APF Oceania Fireside Chat - Putting human behaviour at the centre of the strategic foresight by Dr. Trish Lavery

About the Fireside Chat Topic: 

The integration of behavioural science research into strategic foresight methodologies provides a multi-disciplinary perspective that allows for the development of robust public policy that is able to respond to the complexities of an increasingly uncertain world. Dr Lavery has pioneered a method of putting human behaviour at the centre of strategic foresight processes to bring a more nuanced understanding of how humans respond to societal disruptions. By drawing upon a rich body of behavioural scientific literature, Dr Lavery brings to light the complexities of human behaviour and provide examples of how people might respond to change in ways that may at first seem surprising, irrational or unexpected.

About Dr. Trish Lavery

Dr Lavery is an internationally-recognised leader currently working in the central strategy team of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and influencing policy directions via the application of strategic foresight and futures to high profile policy challenges. As former OECD Strategic Foresight Counsellor and Senior Strategic Analyst, Trish has experience in applying futures, foresight and behavioural economics to help facilitate better executive and board decision making, more resilient long-term public policy and more effective corporate strategy. Trish is a member of the OECD AI Futures Expert Working Group and is an active contributor to a number of current research projects, including leading a project on the futures of neurotechnology and digital persuasion with colleagues from Oxford University, the EU Commission, and the OECD.

About APF Oceania Fireside Chat

Over the past 2 months, Steve Tighe, APF Oceania Regional Director, has spoken to about half of the APF members in Oceania to gain their thoughts on what the APF could do to deliver greater value. Feedback from members in the Oceania region about how the APF could deliver greater value centred around 4 key areas – The 4 Cs:

• Community (Networking, connection to other regional members. Time zone-friendly events were obviously a big theme)
• Capability (Skills development)
• Communication (Advocacy, Access to publications, Opportunities to publish)
• Collaboration (Opportunities to work with / learn from others)

The purpose of the Fireside Chat is KNOWLEDGE SHARING & TRANSFER. Such a concept directly targets the COMMUNITY and CAPABILITY value offerings sought by Oceania members.

Each session would commence at 6.30 pm AEST (8.30 pm in New Zealand) and go for approx. 45 mins.

The Chat would include a 20-minute presentation on a particular topic, followed by a 25-minute group discussion. In terms of the 20-minute presentation, each presenter would cover three broad areas around a particular topic:

1. WHAT I KNOW (knowledge transfer about the TOPIC under discussion - E.g., Extreme Heat Governance Futures, Scenario Planning, etc.).
2. WHAT I DID (knowledge transfer about the PROCESS, TOOLS & TECHNIQUES applied during the futures exercise/project).
3. WHAT I WISH I KNEW THEN... (knowledge transfer about experiences/challenges/learnings from the exercise).

The aim is for the presentation to be short and snappy – an entrée if you like, for the second half of the session, where all attendees would be invited to have their say and share their knowledge/experiences. The goal is to establish a relaxed learning environment.

This structure based on knowledge transfer around 3 distinct areas (What I know, what I did, what I wish…), ensures that attendees don’t have to be fascinated with the particular topic under discussion, to extract value and to be personally engaged.