Client: Trygfonden
Industries
Designing a strategic compass guiding future funding and strategy
As a leading philanthropic foundation, TrygFonden plays a central role in shaping how safety, security and wellbeing are understood across Danish society. Facing growing uncertainty in how work is structured, valued, and experienced in our society, TrygFonden sought to take a more proactive role in defining the future of a safe and secure working life.
We partnered with them to build strategic foresight capability and co-create a digital Strategic Futures Compass – an interactive decision-making tool to inform long-term funding strategy, spark new collaborations, and engage key stakeholders in shaping the future of work in 2035.
How do you fund the future of work – before it arrives?
The way we work is changing – fast. New technologies, shifting demographics, and evolving values are reshaping the foundations of the labour market. But while these shifts unlock potential, they also dismantle the traditional structures that once defined a “safe and secure working life.”
TrygFonden, saw this moment not just as a challenge, but as an opportunity: How can we proactively shape what security and safety means in working life in 2035?
43,000
young Danes are neither in employment nor education
(Arbejderbevægelsens Erhvervsråd, Unge uden job og uddannelse, 2024)
8/10
Danes say they struggle to keep up with technological change
(TrygFonden, Afrapportering på folkehøring om kunstig intelligens, 2024)
16.4B
the annual cost of work-related stress to Danish employers in DKK
(Arbejderbevægelsens Erhvervsråd, Arbejdsgiverne skal gøre mere for at forebygge stress, 2024)
25%
of top leadership positions in Denmark are held by women
(EQUALIS, Diversitetsbarometer, 2024)
From questions to compass: Building foresight as a capability
Together with TrygFonden, we launched a strategic foresight partnership to do three things:
Build organizational foresight capability, so TrygFonden can act strategically on long-term societal change.
Develop a Strategic Futures Compass: a decision-enabling tool to steer future funding and collaboration.
Evolve the organization’s posture, from a recipient of project applications to actively and strategically guiding the future field of safe and secure working life.
The work was collaborative from day one. We engaged internal teams, external experts, and stakeholders, mapping over 200 signals of change, synthesizing 22 key shifts and trends, and facilitating structured workshops to shape shared future visions.
Future-oriented agenda-setter
At the center of the transformation is the Strategic Futures Compass – an AI-supported, interactive knowledge platform designed to:
Enable internal decision-makers to align on future-oriented funding priorities
Act as a shared foundation for strategic dialogue with applicants, researchers and partners
Serve as a living ecosystem for learning, sensemaking and mobilization
This collaboration supported TrygFonden's desire to move towards a more proactive and future-oriented role.
By developing internal foresight capability and launching the Strategic Futures Compass, the foundation is now more strongly equipped to align future-oriented thinking across the organization and initiate more targeted dialogues with researchers, policymakers, applicants, and partners. In addition, TrygFonden is better positioned to make funding decisions that are grounded in signals of change and insights about potential futures.
TrygFonden is an independent, non-profit foundation working to promote greater safety, security, and wellbeing across Danish society. It receives funding from TryghedsGruppen – the majority owner of Tryg, one of the Nordic region’s largest insurance companies. Through this funding, TrygFonden supports more than 700 projects annually, including national initiatives like TrygFonden Lifeguard and Heart Runner programs.
The foundation works to enable people in Denmark to take responsibility for their own and others’ safety, and its priorities are shaped both by its own secretariat and by representatives elected by TryghedsGruppen’s members.
200+
signals of change identified across social, technological, economic, environmental, political and value-based domains
22
societal shifts and trends synthesized and validated through collaborative workshops and sessions
15+
expert interviews conducted across sectors including AI, youth employment, wellbeing, inclusion, labor law and organizational design
3
core foresight capabilities built and embedded in TrygFonden’s team: horizon scanning, trend analysis, and strategic sensemaking
Want to know more?
Looking for more details about this case? Or maybe you have a similar challenge? Let's talk about how futures thinking can unlock clarity, direction, and resilience for your organization.
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