The future is a tool for innovation, collaboration, teaching, and involvement.
Fremtenkt helps you explore, challenge, and expand the possibilities you see to create a sustainable future.
We organize workshops, offer courses, and give lectures for businesses, administration, education, and volunteers.
Our programs train you in futures literacy, making you more creative in solving problems and more robust in face of the unexpected.
Curious about what Fremtenkt can offer, but unsure if it's a good fit for you or your organization?
Let's talk.
Write us an e-mail or fill out this form — and we will get in touch with you shortly.
What possibilities do you see today? How do you envision the future?
In the first step, we help you identify the most important challenges and opportunities you see, and articulate the assumptions you make about the possibilities to solve these challenges and seize these opportunities.
(The first step is about finding the "walls" of the "box" you are thinking within.)What assumptions about the future do you take for granted? What happens when these assumptions change?
In the second step, we tailor one or more reframing scenarios based on your situational understanding. A reframing scenario is a description of a hypothetical, possible future where we set some of your assumptions aside. This will affect your problem understanding and solution proposals.
(We give you an unfamiliar box to think within.)How do your challenges look in light of these alternative futures? What new possibilities do you see to solve them?
In the third step, we return to the present with a broader range of possible futures that we use to sharpen the understanding of which challenges you want to solve and what possibilities you have to solve them.
(You use this experience to continuously expand the box you are thinking within.)Fremtenkt's method is based on a combination of various tools and frameworks, including future workshops, Futures Literacy Laboratory, and Three Horizons.
The future workshop was developed by, among others, Robert Jungk, a pioneer in democratic future thinking.
The method is designed so that everyone affected by a change should be involved in shaping it.
This is expressed in a simple structure and a set of simple rules for how an organization can gather as much useful information as possible about what does not work today (critique), what the group wants (utopia), and how to bring the current situation closer to the desired future (realization).
Futures Literacy Laboratory (FLL) was developed by Riel Miller, who led future work at UNESCO for several decades.
FLL is designed to uncover (reveal) and challenge (reframe) habitual thinking, and expand the range of possibilities one is aware of in the present (reflect).
At the same time, one gets training in what UNESCO calls Futures Literacy or futures competence: The critical ability to understand how images of the future shape our perception of the present, and the competence to create alternative future images as a tool to explore possibilities.
Three Horizons was developed by Bill Sharpe.
The method is organized around three "horizons":
Each of these horizons can also be seen as different perspectives on today's situation. The core of the method is to recognize what each of these perspectives can contribute in terms of insight into how we can navigate the transition from a dominant system that is no longer "fit for purpose" to a future viable system.
Fremtenkt's method and the frameworks it is based on provide useful tools for organizations to navigate uncertainty and plan for futures where change is the only constant.
The method can be used in a wide range of contexts, from business strategy and organizational change to education, politics, and community development.
Fremtenkt is a non-profit limited company. Our main goal is to contribute to a faster transition to a sustainable society. To achieve this, we initiate innovative projects and participate in research.
In addition, we provide targeted contributions to individuals and organizations that want to become more forward-thinking.
Meeting of the management team, gathering project partners, or involving people in your research? With the Fremtenkt method, you will go further and get better ideas for future work. Guaranteed.
[We have] gained knowledge on how we can plan even further ahead - both for the expected and unexpected.
Our workshops cost from 30k to 100k, depending on scope and content.
Public or non-profit? We have discounted hourly rates.
Write us an e-mail or fill out this form — and we will contact you.
Need professional input? Curious about future thinking? Fremtenkt gives short, inspiring lectures and engages the audience with demonstrations of future thinking methods.
This is the first time I leave a course and already look forward to the next time!
Fremtenkt has developed a course that trains teachers in creating interdisciplinary teaching setups inspired by the powerful method future workshop and creative exercises from future research.
The new curricula provide frameworks for truly interdisciplinary teaching in schools based on the themes of democracy and citizenship, sustainable development, and public health and life skills.
To achieve this in practice, new teaching methods that transcend traditional subject boundaries are needed. Future thinking gives you the framework and tools you need.
The course is developed in dialogue with teachers and students at Fyllingsdalen High School, but is also suitable for secondary schools.
Fremtenkt Youth: course for teachersThis is one of the most fun things I have been a part of. Finally, a discussion about Åsane's future without quarrel. You led the meeting in an excellent way.
Fremtenkt opens a neutral space for citizen participation in sustainable urban development.
We create dialogue with residents early in the planning process, contributing to increased ownership, better solutions, and less conflict.
We take care of recruitment, facilitation, and compilation of input.
See an example of a participation protocol here: New square and public spaces in Åsane center.
