The Futures Workshop

Kia ora and welcome to episode thirteen of The Futures Workshop! Most of the tools we’ve looked at so far rely on scenarios - imagined future scenes which we then use to work out the implications for us and our organisations. But today’s guest Andrew Curry says scenarios aren’t always the best approach. It can be cognitively tricky to get groups to fully embrace a speculative future and make the leap to where they fit into it. Sometimes, says Andrew, it’s better to stay in what he calls the “thick present”, using a tool known as Futures Landscapes. Andrew is another significant voice in our global futures community. He is the director of Futures at the School of International Futures, and has led projects that span everything from net zero mobility to the impacts of geopolitical events on food and energy. We hope you enjoy this episode on the Futures Landscapes tool. You can find some of the resources Andrew refers to below. Thanks to The Beths [https://thebeths.com/] and (The Boss) for their beautiful music. Further resources: An abstract on Futures Landscapes which Andrew created for the Discovery of the Future conference https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:0123fb5a-75aa-4f5d-8b4d-6450f21d35df [https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:0123fb5a-75aa-4f5d-8b4d-6450f21d35df] An urban food environments report to show how the tool might work in practice. Andrew tells me that the ‘domains’ part is a little harder to find in this report, but they are listed out on p13 and the supporting systems loops and analysis are at the back as an Annex https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:0fc744c1-7940-40a0-988b-1581f2b21d78 [https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:0fc744c1-7940-40a0-988b-1581f2b21d78] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefuturesworkshop.substack.com [https://thefuturesworkshop.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Welcome back to the Dubai Future Forum [https://www.dubaifuture.ae/dubai-future-forum-2024] podcast lounge, from which I’m delighted to share another special episode of The Futures Workshop. For this episode I was joined by former Head of Foresight and Futures Literacy at UNESCO Riel Miller, who shared his reflections on the Forum before taking a deep dive into “futures literacy” - a concept with which he has become synonymous. We talk about the importance of futures literacy, what it is and is not, and how to create an effective literacy lab. I hope you enjoy the conversation with Riel as much as I did! Thanks so much to the Dubai Future Forum 2024 for hosting us and as always thank you to The Beths [https://thebeths.com/] for the beautiful music. You can find further resources in this Futures Literacy Playbook [https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000385485], which is free to download. These slides [https://tipresourcelab.net/resource/slides-introducing-futures-literacy-lab-methodology/] introduce the futures literacy lab methodology. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefuturesworkshop.substack.com [https://thefuturesworkshop.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

This week, a special episode of The Futures Workshop: my conversation with Professor Paul Saffo, recorded in front of a live studio audience at the Dubai Future Forum in November 2024. Also special is today’s topic. After ten episodes exploring different tools and how to use them, Paul challenges us to think about the proper place of tools in futures work. He says we should use them in the same way a drunk uses a lamp post: for support, rather than for illumination. Paul is a deep thinker, a rock star in the futures world and has a real gift for communicating complex ideas. He shares some beautiful and clever metaphors to help get his message across, and we think this episode will be of great interest not just to future thinkers but to anybody who uses tools in their day to day practice. Please enjoy this special episode. Thanks to the team at Dubai Future Foundation for your hospitality and expertise, and thanks of course to Professor Paul Saffo for your generosity and intellect! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefuturesworkshop.substack.com [https://thefuturesworkshop.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

This week we’re following up our conversation with Ivana Milojevic with an imagined workshop. We show you how you might use the Futures Triangle tool with a group - guiding them to identify the pull, push and weight forces that affect the way we work towards a preferred future. We then look at how those forces might interact with each other - particularly where the tensions or obstructions might lie. Then we conclude with some final insights and briefly talk about how to turn those insights into practical next steps for action. You’ll benefit from listening to Episode Nine: Ivana Milojevic on The Futures Triangle [https://thefuturesworkshop.substack.com/p/episode-nine-ivana-milojevich-on], before you take on this workshop episode. And as always, if you’re more of a casual listener to the podcast, feel free to skip over these even-numbered workshop episodes which are focused more on the day-to-day work of futures practitioners. Whatever your background, we hope you enjoy this episode and as always welcome your feedback! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefuturesworkshop.substack.com [https://thefuturesworkshop.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Today we’re in conversation with Ivana Milojevic, another of the world’s leading voices in the area of futures. Ivana has worked extensively around the globe, and shares some of her most memorable experiences in a wide ranging discussion, with a focus on the Futures Triangle tool. In this interview Ivana explains how by understanding three invisible forces - the weight of the past, the push of the present and pull of the future - we can deepen our understanding of an issue, as well as spot particular challenges, and opportunities to make progress. Along with being an accomplished futurist, Ivana specialises in peace studies and conflict transformation. We spend some time in this episode talking about how these three disciplines intersect to create meaningful change. I hope you enjoy Ivana’s humour, warmth and intelligence as much as I did! Let me know if you have any thoughts or feedback on this conversation and as always I’ll be back in the next episode putting these tools to practical use in an imagined workshop. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefuturesworkshop.substack.com [https://thefuturesworkshop.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]