Futures Workshop Template

A one-day workshop designed to work with a team or organization to explore possible future developments and scenarios.

Including playful activities to step into the future as well as moments to reflect and share about industry trends and their impact on the organization.

View agenda template

Created by Suzanne Whitby – Futures Fit 

  • Time: 1 day
  • Participants: 4-12
  • Difficulty: Requires specialized knowledge
  • Facilitators: 1

Objectives

  • Playfully engage with different possibilities to shape the future.
  • Explore and discuss trends and scenarios.
  • Develop a shared understanding of possible futures that impact the organization.
  • Establish possible next steps for the organization to be more resilient to change.
  • Discuss next steps towards a desirable future.

When should this session be delivered?

This workshop is a great introduction to working with futures. It’s ideal for when conditions are uncertain and/or before setting long-term strategies. It does require work for follow-up so make sure that is scheduled in as well. 

What is “futures and foresight”?

Futures: refers to systematic approaches to thinking about the future and exploring factors that could give rise to possible and probable future characteristics, events, and behaviors.

Foresight: refers to the application of specific tools/methods for conducting futures work, for example, horizon scanning (gathering intelligence about the future) and scenarios (describing what the future might be like). 

Futures work helps us, among other things:

  • Spot patterns of change, emerging trends, surprises, and disruptors earlier, giving us more time to respond. 
  • Build resilience in a community or organization by preparing for different possibilities;
  • Create a collective narrative of possible futures, based on structured frameworks and evidence, and start moving towards the plausible future we hope to inhabit.

To learn more about these topics, download the publication SessionLab created with FuturesFit, Facilitating Futures – Workshop Tools for Uncertain Times (COMING SOON)

Check out the template details including step-by-step plan with instructions, timings, printable schedule and more
View the template

About the author

Suzanne Whitby

Suzanne Whitby is a futures practitioner, facilitator, and storyteller with over 20 years of international experience in sustainability, science communication, and organisational development.

Her approach combines strategic foresight, systems thinking, and immersive facilitation to help organisations turn uncertainty into clarity and insight. She’s the creator of the senstoryscapes approach to communicating “wicked problems” and catalysing action, and she conducts interdisciplinary research at VU Amsterdam using this as a tool.

“I started Futures Fit because I believe the future isn’t something to predict: it’s something we can co-create, together. So what are you waiting for?”
— Suzanne Whitby

Design your next workshop with SessionLab

Join the 150,000 facilitators using SessionLab

Sign up for free
Planner Hero