Ahead of the Housing Innovation Show next year, guest speaker Dr Graham Norris talks to Housing Digital about the ways psychology and futurism intersect – and why the housing sector stands to benefit
Psychology probably sounds a little outside the box for the day-to-day realities of the social housing professional; marry it to futurism and we’re boldly going… out there. Maybe, but then again, such a view also misses the point.
Bricks and mortar are one thing, tight deadlines and the myriad pressing challenges that must be navigated another. Decision-making is underpinned not just by the practical realities we encounter on any given day, but underlying human psychology; especially when dealing with the inevitable unknowns tomorrow holds.
That’s where Dr Graham Norris comes in. An organisational psychologist and founder of Foresight Psychology, he argues that how people think about the future is just as critical as any blueprint; incidently, he’s also a headline speaker at the Housing Innovation Show next year.
“An organisational psychologist is really someone who helps people in organisations think and behave in more useful and appropriate ways,” he explains.
At its core, the discipline is about understanding people – assessing potential recruits, coaching leaders, and helping staff adapt to change. Psychometric testing, assessment centres, and one-on-one coaching are bread-and-butter tools, but Norris’s work goes further.
“In psychology, there aren’t many people looking at the future,” he adds. “And in the world of future studies, there aren’t many people looking at psychology. So I thought I’d call my company that name, just to tie into the fact that it’s really the psychology of how we think about the future.”
Managing uncertainty
In a very real sense, it’s not so much the future – but that uncertainty that often comes with. By its very nature, the future can’t be fully known until, well, it arrives. We can predict, we can guess, we can speculate on the gaps in our foreknowledge – we can worry – and this can tie us up in knots, so to speak.
Norris’s work focuses on helping to untangle those knots, and better prepare people mentally for those challenges tomorrow.
He did a doctorate looking at change and adaptability in knowledge workers, exploring how people cope when it happens quickly. The aim was to understand how to help people deal with it psychologically, taking out the sting to make them more resilient.
As he explains: “If you spend a bit more time looking down the road, then you can probably see what’s coming a little bit more clearly, have a better idea about how to prepare yourself, and then you can make better decisions.
“That’s really the bottom line of everything I do. The crossover between organisational psychologist and being a futurist is decisions, because all decisions are about the future. So if we think more clearly about the future, we can make better decisions.”
His approach is built on a careful distinction between what we can control and what we cannot.
“There are elements of the future beyond our control – wars, pandemics, technological shifts, political change. And then there are areas where we can influence what happens. Understanding both allows us to make better choices and seize the opportunities we can create,” he says.
High-tech industries are familiar territory for Norris, and he observes a consistent challenge: people struggle with uncertainty. He recalls research in which participants faced painful electric shocks under controlled conditions. The most stressed individuals weren’t those who were shocked, but those who didn’t know whether they would be.
“We really don’t like uncertainty,” he says. “We’d rather face a known pain than wait in the dark.”
It’s a principle he suggests has direct relevance for housing.
“Think about trying to get a train in Britain,” he says. “Being stuck on a stationary train is often more stressful than if it’s cancelled outright. There’s a sense of relief when someone tells you exactly what’s happening.”
Weighing the possibilitiees
Faced with that scenario, it can be hard to know how to respond. And in housing, uncertainty can be equally paralysing.
For the housing sector, of course, there are multiple sources: political promises, economic constraints, labour availability, technology adoption, and regulatory pressures, among others.
AI and smart technology promise productivity gains but also risk displacing workers and changing the skill sets required. Meanwhile, post-Grenfell safety regulations and concerns over damp and mould add yet more layers of complexity.
In essence, Norris argues it all boils down to focusing on key factors. For instance, what happens if a new government policy boosts homebuilding? What if it doesn’t? What if AI can automate certain construction tasks, or fails to do so?
In other words, it’s about breaking the future into manageable possibilities, thinking ahead, so that organisations can make informed choices without being overwhelmed. Norris’s work is basically about giving people the confidence the think through the possibilities.
“What I try to do is give people confidence that they can actually think about the future and understand what’s going to happen, and decide what they want from it,” Norris says. “This is really … to take one slice of the future at a time. We don’t need to understand everything.”
So don’t be overwhelmed by the future; interrogate it.
The Housing Innovation Show takes place at the ICC in Birmingham on 4-5 February 2026
To find out more, or to register your place, visit the Housing Innovation Show website
Main image: ICC photo courtesy of Nick Stafford/Pixabay
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