Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), together with the Cross Innovation Hub, organised a compact foresight workshop on the question of how public service broadcasting can develop in the future - and how employees can be empowered to actively engage with possible futures.
Public service broadcasting is facing far-reaching changes: New technologies, changing media usage behaviour and social expectations are calling traditional editorial processes into question. At the same time, there is often a lack of time and a clear methodological approach in everyday working life to deal with future issues in a structured way. How can future trends be translated in such a way that they provide orientation in everyday editorial work and trigger strategic discussions?
In a compact half-day workshop, NDR approached this question together with the Cross Innovation Hub. The participants learnt about key foresight methods and worked with the ARD trend radar to systematically think through critical trends. On this basis, initial mini-scenarios were created that open up different perspectives on the future of public service broadcasting. The focus was deliberately not on finished scenarios, but on knowledge transfer, methodological understanding and initial impulses for further strategic work.
"Journalists usually want to quickly collect and categorise future forecasts and then draw a conclusion. I found it inspiring to engage with the foresight perspective and playfully develop very different future scenarios. These thoughts strengthen self-efficacy and create options for shaping the future."
The foresight formats of the Cross Innovation Hub enable organisations to systematically explore the future and make it strategically usable. The starting point is the structured examination of relevant trends and uncertainties, which are translated into different future scenarios.
Through the use of creative methods and the integration of interdisciplinary perspectives, not only analytical findings are generated, but also vivid images of the future that open up new ways of thinking. Participants develop a better understanding of possible developments and derive concrete options for action for their work context.
Particularly in dynamic fields such as journalism, this approach provides orientation, strengthens future skills and helps participants to deal proactively with change.
Norddeutscher Rundfunk is one of the largest public broadcasters in Germany and part of ARD. With a wide range of television, radio and digital formats, NDR informs, educates and entertains an audience of millions every day and is actively shaping the future of journalism in the digital age.
