Testing your capability against disruptive futures, not just today's priorities.
CE, board chair, or executive team preparing for planning or capability review.
Context and futures worksheet
90 minutes solo or with your team.
You can't build the capability you need for tomorrow if you're only looking at what you need today.
This worksheet merges context reading with futures thinking. It helps you see not just where you are, but what your organisation needs to be ready for, and where your capability is most exposed.
Part 1. Where Are We Now
In one sentence, what is your organisation responsible for protecting?
Notes
List up to 5 material shifts already underway in your environment.
Things that have already changed. Funding decisions made. Demand patterns altered. Policy direction confirmed. Leadership transitions completed.
Shift | Why it changes decisions |
What assumption about your operating environment feels least stable right now?
Notes
Part 2. What's Coming
Signals are early indicators of possible change. They are not yet confirmed but they are visible.
List up to 5 signals you are watching.
Examples: policy tone shifting, partner instability, technology acceleration, community sentiment changing, workforce pressure building.
Signal | Why it matters |
Part 3. Three Futures We Must Be Ready For
These are not predictions. They are disciplined stress tests.
Describe three plausible futures over the next 12 to 36 months, moving from stable to disruptive.
Future 1: Stable transition Conditions shift gradually. Manageable pressure. Organisations that plan well adapt.
What does this look like for us?
Future 2: Accelerated disruption Multiple pressures arrive faster than expected. Funding tightens. Demand spikes. Operating models are tested.
What does this look like for us?
Future 3: Shock event Something significant breaks. A key funder withdraws. A regulatory change alters mandate. A leadership crisis hits.
What does this look like for us?
Part 4 . Stress Test Your Capability
For each future, ask: what weakens first?
Capability Area | Future 1 | Future 2 | Future 3 |
Financial resilience | |||
Leadership capacity | |||
Governance clarity | |||
Operational systems | |||
Cultural readiness | |||
Partnership strength | |||
Data and insight |
Looking across all three futures, what consistently weakens?
Notes
Which capability gap concerns you most?
Notes
If we moved quickly toward our next big goal or direction, what what’s the first thing that would give way?
Notes
Part 5. What This Means
The 2 to 3 capability areas we most need to strengthen:
Area | Why it matters | First step |
What we need to stop, reduce or protect to create space for that:
Stop / Reduce | Protect |
Summary
Element | Our position |
Core responsibility | |
Most fragile assumption | |
Priority signals to watch | |
Capability most exposed | |
First action |
If nothing surfaced in Part 4, go back and push harder on the futures.
🌿 Want to Go Deeper?
This worksheet is a starting point. The full context and capability work lives inside the Strategy in Motion sprint and the Business Capability Sprint in the Capability Companion. These are free, open access.
To access the editable Notion templates for this and all other sprints and practice pages, request a copy of the editable templates.
🤝 Need Help With This?
This worksheet works well as a solo exercise or as pre-work before a planning session.
If you want support working through it, there are a few ways to connect:
Do it with your team. A facilitated Future-Ready Capability session brings your board and executive together to work through this in real time. It surfaces tensions, aligns thinking, and moves you to action faster than solo reflection.
Talk it through first. Not sure where to start or want to pressure test your thinking before committing to a planning process? A call is a good place to begin.
Call, text, or email using the details at the top of this page.