SI Programme

What If? - How to Reinvent the Future

 

Stop reacting to change. Start shaping what comes next.

Module Basics

Duration: 4 weekly half-day sessions

Format: In-person Workshop 

Programme Fee: $1,200
(20% off for early bird sign up by 14 July 2026)

This module is for:

Leaders and emerging change-makers who are working on themselves to influence complex systems and long-term outcomes. Through hands-on tools such as systems mapping, trend analysis, and scenario building, you will learn how to think and act more clearly in uncertainty and complexity. By the end of the programme, you will be able to spot emerging changes earlier, test your strategies against different possible futures, and take practical steps toward shaping more flourishing human systems.

You will achieve the following outcomes:

  • Apply futures thinking tools to your life in all its fullness.
  • Identify and prioritise key trends and critical uncertainties that could shape your futures.
  • Develop and use scenarios to stress-test strategies, identifying actions that remain robust across multiple possible futures.
  • Design small-scale experiments or initiatives that translate futures insights into practical action for your life and within your community.

What Makes This Module Unique

The programme invites participants to explore the future not only as a strategic and organisational question but also as a personal one. Many leadership programmes focus primarily on organisational tools and frameworks. Yet meaningful change often begins with how individuals see the world, understand their agency, and connect their work to a broader sense of purpose.

The programme invites participants to actively build, test, and explore ideas together rather than passively receiving information. Many executive programmes rely heavily on lectures or case discussions but futures thinking stays in the head and not down to the heart and the hands. Playful and participatory learning approaches help participants engage more deeply, think more creatively, and generate insights that traditional classroom formats may not unlock.

The programme invites participants to translate foresight insights into small, practical experiments. In complex and uncertain environments, long-term plans are usually static and quickly become outdated. Many foresight programmes stop at scenario development or strategic discussion. Prototyping enables leaders to move forward through experimentation, learning rapidly while reducing risk.

What you will learn

Learning Journey Overview

Over four sessions, you will explore the forces shaping the future and how they affect
the systems you care about.

Key Topics & Skills

Participants in this programme will develop practical capabilities in the following areas:

  • Systems thinking – understanding how social, economic, technological, and environmental forces interact to shape long-term outcomes
  • Trend and signal identification – spotting emerging changes and distinguishing meaningful trends from short-term noise
  • Assumption testing – uncovering and challenging the hidden assumptions that shape strategies and decisions
  • Scenario thinking – exploring multiple plausible futures and understanding how different developments might unfold
  • Strategic decision-making under uncertainty – identifying actions that remain robust across different possible futures
  • Experimentation and adaptive learning – translating foresight insights into practical initiatives and learning through small-scale experiments

Learning Format

The programme uses a highly interactive, workshop-based methodology designed to move participants from insight to application. Rather than relying primarily on lectures, each session combines short conceptual inputs with hands-on exercises, facilitated discussions and group reflections, and collaborative problem-solving. Participants will work in small groups to apply futures thinking tools—such as systems mapping, futures wheels, and scenario building—to real challenges they are facing in their organisations or sectors.

Learning is structured as a shared inquiry among peers, where participants bring their own experiences, questions, and perspectives into the room. Through reflection, dialogue, and experimentation, they will develop new ways of seeing the systems they operate in and explore practical strategies for influencing change. The aim is to create an engaging and regenerative learning environment that strengthens both individual capability and a sense of community among participants.

About the Facilitators

Cheryl Chung is the Founder and CEO of Tent Futures, a strategic foresight research, advisory and training practice focused on building long-term public good. A seasoned public sector futurist, Cheryl has two decades of experience working with senior decision makers in Singapore and the region to identify trends, understand policy implications, create alternative scenarios and develop strategies to prepare for the future. She is an experienced and sought-after practitioner, educator, coach and speaker across the public, private, people and academic sectors.

Cheryl Chung

Details & Enrollment

Next Session Date: Every Friday, 14 August - 4 September 2026
Location: Sustainability Institute, Singapore (venue details provided upon registration)
Session Time: 2:00 – 6:00 PM

The session will run with a minimum of 12 participants. 

Register Now

If you have any questions or are interested to find out more,

Contact Us

Related Articles

Leading Living Systems: Foundations of Organisational Development

[2-day, In-person workshop] What if your organisation isn’t a machine to be fixed, but a living system to be nurtured? This foundational programme introduces Living OD – a paradigm shift from diagnosing problems to discovering what gives organisations life. Learn to work with natural patterns of growth, adaptation, and transformation to create workplaces where people and the organisation itself can genuinely flourish.

Writing the Future

[3 weekly full-day sessions, In-person workshop] Designed especially for graduating students and young professionals, this workshop offers practical wisdom from creative practitioners on authoring the world you want to see and make a new path for yourself. Like all artists and writers facing a blank page, scarce resources and incomplete knowledge, you will learn to imagine, experiment, play, innovate, invent and thrive in the face of the new.

Appreciative Inquiry Foundations

[On-demand online course + hybrid coaching community] Master the foundational principles and practices of Appreciative Inquiry at your own pace. This self-directed online course teaches you to shift from problem-focused to possibility-focused approaches in your work and life. Learn the 4-D cycle, practice core AI skills, and join monthly coaching calls with your cohort to deepen your learning, troubleshoot real applications, and connect with a global community of AI practitioners.

Leading Living Systems: Foundations of Organisational Development

[2-day, In-person workshop] What if your organisation isn’t a machine to be fixed, but a living system to be nurtured? This foundational programme introduces Living OD – a paradigm shift from diagnosing problems to discovering what gives organisations life. Learn to work with natural patterns of growth, adaptation, and transformation to create workplaces where people and the organisation itself can genuinely flourish.

Writing the Future

[3 weekly full-day sessions, In-person workshop] Designed especially for graduating students and young professionals, this workshop offers practical wisdom from creative practitioners on authoring the world you want to see and make a new path for yourself. Like all artists and writers facing a blank page, scarce resources and incomplete knowledge, you will learn to imagine, experiment, play, innovate, invent and thrive in the face of the new.

Appreciative Inquiry Foundations

[On-demand online course + hybrid coaching community] Master the foundational principles and practices of Appreciative Inquiry at your own pace. This self-directed online course teaches you to shift from problem-focused to possibility-focused approaches in your work and life. Learn the 4-D cycle, practice core AI skills, and join monthly coaching calls with your cohort to deepen your learning, troubleshoot real applications, and connect with a global community of AI practitioners.