Episode 14: Looking Back to Leap Forward - Rethinking Backcasting

This episode dives into one of the foundational tools in futures work - backcasting. Often mistaken for common sense planning, backcasting is something much deeper - a method that begins with a preferred future and works backward to explore what conditions, shifts, and surprises might need to unfold for that future to become possible.

But there is a catch: our own minds can quietly distort the process. In this reflective episode, Kristiina Paju explores how the subtle biases like motivated reasoning, projection bias, and path dependency can quietly weaken transformative futures and how we can use backcasting more consciously to disrupt these patterns.

Includes a quiet reflection to help you notice how your current beliefs shape your vision.