Policy & Practice February 2015

By Anthony Scerbo

recently had an incredibly productive interaction with many APHSA members at the “The future is already here— it’s just not very evenly distributed.” —attributed to William Ford Gibson I

I think will shape the human service landscape in the future. The goal of “leading change” is to achieve the best possible outcomes from transforma- tion processes. As a foresight practitioner, my two initial questions in change manage- ment are usually, “What’s the current situation?” and “What is the vision for the future?” Context is critical. Without understanding the realities of the present, it is impossible to make quantitative or qualita- tive judgments about results. And without developing a powerful future focus, how can we identify goals around which to build a vision?

annual Leadership Retreat prior to the 2014 Human Services Summit at Harvard University. It became clear to me that human service profes- sionals in the public sector are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with large scale trends in our society, as they have so many demands placed upon their time—budgetary, administrative, and crisis management functions. After the meeting, I was asked to briefly identify key points that

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