Future-Focused Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Senior Managers, Programme and Project Directors and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-155

Before you join: Participants should have experience managing people, projects, programmes, services or business functions, and should be familiar with their organisation's objectives and current pressures.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Future-focused leaders must act while customer expectations, regulation, technology, workforce needs and public trust shift at different speeds. They need to distinguish temporary noise from structural change, make sound decisions with incomplete evidence, and prepare teams for several plausible futures rather than one forecast. This is particularly important where service continuity, risk control, public accountability or major capital commitments are at stake.

This course develops practical leadership methods for anticipating change, setting direction under uncertainty and converting strategic intent into coordinated action. Participants use STEEP scanning, scenario planning, systems thinking, the Cynefin framework and ADKAR change planning. They learn to test assumptions, identify second-order effects, govern innovation and AI use cases, lead productive dissent, communicate uncertainty and build coalitions around difficult trade-offs.

Delivered over five days in a classroom in 50+ cities or live online, the course combines instructor briefings with sector-based cases, group analysis, decision simulations and structured application planning. Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. Participants leave with reusable planning tools and a 30-60-90 day leadership application plan linked to a current business, public-service or programme challenge. A certificate of completion is issued to participants who complete the course.

The course suits managers and senior professionals who already lead people, projects, functions or change initiatives and need stronger methods for preparing their organisation for uncertain conditions.

What you will be able to do

  • Conduct horizon scanning using STEEP analysis to identify material external shifts
  • Build scenario narratives and leading indicators for alternative future conditions
  • Map feedback loops and second-order effects using systems thinking techniques
  • Apply the Cynefin framework to select decision approaches under uncertainty
  • Design an ADKAR-based change adoption plan for a strategic initiative
  • Govern innovation and AI use cases through value, risk and feasibility criteria
  • Lead inclusive challenge, ethical judgement and stakeholder communication during change
  • Produce a 30-60-90 day leadership application plan with measurable actions

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Improved judgement when evidence is incomplete and consequences are significant
  • A repeatable method for turning external signals into leadership priorities
  • Greater confidence leading difficult conversations about uncertainty and trade-offs
  • Practical tools for gaining commitment during strategic or operational change
  • A documented leadership plan for applying course methods after the programme

For your organisation

  • Earlier identification of external shifts, emerging risks and strategic opportunities
  • Better-quality decisions through explicit assumptions, dissent and review criteria
  • Stronger change adoption through structured sponsorship and stakeholder planning
  • More disciplined innovation choices based on value, feasibility and accountability
  • Improved cross-functional alignment around future priorities and implementation actions

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can identify material external signals and convert them into leadership questions.

  • Signals, trends and drivers distinguished through structured horizon scanning
  • Separate predetermined elements from critical uncertainties and emerging issues
  • STEEP scanning identifies political, economic, social, technological and environmental shifts
  • Assumption audits expose inherited beliefs shaping strategic choices
  • Convert weak signals into leadership questions and monitoring indicators
  • Time horizons distinguish immediate pressures from structural change

Participants can create plausible scenarios and test strategic priorities against them.

  • Three Horizons maps core operations, emerging opportunities and future options
  • Scenario logics combine critical uncertainties into plausible operating conditions
  • Write four scenario narratives with distinct stakeholder and market assumptions
  • Wind-tunnel strategic priorities against contrasting scenarios and trigger events
  • Backcasting traces milestones from preferred futures to present decisions
  • Define leading indicators that signal which scenario is unfolding

Participants can analyse interconnected problems and identify high-influence intervention points.

  • Map feedback loops linking decisions, behaviours, incentives and outcomes
  • Causal-loop diagrams reveal reinforcing and balancing patterns behind recurring performance issues
  • Identify system boundaries, delays and unintended consequences before intervention
  • Test second-order effects of policy, technology and resource decisions
  • Locate high-influence intervention points without oversimplifying interdependencies
  • Frame cross-functional problems as systems rather than isolated events

Participants can select proportionate decision methods for different levels of uncertainty.

  • Cynefin distinguishes clear, complicated, complex and chaotic decision contexts
  • Match decision cadence and evidence thresholds to uncertainty levels
  • Use premortems to surface failure modes before commitment
  • Red-team major proposals to test assumptions, risks and blind spots
  • Decision logs record rationale, dissent, owners and review dates
  • Escalate irreversible choices while delegating reversible decisions closer to action

Participants can plan and lead change activities that build sustained adoption.

  • ADKAR diagnoses awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement gaps
  • Stakeholder maps distinguish sponsors, advocates, blockers and affected groups
  • Craft change narratives linking strategic intent to frontline consequences
  • Sequence communication, training and reinforcement around adoption milestones
  • Measure adoption through behaviour indicators, not attendance counts
  • Plan sponsor actions that remove barriers and demonstrate commitment

Participants can assess innovation opportunities while managing technology-related risks and accountabilities.

