I was looking for a Drivers of Change card I wrote back in 2010 on Zoonotics and Pandemics. This led me down a path of trying to find a web page that no longer officially exists. But thanks to the Way Back Machine I was able to track down a “copy” of the site circa 2016.

The card copied below was one we used to introduce the disruption that could be caused by events beyond human control. In our foresight work we would create a classic 2×2 matrix where the top right was invariably the “official future” that participants believed we are heading towards (e.g. growth in demand, growth in resources). Given our experiences in 2020 it is interesting to reflect on how people would find it hard to imagine how this particular card could impact their business. Will we see organisations giving more time and space to think about potential futures?

Above, the card on Zoonosis, below the photo from a talk at O’Reilly Etech 2009 which probably prompted the research.

the spread of a virus