Write us an e-mail, find a time for a non-binding chat, or fill out this form — and we will contact you.
The theme of the lecture was The future as a tool for involving people in your work and the framework was a workshop on involving people in research on disease prevention.
The workshop was organized by NHH and held at Eitri.
Sveinung talked about how we use the Fremtenkt method to explore how people envision the future, challenge assumptions they take for granted that prevent them from seeing alternative solutions to the problems they experience, and then use this to expand the paths they see to the goal.
This is useful when involving people in research because you get better responses on what those affected by the research actually want in terms of changes, and better ideas on how these changes can be achieved.
Read more about Invest4Health here.
Last week, we helped Astrid Ouahyb Sundsbø (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences) engage 70 talented people from all over Vestland in reflection and discussion of NAV's Qualification Program (KVP).
Astrid uncovers important insights into how laws, regulations, and intentions are translated into concrete actions when the welfare state meets women who have fled to Norway from another country.
Read more about the research project EQUALPART here: On Equal Grounds? Migrant Women’s Participation in Labour and Labour Related Activities (EQUALPART)
Are you doing research and wondering if you should have a couple of extra heads and hands to create really good involvement? Contact us!
On May 4 and 5, Fremtenkt will be in Stavanger to lead a workshop on the district of Svankevigå.
A historical (utopian) map, a bathing pond, and a district in change provide the framework for a citizen involvement project out of the ordinary. We are excited!
The workshop is part of the EU project New European Bauhaus, and the client is the University of Stavanger (NEB-Star).
Read more about NEB-Star here.
Last week, we helped Astrid Ouahyb Sundsbø (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences) engage 70 talented people from all over Vestland in reflection and discussion of NAV's Qualification Program (KVP).
Astrid uncovers important insights into how laws, regulations, and intentions are translated into concrete actions when the welfare state meets women who have fled to Norway from another country.
Read more about the research project EQUALPART here:On Equal Grounds? Migrant Women’s Participation in Labour and Labour Related Activities (EQUALPART)
Are you doing research and wondering if you should have a couple of extra heads and hands to create really good involvement? Contact us!
Today, Fremtenkt, represented by Sveinung Sundfør Sivertsen, spoke to Minister of Trade and Industry Jan Christian Vestre about the importance of purpose-driven companies and critical future thinking.
The occasion was an input meeting for the new entrepreneur report, which was held at VIS - Vestlandets Innovasjonsselskap.
Purpose-driven companies as a corporate form are important to highlight entrepreneurship that prioritizes nature and societal benefits over profit, and to encourage more people in the humanities and social sciences to consider the possibility of bringing their knowledge into society by starting something themselves.
Critical future thinking is crucial for these and other entrepreneurs — people who not only need to find concrete solutions to specific problems but also need to critically examine the frameworks within which these problems arise and dare to challenge the assumptions that these systems take for granted.
This way, we get more entrepreneurs for a better society.
Today, Fremtenkt held the workshop 1.5-degree city – Bergen in 2050.
It was a full house at Bergen Public Library, and over the course of two hours, we heard what the participants think is likely, what they wish for, and, not least, what they envision as the challenges and success stories of future agencies in Bergen municipality.
We at Fremtenkt challenged each group to think within the framework of one of six different future agencies:
And the participants came up with some incredible future stories!
For example, the Agency for Sharing and Degrowth presented a proposal to the City Council to open up the alternative, sustainable "manhole cover economy" to the private sector – more on that later.
We have collected all the material from the workshop and will prepare a report. Stay tuned here to find out when it will be published!
The event was a collaboration with the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation and part of the umbrella program under the climate festival Warmer Wetter Wilder, which is now in full swing.
The workshop is also part of the series Future Bergen, made possible thanks to support from the Climate Agency in Bergen municipality.
On the first of March, Fremtenkt is invited to HVL in Sogndal to hold a workshop for students in the course From Youth to Adult.
We will use a version of the method we developed together with the Department of Sociology and students from sociology and comparative politics at UiB last fall. Read more about that pilot here.
There was great enthusiasm and engagement in the room when participants were challenged at the entrepreneur fair by NAV and Entreprenerdy on 30.1.24
Participants got to try a futures workshop (Jungk):
The futures workshop is a powerful tool when figuring out what you want — whether it's to start something yourself or contribute to a more sustainable society in other ways.
Read more about our program here: Fremtenkt at the Entrepreneur Fair.
Fremtenkt participates in the collaborative project Future For All, led by the Polish think tank CASE.
The goal of the project is to establish more and better collaborations between younger and older people in Warsaw, the capital of Poland.
