Futures Sampler for Change Agents

Sample five methods for inviting the future into the way you lead change

Over two days, you’ll experience five different tools from futures and foresight you can take back to work to support meaningful conversations about where we are headed, what future you want to create, and what this means for your actions in the present. 

Each tool will help you to explore a different question about where we are going and what we might like to do about it.

Tool 1: What do we take for granted?

We will play with making our assumptions visible, and explore how the future might be different if these present-day truths no longer held. This involves unlearning, and sharpening your attention to notice what has faded into the background.

Tool 2: What might be possible?

What we see as being possible in the future is shaped by tensions in our understanding of the past, present, and future. We’ll use Lego to feel into these tensions and make our implicit beliefs explicit, and move from individual viewpoints to a complex collective understanding.

Tool 3: How does the future emerge?

Here we will explore a model that can help us visualise how the future comes about. We’ll consider how the future emerges from seeds in the present, spot innovations in play that can keep the present fit for purpose or move us towards a desirable future, and how this approach can help us listen for what others are seeking in conversations about change.

Tool 4: Where might we be headed?

With this tool, we start to hold multiple views of what the future could be at once. We’ll use what we are seeing shifting around us to sketch out some future scenarios and sense-test them, seeing what feels desirable, what seems problematic, and look for points of leverage where we can influence what might unfold.

Tool 5: How can we experience the future into the present?

We end the experience by creating artefacts from potential futures. We will use design fiction to bring to life something that you might encounter in that future that helps to tell the story of where we may be headed.

These sessions are designed to both help you explore the future more systematically while also inviting in your creative and playful self. Throughout the days we will talk about how you can adjust your delivery of these approaches to make it engaging in different contexts.

Join us to:

• experience five futures and foresight methods that you can integrate into your own practice
• learn from a university-trained futurist and seasoned change leader
• take home a handy reference guide to support you in using these methods in your workplace
• have the option of accessing coaching support to translate these ideas into your work context at a discounted rate.