Rob FrascaAll ideas

Backcasting With an AI Partner.

Start with a clear picture of the future and work backward to three moves this week.

FrameworkCreator's JourneyAILeadership

The Creator's Journey · Chapter XIII, Becoming Super

Most planning runs forward. You start with today and ask what comes next. That approach has a weakness. It anchors you in the present, and the present is exactly what is about to change.

Backcasting runs the other way. You start with a clear picture of the future you want and work backward to the moves you must make this week.

THIS WEEKQUARTER6 MONTHS1 YEAR3 YEARSMONDAYWALK BACKWARD
Chair-fly the destination first. Then plan the flight back to this week.

Using AI this way was Dr. Zdenka Cumano’s idea. She has spent years studying creativity, and backcasting with an AI partner came out of that work. It has become a core tool at AI Leader Edge. It could not happen without AI. I use it constantly.

Make the future concrete

I give the agent a future state in detail. Not “we will be an AI-first company.” Something concrete. Three years from now, what does a Monday morning look like in this organization? Who is doing what? Which decisions are made by people, and which are handled by systems people trust? What do customers notice?

Then the agent and I walk backward. The agent is useful for two reasons. It is relentless about connecting each step to the one before it, so gaps show up quickly. And it does not get attached to my favorite ideas. When a step I love does not connect to the future I described, it says so.

From the book
It is mission rehearsal, run in reverse. You chair-fly the destination first, and then you plan the flight to reach it.
Rob FrascaThe Creator’s Journey (forthcoming)
From the research
To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination.
Stephen R. CoveyThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, 1989

Amazon built an operating discipline on the same instinct. In Working Backwards, former Amazon executives Colin Bryar and Bill Carr describe the PR/FAQ. Before a team builds anything, it writes the press release for the finished product and the questions customers will ask. The future is written first. The plan follows. An AI partner makes that discipline available to any leader on any Monday.

Backcast one future

  1. Describe a Monday three years outWho does what? What do people decide, and what do trusted systems handle? What do customers notice?
  2. Walk backwardWhat must be true one year before? Six months before? What must start this quarter? Let the agent challenge any step that does not connect.
  3. End with this weekThree moves before Friday.
  4. Debrief on FridayWhat moved? What did the backward walk miss? Adjust the picture and run it again.

Quick answers

What is backcasting?

A planning method that starts with a concrete picture of the future and works backward to the moves needed now. Rob Frasca uses it with an AI partner to go from a Monday morning three years out to three moves this week.

How do you use AI for strategic planning?

Rob Frasca gives an AI agent a detailed future state, then walks backward with it: one year out, six months out, this quarter, this week. The agent connects each step to the one before it and flags steps that do not connect.

Sources

  1. Rob Frasca, The Creator’s Journey (forthcoming), Chapter XIII, Becoming Super.
  2. Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Free Press, 1989), Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind. Wording as quoted by FranklinPlanner. Source
  3. Colin Bryar and Bill Carr, Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon (St. Martin’s Press, 2021), as described by Amazon. Source
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