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The Future We Want - Visioning Exercise for groups and communities

What Is?  What If?  What Next?

Brought to you by: Transition Together and Transition Network, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund. 

This is a plaintext version of the resource published here

Introduction

We don’t need to look far to find big challenges facing us now and in the future. Many people can...

Who is this guide for?

This guide is for any group that wants to expand their vision of what’s possible in the future an...

About ‘What If?’

The What If exercise is a three-stage process that helps us to visualise and discuss the changes ...

How to use this guide

This guide is designed to be used by anyone - even if you have limited experience of facilitating...

Who to involve

This is a key question to think about at the very start of your planning. Running this visioning ...

Ensuring everyone can participate

You want this to be a positive, creative and meaningful experience for everyone who takes part. T...

Roles/Facilitation

Whether you are running your visioning exercise online or in person, it’s good to have a small te...

Preparing an online visioning process

Ahead of time   If you have decided to hold your visioning process online, start by agreeing da...

Preparing an in-person visioning process

Before you send invitations, decide whether you will run it in person or online. If in person, lo...

Introduction/Warm up

Time: 30 minutes The first half hour of this process is really important to set the tone, make e...

Part one - What Is?

Time: 1 hour 25 minutes Taking stock of what’s not working, what we want to change and what we w...

Part two - What If?

Time: 3 hours with breaks Starting to imagine a different, better future together. Facilitation...

Follow up exercise - Optional

Time: 30 minutes Once you have done this visioning piece, you can do this additional exercise to...

Generating What If? questions

Time: 60 minutes Facilitation guide: Introduce the session using the following text: The previ...

From What If to What Next

Time: 1 hour 45 minutes Facilitation guide:  Introduce the aim, mindset and exercise Aim:  ...

Closing Well

Time: 30 minutes Close with appreciation (giving everyone time to share what they have appreciat...

Other resources

Transition Together offers training and support to help you put your vision into action, as well ...

Licence & Attribution - CC BY-SA 4.0

Created by Transition Together with the support of Transition Network.  The original guide was w...