6 steps for using science fiction to envisage your company’s future

With the era of “free capital” having come to an end, the globalization premium stalling, and ecological constraints encroaching, companies can no longer rely on a rising tide to lift all boats. Instead, they will need to imagine new offerings and ways of doing things that will drive their future growth and advantage.

But corporate imagination is constrained by the way we see the present: for example, setting the goal of “developing the next version of our product line” confines innovation to existing products, which may mean overlooking opportunities to create entirely new offerings. Aiming to “grow market share by 2%” boxes companies into their current competitive arena.

To unleash their imagination, companies can take inspiration from science fiction. This article provides a step-by-step guide for doing so.

Our imagination can be constrained by entrenched mental models – simplified representations of reality our brain creates because the world is too complex to be fully encompassed. Mental models help us navigate everyday reality – when we join a project meeting, we have a shared understanding of roles, agenda items, and meeting norms, enabling us to collaborate efficiently.

However, current mental models also hold us back from discovering new possibilities. Organizational cultures, routines, and dynamics of groupthink make implicit assumptions and beliefs sticky. Stories of corporate downfalls are therefore often stories of entrenched mental models. For example, Kodak observed a rising demand for digital photography, but because it evaluated this information through the mental model of an analogue photography firm, it responded by doubling down on its core business rather than embracing the opportunity to capture a new market. How can your company avoid this fate and evolve its mental models?

Let’s take a well-trodden, often uninspiring topic as an example: the future of work. For many, this will bring to mind familiar observations and arguments about virtual meetings, work-from-home, or the gig economy. Science fiction, however, paints a very different picture of work in the future – working hand-in-hand with robots, as in Asimov’s Caves of Steel, or earning money by hunting monsters in virtual worlds, like in Cline’s Ready Player One.

Such fantastical concepts are often beyond the realm of plausibility – and that is precisely why they are useful. Science fiction helps us break from our ingrained way of looking at things. By contemplating a radically different reality – unbounded by current feasibility constraints – as a starting point, we can more fully explore the possibilities of the future.

Science fiction also provides a coherent, holistic view of a possible future, not just an extrapolation of present trends. Immersing ourselves in such futures encourages counterfactual thinking – imagining “what is not, but could be.” Moreover, science fiction often paints worlds which mix elements of dystopia and utopia, inviting us to consider intended and unintended consequences. In doing so, it gives us agency, instead of merely trying to predict a future passively, we can imagine the futures we want to create and shape.

We have developed a workshop format that can help evolve your company’s mental models, deliberately employing science fiction to spark your imagination. It proceeds along six steps:

Identify an issue where your company or team needs to break the mould – it could be related to work models, product innovation, or the next strategy cycle.

Formulate the unspoken assumptions that underly current decision-making. In so doing, you make clear that they are just beliefs, which can be challenged and changed. For example, two key assumptions underlying the business model of traditional hotel chains may be “people want to rent rooms” and “we build properties with attractive rooms.” It’s easy to see how a company like Airbnb became successful by abandoning the latter assumption, which the incumbents had never questioned.

Identify science fiction works that could provide a spark for re-thinking the issue. Crucially, the movies, books, or other formats you pick do not have to be mainly about the theme – for example, Caves of Steel and Ready Player One are not about work, but they indirectly present a vision of it. You should not assume deep familiarity with the works – pick clips or passages that the participants can watch or read together.

Focus on a few questions for participants to contemplate and discuss. Some proven examples are:

Imaginative exercises benefit from a diversity of perspectives and experiences across the participants. Thus, involve people from beyond the function with the expertise most directly relevant to the topic, and across hierarchical levels.

Common barriers to imagination include a fear of ideas failing, of being judged by others, or being too immersed the day-to-day business. To overcome these barriers, treat this session as a game (and designate it as such). Make clear that there are no risks involved – this is just an exploration of ideas. Make sure there is no judgment and suspend hierarchy.

Companies can easily get stuck in their mental models – which hinders them from imagining their futures. Science fiction can provide a spark for breaking the mould – so leverage it, before reality overtakes the inspiration.

Contributing authors: Felix Rüdiger, Head of Content & Research at the St. Gallen Symposium, and Charikleia Kaffe, Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group. This article is inspired by the 2024 St. Gallen Symposium, a student-driven global platform for cross-generational dialogue involving senior and emerging leaders, to discuss pressing issues and enact change.