Scenarios have been used by organisations such as Royal Dutch Shell for more than 70 years to identify emerging risks and opportunities and make better strategic decisions. Historically, the time and expertise required to develop scenarios meant that organisations relied heavily on outside consultants to do the development work, limiting their use.
What is unique about this workshop is that it takes proven scenario development frameworks used by global consultants and makes them usable by just about anyone. This has been achieved by encoding the scenario development process into an interactive scenario guide that operates alongside human facilitators. Ultimately, the Scenario Development Workshop has been designed to give leaders and teams a practical and deeply interpersonal way to explore what might happen next, challenge existing beliefs and uncover the opportunities and risks that will shape their future.
Program Design
Program Design
The Scenario Development Workshop takes place over a full day and results in a set of news-style articles that can be taken away and shared with other stakeholders.
The morning session introduces the foundations of future thinking, helping participants build their capacity to scan for signals of change, spot emerging trends and make sense of what is unfolding around them. Participants then engage in a hands-on trends mapping session to identify the key drivers of change that warrant further exploration. By the end of the morning session, participants will have built out their scenario framework that characterises the various futures they want to explore.
In the afternoon session, participants are operating in the Future Newsroom. Supported by the interactive scenario guide, they are taken through a process of turning fictitious news scoops into a set of scenarios framed as future news articles ready for publication. These are then turned into a ‘zine-style format for sharing and use with extended stakeholder groups.
In the afternoon session, participants operate in the Future Newsroom. Supported by the interactive scenario guide, they are taken through a process of turning fictitious news scoops into a set of scenarios framed as future news articles ready for publication. These are then turned into a ‘zine-style format for sharing and use with extended stakeholder groups.
For organisations that want support in seeing their scenarios come to life, there is an optional one-day Scenario Application Workshop that can be included in the program design. This workshop uses the scenarios from day one to prompt conversations about emerging opportunities, risks and strategic options that the organisations might pursue. By the end of day two, participants will have a deeper understanding of their future operating environment and a prioritised list of strategic opportunities to pursue.
Outcome
What you'll walk away with
By the end of the workshop, you’ll have explored the forces shaping your future, developed four plausible scenarios and considered what each one could mean for your organisation.
You’ll have a shared understanding of the risks, opportunities and uncertainties that could shape what comes next, along with a set of strategic options and questions worth taking back to your leadership team.
Most importantly, you’ll leave with greater confidence in thinking about uncertainty and a different way of looking at the decisions being made today.
Because the future is not something that simply happens to us. It is something we can explore, prepare for and help shape.
Audience
Who is this workshop for?
This workshop is designed for leadership teams, executive groups and organisations facing significant uncertainty, change or long-term strategic decisions. It works well for group sizes from four to forty.
It is particularly valuable for organisations navigating:
- Rapid technological change
- Industry disruption
- Regulatory or policy change
- Changing customer or community expectations
- Long-term strategic planning
- Complex or high-stakes decisions
