How ISEA Future-Proofed Its Strategy with Foresight, Not Fear

In an industry defined by precision and protection, the real threat is what you can’t yet see coming.

That’s the challenge the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) was grappling with in the beginning of 2025. As the leading voice for the safety equipment industry, they weren’t facing a single crisis, but a constellation of uncertainties: regulatory change, global volatility, evolving technologies, and shifting workplace norms. Like many associations, they knew their members were preparing for change, but how could ISEA help them prepare for futures that weren’t yet fully visible?

The Challenge

With over 120 member companies, ISEA sets the standards and advocates for the policies that protect 125 million workers in the U.S. alone. But as disruptions compound like regulatory unraveling, the commodification of certain types of PPE, and a cultural shift toward individualism, the challenge wasn’t a lack of strategy. It was the pace and complexity of change. 

ISEA needed a structured yet creative way to anticipate disruption, spot early signals of change, and equip their leadership with tools to make informed, future-focused decisions. 

Our Approach

Michelle Risinger facilitating the one-day immersive workshop with ISEA leadership.

Rising Solutions partnered with ISEA to design and deliver a customized Strategic Foresight process grounded in empathy, creativity, and rigor. We used a simple Anticipate, Align, and Activate framework.

Under Anticipate, we started with a discovery sprint: interviews with board and staff members, landscape research, signal scanning, and scenario design. From this, we developed three plausible, high-risk future scenarios rooted in the fears, trends, and blind spots most likely to challenge ISEA’s value proposition.

Then in the Align phase, we met for a one-day immersive workshop, and used strategic foresight tools to help Board trustees and ISEA leadership confront those three futures. Exercises included scenario walk-throughs and visioning techniques designed to surface assumptions, stress-test strategies, and spark bold thinking.

Key Insights

The result was a transformative shift in how ISEA thinks about the future. ISEA’s leadership has expanded its approach to strategy, moving beyond responding to headlines or regulatory changes, and now has a foresight-informed lens to anticipate what’s next. 

Under the final Activate phase, the workshop outputs were translated into a Foresight Playbook, highlighting:

  • A shared understanding of the most disruptive drivers facing the industry, from the collapse of OSHA to the rise of unregulated PPE on online marketplaces

  • Three real-world foresight scenarios with clear roadmaps and future-proofing tactics developed with strong alignment between leadership and the board 

  • A new vocabulary and set of tools to embed foresight in strategic planning

Why It Matters

In a world of deep uncertainty, credibility alone is no longer enough. For mission-driven associations like ISEA, the stakes are high: future disruptions could mean eroded credibility of industry standards, weakened member trust, or even obsolescence.

But when leaders invest in foresight, they position their organizations not just to survive but to lead. ISEA’s journey proves that even the most established institutions can pivot, stretch, and grow in response to change.

Curious What This Could Look Like for Your Team?

If your organization is facing uncertainty, whether from political shifts, technological disruption, or member evolution, strategic foresight can be the difference between playing defense and shaping the future.

Let’s talk about how Rising Solutions can help you get future-ready.

Michelle Risinger