures work because it allows us to paint vivid, inspiring pictures of what could be. Using Antoine de Saint‑Exupéry’s ship‑building metaphor, she stresses that people need to yearn for a vast, beautiful sea rather than merely follow procedural orders. The speaker adopts a choice‑based view of the world, stating that all current conditions—whether abuse, war, or exploitative economics—are the result of past choices, and that different futures require new choices. She contrasts KPI‑driven, jargon‑heavy communication, which can lead to efficiency even as an organization becomes irrelevant, with scenario‑driven storytelling that co‑creates a tangible, emotionally resonant preferred future. By reaching both hearts and minds, strategic communication becomes the bridge that translates a compelling vision into collective action, mobilising people to “gather the wood and divide the work” toward that future.

Chapters

Day 18, and we are looking at strategic communication. Let me take you on a slight detour. There are 4 stages to a futures plan. Stage 1 is to gather intelligence, sort of what we're doing now. Stage 2 is to describe, explore, manage the inevitable change that we're experiencing. And stage 3 is to describe the future, and that's where this competency comes in. Describing the future is for me the most fun part of futures thinking. We get to paint a picture of what is possible. The famous quote by French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a perfect example. If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood and divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. Most people are intelligent enough to grasp the complexity of our current world and to understand how challenging the future will be. We don't need to be reminded of the pace and complexity of the world, and we don't need to be threatened by headlines that are designed for clickbait or ragebait. What we need is someone who can paint a picture of an alternative. Is what is being experienced around the world inevitable? Is there no alternative? The truth is that everything we experience is the result of a choice, somebody's choice, and it doesn't matter if we're talking about abuse or war or exploitative economic models. They are all choices, and the only way we get to have a different world or a different future is to make a different choice. Let's bring it down to something of a more manageable scale. In your work environment, you may be pursuing a strategy plan. You might be measuring KPIs and communicating in jargon and statistics. You can keep playing that game and measuring the KPIs, and perhaps you'll become incredibly efficient even as your company heads towards bankruptcy and irrelevance. Or you could begin to paint a different picture. You could explore what an alternative future looks like, a different scenario. You could collaborate on a description of a more preferred future that you would like to experience, and once it becomes tangible, it becomes possible. If you can describe it, if you can talk about how it feels to live in that kind of a world, if you can reach both the hearts and minds of your people, then you have a hope of working towards that future. If you can't describe a future, then no one will move towards it with you. Strategic communication is how you communicate that scenario to those who would be gathering the wood and dividing the work. But oh, how those people long for a vast and beautiful future.