FutureMind · A tool for leaders
Future Agency™
Cognitive agency · Emotional agency · Relational agency
Future agency is the capacity to shape what happens next, rather than simply react to it. This guided tool helps you see where yours is strongest, where to grow, and what to try first.
Open the toolRequest accessShape what happens next, rather than simply react to it.Future Agency
Why future agency matters
Leaders are being asked to lead into a future nobody can predict. Expertise and plans still matter, but they are no longer enough. What makes the difference is the capacity to think flexibly, stay steady under uncertainty and bring other people with you.
Future Agency turns that capacity into something you can see and grow. It grows from three connected agencies: how flexibly you think, how well you work with yourself, and how well you work with others. When the three work together, you stop waiting for the future and start shaping it.
What it explores
Three agencies, fifteen capabilities
Each capability comes with why it matters, three reflection prompts and one small experiment to try in your real work this week.
Cognitive Agency
How flexibly do I think?
Challenge assumptions · Detect biases · Imagine alternative futures · Change course when evidence changes · Experiment rather than wait for certainty
Emotional Agency
How effectively do I work with myself?
Tolerate uncertainty · Regulate difficult emotions · Maintain realistic optimism · Believe in my capacity to influence outcomes · Learn from failure without self-attack
Relational Agency
How effectively do I work with others?
Seek and integrate different perspectives · Build trust and belonging · Connect effort to meaning · Develop other people’s capability · Shape the future rather than merely react
Future agency is where the three come together: flexible thinking, emotional steadiness and trusting, capable relationships, pointed at the future you want to help create.
How it works
Rate, reflect, experiment, plan
There are no right answers. The self-rating is a starting point for reflection, not a judgement, and real growth comes from what you try afterwards.
Rate yourself
Rate fifteen short statements and see your Future Agency profile: a score for each agency, an overall score, and your three best starting points.
Reflect and experiment
Work through the capabilities that matter most to you, write about real examples from your work, and choose small experiments to try this week.
Make your plan
Bring it together in a one-page Future Agency plan, emailed to you if you wish, and come back to it as you learn.
The benefits
What you get from Future Agency
For leaders
A clear picture of your strengths and growth edges across thinking, self-leadership and relationships. Fifteen practical experiments grounded in your real work. A one-page plan with a first step you can take this week, and a profile you can retake to see how you have grown.
For teams, organisations and programmes
A shared language for leading into uncertainty. Anonymous, group-level themes for facilitators, organised by cohort, showing which agencies are strongest and where the group needs support. A natural bridge into coaching, the FutureMind programmes and the 90-day playbook.
Your privacy is protected. Responses are saved without your name and shared with your facilitator only as anonymous themes. If you ask for your plan by email, your address is used only to send it.
Ready to shape what happens next?
Future Agency is available to Leadership Academy clients and programme participants. Use the access details from your facilitator, or ask us for access.
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