Fremtenkt participates in the project as experts in future thinking and Futures Literacy. We provide training to CASE staff and contribute content to workshops they will organize for residents of Warsaw.
The project is part of the BeForMe program, funded through EEA and Norway Grants.
Fremtenkt participates in the collaborative project Empower Her, led by the Polish think tank CASE.
The goal of the project is to build competencies for future female leaders from Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland.
Participants receive training in sustainable leadership, and Fremtenkt contributes with training in Futures Literacy.
The project is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Fremtenkt participates in the collaborative project CoLaYoCha: Co-creation Lab for Young Changemakers, led by the Austrian research center ifz.
The goal of the project is for students in Bergen and Salzburg to explore sustainability challenges in their local communities, develop ideas on what they can do about these challenges, and try to implement these solutions in practice.
The project is funded by EU Erasmus+.
The transition to a sustainable society will involve major changes and affect all aspects of everyone's lives.
Fremtenkt works on the idea that these changes also open up the possibility of creating a society that is much better to live in.
To get there, we need new, sustainable solutions to a number of problems we face today.
The future is our tool to bring out these solutions.
Fremtenkt's method explores, challenges, and expands how we understand the future and what opportunities we see to create change in the present.
The method draws on several different frameworks, including future workshops (Jungk), Futures Literacy Laboratory (Miller), and Three Horizons (Sharpe).
The method can be used in all contexts, and we are constantly looking for new collaborations and people who can benefit from this tool.
Fremtenkt is a non-profit AS based in Bergen. The people behind it are Ragnhild Nabben and Sveinung Sundfør Sivertsen.
Ragnhild has an MA in literature from NTNU and Sorbonne, and she has studied at the Writing Academy in Hordaland. She is now co-founder and CEO of Fremtenkt.
ragnhild@fremtenkt.no
Sveinung has a PhD in philosophy. He defended his thesis at the University of Bergen in 2019, and won the Mark Blaug Prize in Philosophy and Economics in 2018/2019. Sveinung also has a BA in chemistry. He is now co-founder and philosopher at Fremtenkt.
sveinung@fremtenkt.no
This is a skill that UNESCO, the EU, and international innovation communities consider crucial for navigating an increasingly uncertain world and successfully achieving the green transition:
Futures Literacy has become an essential skill in the context of the unprecedented crises we are confronting, and where we come to realise that the future of humankind will depend on the kind of decisions we take today. Using Foresight and Futures Literacy, we can question the current way we understand the world, move out from our comfort zone and expand our imagination.
The concept of Futures Literacy was developed by UNESCO.
Being futures literate means understanding how images of the future shape perceptions of the present and being able to use alternative future scenarios as mirrors or prisms to discover other aspects of what is happening around us today. “The future” does not exist, but everyone has ideas about what it might be like. These ideas shape how we perceive the present: they direct our attention to certain trends and possibilities for action while steering us away from others. By articulating these ideas, we can become aware of how our images of the future frame our understanding. What assumptions do we take for granted when we think about the future? And what happens if we change these assumptions? By changing our assumptions about the future, we can create new frameworks of understanding, which in turn can help us discover new trends and opportunities for action—essentially sources of innovation. This is how we can gradually develop Futures Literacy.
UNESCO calls Futures Literacy an essential skill, equating it with digital literacy, for example. The EU and others highlight Futures Literacy as crucial for enhancing democratic citizenship Political participation involves helping to chart a course for the future, both in the coming years and in the longer term. Futures Literacy is a key skill in this respect, both for developing the ability to critically assess others' images of the future and to create such images ourselves. Read more in the EU report The Future of Government 2030+. and to promote radical innovation for sustainable development. "Based on our experiences in FLxDeep 2020, we see great potential for Futures Literacy to enable innovators to use futures to innovate the present with greater resilience, creativity, and effectiveness." Demystifying futures literacy, a key skill for climate innovation
The concept is also beginning to gain traction in Norway, where Futures Literacy is mentioned in the Government report on innovation in the public sector. “Looking ahead is a practice that promotes innovation. The OECD argues that those who succeed in public sector innovation can envision and act based on discussions and assessments of the future. Expanding why and how we understand the future provides more choices. Openness and broad collaboration are crucial for good foresight processes [...] Futures Literacy is a future method used by UNESCO, among others. Being futures literate involves being better prepared for the future and thus taking a more long-term and strategic approach.” – En innovativ offentlig sektor — Kultur, ledelse og kompetanse, translated by Fremtenkt.
You can read more about Futures Literacy and the research behind it in the freely available book Transforming the Future: Anticipation in the 21st Century.