  • Opportunity portfolios balance incremental improvement, adjacent bets and experiments
  • Problem framing separates customer needs from preferred technical solutions
  • Minimum viable tests define hypotheses, measures, timing and decision rules
  • Govern data quality, privacy and human accountability in automated decisions
  • AI use cases receive risk, value and feasibility screening
  • Learning reviews convert experiment evidence into portfolio decisions

Participants can create team conditions that support learning, challenge and adaptation.

  • Psychological safety supports candid reporting, challenge and learning
  • Set team norms for dissent, escalation and decision closure
  • Use inclusive meeting protocols to prevent dominant voices shaping outcomes
  • Role clarity aligns accountabilities, handoffs and authority boundaries
  • Coach through inquiry, specific feedback and future-focused feedforward conversations
  • Address resistance as information about loss, risk and identity

Participants can lead responsibly through disruption while protecting trust and service continuity.

  • Resilience plans identify critical services, dependencies, buffers and recovery priorities
  • Stress-test leadership responses against supply disruption, cyber incidents and misinformation
  • Ethical decision screens examine harm, fairness, transparency and accountability
  • Establish speaking-up routes and protection from retaliation
  • Balance short-term targets with long-term trust and legitimacy
  • Communicate material uncertainty honestly without creating avoidable alarm among stakeholders

Participants can build commitment and communicate difficult strategic choices credibly.

  • Segment stakeholders by influence, interest, impact and information needs
  • Build coalitions around shared outcomes, trade-offs and commitments
  • Negotiate competing priorities using interests, options and objective criteria
  • Translate strategic choices into messages for boards, staff and partners
  • Handle difficult questions with evidence, acknowledgement and clear next steps
  • Maintain feedback channels that detect concerns before formal escalation

Participants can create a measurable plan for applying future-focused leadership methods in their role.

  • Assess leadership readiness against future challenges and role accountabilities
  • Prioritise two leadership shifts using impact, urgency and feasibility criteria
  • Draft 30-60-90 day actions with milestones, sponsors and measures
  • Schedule reflection routines for decisions, feedback and learning transfer
  • Create peer accountability agreements for post-course progress reviews
  • Define evidence that demonstrates changed leadership behaviour and results

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. STEEP horizon-scanning worksheet
  2. Four-scenario planning pack
  3. Causal-loop mapping template
  4. ADKAR change adoption plan
  5. Decision log and premortem checklist
  6. 30-60-90 day leadership application plan

Who should attend

  • Senior Managers — need to set direction amid competing priorities and uncertain conditions
  • Programme and Project Directors — need to anticipate risks, dependencies and adoption barriers
  • Department Heads — need to prepare teams for strategic, technological and workforce change
  • Change Managers — need stronger methods for sponsorship, communication and behaviour adoption
  • Public Sector Leaders — need to make accountable decisions under political and service pressures
  • Risk and Strategy Professionals — need to convert emerging signals into leadership action

Skills and tools covered

Strategic foresightScenario planningSystems thinkingAdaptive decision-makingChange leadershipStakeholder communication

Tools and standards

STEEP analysis, Three Horizons framework, Cynefin framework, ADKAR model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce each method, followed by cases drawn from regulated, commercial, public-service and programme settings. Participants analyse signals, construct scenarios, map system effects, assess decisions and plan change responses in small groups. Simulations test communication, trade-offs and leadership responses under pressure. Facilitated peer review helps participants compare approaches and refine their own decisions. Each participant develops application actions linked to a current leadership challenge.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience managing people, projects, programmes, services or business functions, and should be familiar with their organisation's objectives and current pressures. They should be prepared to discuss a live or recent leadership challenge involving change, uncertainty, stakeholders or performance. Previous formal leadership training is helpful but not required. No prior knowledge of futures studies, scenario planning, systems mapping, AI, change models or strategic planning tools is required. The course does not require technical, financial or data-science expertise.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have experience leading people, projects, services, programmes or functional work. You do not need prior training in strategic foresight, systems thinking, scenario planning or change models.

Bring details of a current or recent leadership challenge involving uncertainty, change, stakeholder pressure or strategic priorities. Sensitive information can be anonymised, and no confidential documents are required.

The course is designed for experienced managers, department heads, programme leaders, change professionals and strategy or risk specialists. It is most useful for people expected to make decisions beyond immediate operational concerns.

General leadership courses commonly focus on communication, delegation and team management. This course concentrates on anticipating external change, testing strategic choices, leading under uncertainty and preparing organisations for multiple future conditions.

Participants can use the scanning worksheet, scenario pack, decision log and stakeholder tools with an existing initiative. The final application plan identifies actions, sponsors, milestones and measures for the first 90 days.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided among instructor input, case analysis, group work, simulations, peer discussion and individual application planning across ten modules.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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