Future Fantasy Techniques for Creative Problem Solving

Creativity techniques involving "future fantasy" can produce unexpected, high-quality solutions to complex problems. The approach combines expectations of the future with current reality. Use this procedure with an experienced creative thinking group. It can also be adapted for individual work.

What If: Future Pretend Year

Future Pretend Year is an advanced creative thinking procedure that requires practice and plenty of time. If you work alone, plan to spend time on it each day for several days, even a week. Expect startling results.

Write your problem statement:

How to (accomplish something vital)...

Now fantasize about the future when someone has solved your problem.

On separate pages or flip chart sheets, make each of the following lists in turn. Do not think about the possible solution while making the lists.

List the people inside and outside your community or organization who gained from the success.
List the people who lost because someone solved the problem.
List the Fantasy Resource People brought in to help create and implement the solution. Include:
- Experts from the past and present.
- Experts from other places.
- Experts from Sea World, Kennedy Space Center, or Epcot Center.
- Other experts or heroes, historical or mythological, from whom you want help.
- Fantasy helpers such as writers, scientists, artists, inventors, thinkers, business students, professors, and consultants.
For each person listed in Step 3, identify what that person uniquely does in the future to help create and implement the successful solution. Start each item with the person's name.
Use each activity from Step 4 as a trigger-idea to spark new ideas for solving your problem as it exists today. Force combinations between these trigger-ideas and your problem statement.
Improve each idea by listing what you like about it and what concerns you. Then improve the idea by minimizing the things that concern you.

Future Pretend Year creates a cascade of trigger-ideas:

People → Unique activities → New and useful ideas

Keep writing new ideas until you think you have solved the problem. Avoid the "quick fix," the first really good idea. Better ideas may await those who continue looking.

Allow 4 to 10 or more hours for this very advanced creative thinking procedure. Do not rush it because it seems non-logical. Logic will play a role. The procedure can produce an explosion of uniqueness.

Future fantasy creates a type of forced withdrawal from the real problem into a fantasy world involving Fantasy Resource People in the future and the present. This helps you escape current restraints on your thinking and jump-starts paradigm shifts, allowing you to draw on new areas of thought.

You may modify the process to fit your needs. Even a little is better than none at all.

Put it into Practice

Try a Future Pretend Year exercise. Choose a real problem that matters to you. Set aside at least 30 minutes to begin, then give yourself permission to continue developing the ideas over several sessions.

1	State the problem. Write a clear problem statement beginning with "How to..." Keep the focus on something important you want to accomplish.
2	Jump into the future. Imagine that the problem has been successfully solved. Do not worry about how it happened yet. Picture the future in which the solution is already working.
3	Name the people. List people who gained from the success and people who lost because the problem was solved. Then create a list of Fantasy Resource People who helped make the solution possible.
4	Give each person a job. For every Fantasy Resource Person, write what that person uniquely does in the future to help create or implement the successful solution.
5	Turn activities into triggers. Take each unique activity and use it to spark an idea for solving your original problem today. Force a connection, even when the connection seems strange.
6	Improve the ideas. For each promising idea, write what you like about it and what concerns you. Then modify the idea to reduce those concerns.

The challenge: Do not settle for the first good idea. Keep generating trigger-ideas and forcing new connections. The more patient you are, the more likely you are to move beyond familiar solutions. •

Edward Glassman, PhD, was President of Creativity College® and Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he led the Program for Team Effectiveness and Creativity. …