FORESIGHT & INSIGHT

The Future of Professional Self-Regulatory Bodies

Client

Ontario College of Teachers

Scope of Work

Horizon Scan
Scenario Planning
Trends Impact Analysis
Engagement
Strategic Implications
Conference Presentation

The Changing Standards of Practice

The world of self-regulation is evolving as rapid, systemic and turbulent changes impact professionals and the bodies that certify, discipline and set standards for their practice.

The workplace is changing rapidly, and society along with it. Technology, connectivity, values, increased workplace complexity, diversity, economic disruption and migrating workers are just a few of the issues at play.

The Ontario College of Teachers is the regulatory body that licenses, governs and regulates 190,000 teachers in the province of Ontario. The College commissioned KerrSmith to describe possible, plausible futures as a tool for resilient planning and strategic visioning.

With a view to better understanding the context of all self-regulatory bodies, the KerrSmith team conducted a scan across diverse news and information sources (from both the public and private sectors), looking for “weak signals” of discontinuous change. Analysis of the research findings, trends and Drivers of Change were then collected, organized and prioritized.

Thought Leaders Across the Globe

To understand the needs of self-regulatory bodies, we conducted a series of interviews with thought leaders across the globe. In addition to validating our initial research findings, interviews helped to raise new issues for consideration. Armed with a deeper understanding of needs and emergent regulatory issues, the team created three human-centred narratives to position alternative scenarios of both positive and negative possibilities. These were accompanied by representative stakeholder personas, which explored the needs of professionals, regulators and the public in each scenario.

Analysis of the possible narratives in a workshop with representatives from various sectors brought forth a wide range of potential implications that could affect the self-regulator space quite immediately. This forum was important for unearthing a constructive dialogue of important issues in a safe setting, allowing college leadership insights into a range of dynamic issues from those with firsthand experience or opposing positions. Our ability to facilitate different conversations brought real meaning to the project.

Finally, we delivered a 103-page document that encompassed an extensive trends and driver report, the human centered narratives and personas, backcasts, future systems maps and detailed implications for the broad and multi-disciplinary professional self-regulatory sector.

The final report formed the basis of a very well received one-hour presentation at the College’s international conference on regulation.

Future of Philanthropy

Economic Futures for Ontario

KerrSmith Design
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Toronto, ON M5A 1V2
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