With the Futures Cube, the future is not only analysed, but imagined together. The method helps teams to make complex developments tangible, bring together new perspectives and develop visions of the future for innovation processes.
The future is often discussed in organisations, but rarely really penetrated. Trends are named, studies read and presentations shared - but what these developments could mean in concrete terms for corporate strategy and business models often remains abstract. This is precisely where our creative Futures Cube method comes in: as a playful and methodically sound invitation to not only analyse the future, but to imagine it together.
The Futures Cube is a haptic thinking tool that makes complex future topics tangible. Similar to Rubik's Cubes, it is movable and randomly combines different trends and perspectives that are inscribed on the tiles, so that developments are not viewed in isolation, but rather simultaneously illuminated from different angles - such as technological, social, economic or ecological. By consciously placing these perspectives in relation to each other, images of the future are created that are not simply derived linearly from the status quo, but open up space for new connections and alternative developments. The trends on the cube's tiles are selected to match the company's focus topic and then produced using 3D printing.
At the centre of the method is the joint narration of possible futures. Before evaluating or prioritising, the first step is to imagine what a certain future could look like - and what the path to it might look like. This focus on imagination rather than hasty judgement creates a safe space in which new ideas can emerge, even if they initially seem unfamiliar or contradictory.
This is precisely the strength of the method: it lowers the entry barrier to future thinking and enables a common level of thinking - regardless of how familiar the participants already are with foresight or strategy topics. Instead of treating the future as an abstract field of expertise, the Futures Cube opens up a low-threshold, collaborative approach that gets teams thinking together.
The Futures Cube is particularly effective in the early phases of innovation and strategy processes or as a joint introduction to future issues. It helps teams to free themselves from current constraints, question established thought patterns and build a shared understanding of possible developments. The resulting images of the future are deliberately not ready-made scenarios, but a starting point for further foresight or cross-innovation processes.
We will shortly be presenting in more detail how the Futures Cube can be used in practice.
As knowledge manager at the Cross Innovation Hub, Dr Susanne Eigenmann is responsible for all questions relating to the theory of innovation, cross-industry collaboration, creativity, futurology and trends.
As programme manager at the Cross Innovation Hub, Marc Behlau is responsible for the design, implementation, documentation and evaluation of formats as well as internal knowledge management.
