Future Workshop
ACTIVITY TYPE
- Consulting
- Deciding together
DESCRIPTION
The purpose of a future workshop method is to formulate concrete solutions and action proposals with a group of participants based on their own experiences. Future Workshops are usually held on a local issue or challenge or in connection with the planning of a local action concerning a particular development.
Future workshops incorporate a three-phase process, sometimes preceded by presentations which outline the workshop objectives:
- Critical analysis phase involving detailed analysis of the situation/technology.
- Visionary phase where future visions are built upon the analysis in the first phase; these are then subject to a reality check.
- Implementation phase where the visions are turned into actions.
HOW TO USE IT ONLINE
Use the Jamboard, Whiteboard or similar e-tool
RESOURCES NEEDED
- Time to do: a few hours to a few days.
From 1 to 3 months planning.
- Staff: experienced facilitator
- Equipment: nice peaceful place, paper, pens, markers
SUITABLE FOR
- Medium group 15- 25- people
HOW TO DO IT
1. Define the concept that will be the main objective of the workshop.
2. Recruit participants for the session and make sure everything has been arranged
3. Select a moderator to introduce the topic of the session and explain the objectives.
4. Ask participants to reflect on the present day situation and write down all their negative experiences.
5. Participants fantasize about the desired future situation. How would the ideal situation be for them? For this stage there are no limitations, everything is possible. Each participant makes a retrospective and forward-looking statement
6. The ideas that were generated are tested for feasibility. It is important to note what barriers the ideas face and what could be done to overcome these barriers.
7. Develop an implementation plan.
8. Check if the implementation is coming along as planned.
In order to ensure transfer, another one-day meeting would be recommended after a few weeks.
ADVANTAGES
- Everyone can contribute ideas without the usual caution against criticism. This is an opportunity for diversity.
- Supervisors can step out of their role as defined by the hierarchy, which is also an opportunity to increase creativity.
- Can be helpful in integrating a citizen-led perspective into local decision making
- Can help participants overcome their own bias in relation to a specific technology and encourage them to hypothesise future forms and uses of a technology.
- Can empower usually marginalised groups
CHALLENGIES
- This method requires a lot of preparation by the facilitators and moderator
- Sometimes group dynamics can affect the outcome of a deliberative process
- Participants may spend too much time on one issue, for example the technology, failing to fully evaluate social, economic and political implications of associated sector changes.
- Workshop evaluations tend to overestimate potential for action.
- Not suitable for narrow issues.
- Additionally, organizing participants from across the community can be difficult, because it requires a good amount of planning to ensure diversity of participants and a rewarding workshop session.
- Group dynamics can affect the outcome of the deliberative process. For instance, different exercises will have similar results.
- The ‘opacity of context’ is another issue confronted by future workshops when participants become focused on particular aspects of a certain sector, such as technology, but do not fully evaluate the social, economic and political implications of the associated sector changes.
MORE INFORMATION
http://actioncatalogue.eu/method/7391
https://www.utu.fi/sites/default/files/public:/media/file/Ville-Lauttamaki_futures-workshops.pdf