I’ve been thinking about how I am often involved in creating multi-sensory, place-based futures with groups, and I’m reminded again of Miti Desai’s essay about her experience with the gurukul system of training. There is one moment from her writing that has stayed...
There is often a moment in the futures sessions that I facilitate when people stop asking, “Is this the right future?” and start asking, “What future are we willing to create together?” That’s the moment futures work starts to have impact. When we treat people and...
One of the most useful ideas I keep returning to is Adam Grant’s from his book Think Again: in a fast-changing world, the real advantage isn’t being right. It’s being able to think again. Futures processes are basically structured rethinking. We surface assumptions,...
I revisited Kristi Nelson’s reflections on deepening our comfort with uncertainty recently, and it got me thinking again about how, in futures and foresight work, uncertainty is often treated as a problem to solve. We scan for signals, build scenarios, model...
I watched quantum physicist Shohini Ghose explain something that futures practitioners often feel in their bones: in quantum physics, uncertainty isn’t a measurement problem. It’s built into reality. Some things are fundamentally unknowable. And instead of treating...
When I am facilitating futures, the first 20 minutes of a session tells me how the session might go without careful facilitation. The opening exercises and activities aren’t simply ice-breakers, as many participants think, but an opportunity for me to observe the...
