Futures Forecasting: The Power of Language
I’m a design futurist and trend forecaster with more than 13 years’ experience in innovation consulting and futures research. I believe that the skill and art of futures thinking should be accessible and available to everyone, because the more futures thinkers there are in the world, the better our collective futures will be.
This is the third in a series of articles that aim to explain some key ideas and learnings from my work. I particularly hope it will be useful to trend forecasting students and early-career researchers. If you have comments or suggestions, please get in touch!
Communication is crucial for effective trend forecasting and futures thinking. The way you articulate — aloud or in writing — the insights you’re delivering will make or break whether people understand those insights, buy into them, and act on them.
If your aim as a forecaster is to research and realise better futures — more equitable, regenerative and inclusive futures, based on systems change — it’s really important to scrutinise the language you are using. Beneath the surface of any simple, harmless-seeming word, is the worldview from which the word stems, as well as the worldview it is upholding or bringing into being.
The language a society uses speaks of who they are, what they value, and what they ignore — at the most fundamental level. As Kate Raworth writes in Doughnut Economics: “Change one word and you can subtly but deeply change attitudes and behaviour.”
Here are some of the main ways I think about language in my writing, and choose words and phrases carefully to both uphold my beliefs, and keep my writing accurate and balanced.
- Avoid booster language: also known as ‘marketing speak’, because it’s the kind of writing that is used a lot in press releases, booster language is used to hype up ideas or products. It ultimately has the reverse effect, because the reader quickly sees that every sentence is being overhyped and learns not to trust the writer. Common booster phrases include “more than ever” (an unprovable statement, and not likely to be based in fact) and “empowers the customer to” (it’s rare that a product or service genuinely empowers someone). Other catch-all favourites to watch out for include “game-changer” and “revolutionary”. Instead of employing or repeating booster language, look beyond the buzzwords to the specifics of the design or service, and describe that. That is the information that is going to serve the reader.
- Be plain with people: my preference, and that of several other forecasters I know, is to use the word “people” in place of “consumers” wherever possible. People are far more than consumers (we’re citizens, family members, community members, activists, and much more), but this word has become standard for describing humans in trend forecasts, and the implication of that shift is that we are being reduced to buyers and users. Consumers have purchasing power, but no other power. Where people are being discussed purely for their use of a product, they are “consumers” of that product, but in all other cases, personhood is preferable.
- Present clean data: data and statistics are essential for credible futures forecasts, but use them in as plain and accurate a way as possible. Adding hyperbolic language to statistics or interpreting them in a sweeping or otherwise questionable way will diminish the power of your analysis and lessen the trust your audience has in you. You can and should evaluate and add commentary to the data, but be responsible in how you do this, creating a clear line between the analysis and the data itself. One area where more is more: it is always worth detailing the scope of the study, its date and the particular language used in the study itself. Too often we strip statistics of their context.
- Be specific and precise: give details in your examples and be precise with those details. Research the correct terminology and use that. This is important in all writing, but becomes particularly important when writing about tech, and it’s crucial when writing about AI, as many trend forecasters currently are. Many of the words used in the tech industry are overtly and sometimes purposefully misleading — ‘the cloud’ sounds fluffy and harmless, for example, whereas data centres have very real-world effects, including significant ecological damage. Technology terms are often ‘suitcase words’ — meaning that there is a lot to unpack. AI is a huge suitcase word, but don’t be scared of it. If a product uses AI, what type does it use and how? (If you can’t find an understandable explanation of the basics, that is a red flag). Stick to technical terms, explaining them if necessary, rather than using humanising terms to describe how technologies work, such as “knows”, “believes” or “thinks”. If we don’t carefully peel back the workings of technologies when we talk about them, we will gloss over the inequities built into them — such as unauthorised surveillance, human rights violations, and systemic racism and sexism. We also run the risk of losing track of human accountability: technology is always the result of human choices, and its makers should be held accountable.
- Embed inclusion: use gender-neutral or gender-inclusive words in your work wherever possible (“humankind” not “mankind”), and don’t give a gender to gender-neutral services, such as AI chatbots. There is a long history of sexism within language, which continues today, particularly with female-gendered robots and other tech. Be precise with inclusive language and explain your choices if necessary. For example, if you have chosen to use person-first or identity-first language when writing about disability, it helps to explain why you’ve made that choice. Definitions of key terms are helpful, particularly if you’re writing for a global audience and are using regionally-specific language or acronyms. Sensitivity checks are increasingly standard for forecasting professionals; if you don’t have capacity for these, seek out peer review at least.
- Move to a peace narrative: when you start to consider the words and phrases that are commonly used in English, you will see the heavy influence of war, domination and machines. This is part of the very much ongoing legacy of colonialism and stems also from the mechanistic worldview that dominates the Global North. Military thinking haunts the framing of our narratives and the headlines used in newspapers. Think of “the war for” smartphone supremacy; the AI “arms race”; the perpetual need to “fight” or “battle” climate change; the constant use of phrases like “call to arms” or “divide and conquer”. A peace narrative aims to remove conflict and domination from the foundations of language. It won’t include words like “slavish”; it won’t identify a “pioneer”, “master”, “conqueror” or “winner”; it won’t try to “capture” value.
- Write as part of nature: as an alternative to the mechanistic worldview, the relational worldview situates humans as part of nature, living in interconnection with other types of life. In this language, movements might “grow” or “mushroom”; networks “entangle”; organisms co-exist in symbiosis. The climate crisis becomes something to address, mitigate or prevent worsening. Instead of “killing” an idea, those choosing a relational viewpoint might “compost” it. Already you might see that this language doesn’t have the thrill of destruction to it. It’s calm, constructive, and it builds momentum rather than lurching between highs and lows or wins and losses. To quote the American ecologist Aldo Leopold: we need to transform the way we see ourselves, “from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it.” This might seem like a lofty aim for a futures forecast, but if futurists can’t change their own worldviews, how do they expect to persuade anyone else?
Read the first two articles in this series: Process & Purpose, and Joining The Dots.
If you enjoyed this article, you can find more of my work at www.sarahhousley.com and sign up for my free newsletter.
