Thinking
Reflections, observations, resources, fragments, and other notes from my work in futures and facilitation.
Participation is how futures become shared
Futures don’t become actionable because they’re clever. They become actionable because people recognise themselves in them.
Futures don’t fail. Conversations do.
When futures work fails, it’s tempting to blame the method. Maybe the scenarios were too abstract. Maybe the time horizon was wrong. Maybe the data wasn’t robust enough. Sometimes that’s true. But more often, what I’ve seen is something else: the futures work didn’t fail: the conversation around it did.
Designing futures workshops for introvert-extroverts
For a long time, I tried to decide whether I was an introvert or an extrovert. Having explored all the personality tests out there (for what they are worth: not much, I think, but that’s another topic), I think that I am probably a mix of the two. Like most people.
Story and scenario: why facilitating futures work needs both
In futures and foresight, we often talk about scenarios, or multiple plausible futures, that offer structured uncertainty and a way to think beyond prediction. Scenarios are powerful. I use them often. And if memory serves, they are probably the most popular futures and foresight method that exists. But scenarios alone are not enough.
Hope as a form of systems literacy
In futures work, hope is often misunderstood. It’s sometimes treated as optimism, a belief that things will turn out well. But in complex systems, that kind of hope rarely survives contact with reality.
Power, voice, and the futures that never speak
Power in futures work doesn’t just show up in who sets the agenda. It shows up in who feels able to speak.
Place is a futures co-facilitator
We often talk about futures work as if it happens in a room. But place is never neutral. When we work with place consciously, it becomes a co-facilitator.
Why experiential futures work (and why presentations about futures often don’t)
Most futures work still treats imagination as something that happens in the head. But the brain doesn’t work that way.
Collective intelligence as a futures skill
We tend to talk about futures and foresight as analytical capabilities: the ability to scan signals, build scenarios, or anticipate change. But I’m increasingly convinced that one of the most important futures skills is something else entirely: collective intelligence, or the ability of a group to think, imagine, and decide well together under uncertainty.
Why experiential futures work (and why presentations about futures often don’t)
Most futures work still treats imagination as something that happens in the head. But the brain doesn’t work that way.
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