IMAGINE FORESIGHT
STRATEGIC FUTURES
ENVISION
Queen City of the Ozarks
Our city is missing a key process for its BIG ideas.
There has been a key process absent in Springfield's engagement with citizens about its future. It was missing from the recent convention center proposal and it is a process that exists precisely to solve the problem that we’ve lived through twice in the last year…it’s called Foresight.
Foresight is a structured, community-driven and systematic process for exploring the future and imagining possibilities, including the uncomfortable ones, and building genuine shared understanding between citizens about where a city wants to go in the future...and WHY. By exploring future possibilities and developing a shared understanding of change together, it creates the kind of stakeholder alignment that doesn't have to be manufactured through a last-minute campaign, because it was earned long before any vote was called.
While no process can produce a city where every resident agrees on every big idea, the goal is to find those bold ideas that are already stress-tested against possible future changes and fears which are rooted deeply enough in shared community values that can weather opposition and still deliver real wins. And if we don’t want to arrive at the same result with a different proposed project next time, shouldn’t we have that process in place?
We applaud Mayor Schrag who has launched a Community Conversations series to hear from residents on ideas to improve Springfield, but it needs to be continuous and to include foresight methods at its core. This can be the moment Springfield finally puts a real, structured process behind that commitment and we propose the formation of ENVISION QCOTO - a community of interest for engaging our citizens on their future, Springfield's future, and their future in Springfield. The idea is inspired by ENVISION Greater Green Bay a similar and successful organization cocreated by a fellow foresight colleague many years ago.
All we have to do is imagine our future possibilities together and at Imagine Foresight, we are ready to be Springfield's trusted local guides into those future possibilities.
We invite you to join our efforts!
Let’s Work Together
Get in touch so we can start working together.
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Why Queen City instead of Springfield?
Queen City is in itself a description of what Springfield can be, an ideal that always pulls us toward a vision which can allow for more diverse thinking about what we can change and how change in the external world will impact us. The name Springfield is tied to the weight of the past that keeps our thinking overly focused on day-to-day problem solving.
How is this initiative different than the SGF Forward comprehensive plan?
While the comprehensive plan was created over several years with community input, it is not a continuous engagement and does not use proper futures-thinking methodologies to help contributors better understand future possibilities and how change could impact them. Foresight is also all about finding evidence for alternative visions of what the future could possibly be like, because it can't be predicted. SGF Forward is largely based on one singular idea of what the future will be based on current trends which we call the BASELINE future, and foresight practitioners typically say that the BASELINE is the least likely version of the future to occur.
Why Imagine Foresight?
As a local Springfieldian inspired by the Vision 20/20 comprehensive plan as a child in the 90s, Seth Harrell attended Parkview High School and Missouri State University, later earning a master's degree in Strategic Foresight from the University of Houston. He works as a consultant for major corporations, helping them to ideate, innovate, and understand change and future-proof their strategic planning. Lena Young is a St. Louis native who has lived in Springfield for the last seven years and not only earned the same master's degree in Strategic Foresight but has gone on to earn a phD and work on projects for NASA.