Three Horizons: The Patterning of Hope - Softcover

Sharpe, Bill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1909470244 ISBN 13: 9781909470248

Publisher: Triarchy Press Ltd, 2013

Synopsis

Three Horizons is a simple and intuitive framework for thinking about the future. But it is about much more than simply stretching our thinking to embrace the short, medium and long term. Here Bill Sharpe introduces Three Horizons as a prompt for developing a 'future consciousness' - a rich and multifaceted awareness of the future potential of the present moment - and explores how to put that awareness to work to create the futures we aspire to. The book first outlines the Three Horizons framework and the practices it supports, including case studies of its effective application in rural community development, education, healthcare and elsewhere. In the fi nal section, Sharpe explores his intuition "that we have within us a far deeper capacity for shared life than we are using, and that we are suffering from an attempt to know our way into the future instead of live our way". Here he thrillingly outlines the potential of future consciousness as a shared cultural practice to guide society towards a third horizon that is the patterning of our mutual hopes.

About this title

About the Author

Bill Sharpe is an independent researcher in science, technology and society. He was a research director at Hewlett Packard Laboratories where he led research into everyday applications of technology and introduced scenario methods to HP to support long-range research and innovation. Since leaving HP he has specialized in science, technology and policy studies for business strategy and public policy foresight. With a background in psychology he is particularly interested in drawing on leading edge research in cognition and systems thinking to find new ways of tackling complex problems. He is a member of International Futures Forum.

Review

"How can an eclectic group of experts, with very different worldviews, come to a shared vision for the future? Using the Three Horizons framework, skilled facilitators achieved the seemingly impossible and enabled the Carnegie Commission for Rural Community Development to agree a compelling, inspiring and hopeful blueprint for the future of rural communities. Now Bill Sharpe reveals the full potential for this way of thinking to generate practical hope in all kinds of complex policy areas."
Kate Braithwaite, Operations Director, UnLtd and formerly Carnegie UK Trust

"We need to pass from worrying about the future to constructively engaging upon its creation. For all those interested in this task, this book delivers a powerful way of thinking about that future in qualitatively different horizons. If we want transformation to be more than just an aspiration, then we need to position it and to understand the dilemmas that define progress towards a better society. This book helps with that positioning and puts discipline into the process of foresight."
Professor Peter Kawalek, Manchester Business School

"Every so often a new futures method comes along that opens up new ways of seeing the future. Three Horizons is such a method. It links the present to possible futures, and embodies ways of identifying strategic and innovation challenges. Bill Sharpe, one of the Three Horizons pioneers, has written a valuable primer on its theory and emerging practice."
Andrew Curry, The Futures Company Read more

Edition details

• Publisher: Triarchy Press Ltd
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1909470244
• ISBN 13: 9781909470248
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 132
• Illustrator: Williams Jennifer