Guidance

Visioning: facilitation worksheet

Published 29 August 2024

This worksheet is for the user to adapt and fill in as needed – timings and wording are suggestions only and will need to be tailored to the user’s context. This is an outline for a basic workshop to develop a vision for a specific project or policy – if the user’s scope is broader than this, they will need more time and to use different techniques to engage a wider range of stakeholders. Read other Futures Toolkit resources.

Scoping question:   

Participants:   

Time	Activity	Content	Notes
-	-	-	-
-00:30	Set up	If virtual, make sure that you have prepared your online whiteboard. You will need to be able to use breakout rooms in the video meeting package. Display the Scoping Question prominently. Prepare slides if using (recommended).	You may want to share outputs of previous work or some existing trend analysis as pre-reading. If you are working virtually, you may need an introduction to the online whiteboard before you start or send a short “how-to guide”.
00:00 (5 mins)	Introduction and agenda	- Introduce the aims of the project. Explain how this workshop fits in with any wider futures process. Introduce the concept of a Vision – a desirable, but feasible future. Then introduce the workshop, what people will do and what the outcomes will be. Share the agenda.	Slide with agenda: Introduction to Visioning. Describe the vision of success. Agree the current situation and define the steps to deliver the vision. Feedback and discussion
	Introduction to Visioning
00:05 (20 mins)	Feedback on research. Personal reflections	Introduce the output from previous relevant work, such as Horizon Scanning or Seven Questions, to stimulate your group to think about the future and highlight issues that they hadn’t thought about. Discuss what is interesting and why.	Slide of previous work on Horizon Scanning or Seven Questions. If there has not been any previous work, ask the group to do a warm-up exercise. For example: consider some “vision statements” other organisations have published or refer to existing trend analysis.
	Describe the vision of success
00:25 (30 mins)	Describe the vision of success	Ask people to describe their vision of success: identify the key differences between the present and the preferred future. Ask each group to imagine they are members of the team that has successfully delivered the project. Ask them to describe what success looks like and capture key points. You can use these questions as a guide and modify them to suit the project or policy. Questions for discussion include: What have we achieved, what impact have we had? Who are our stakeholders? How have they benefited from what we’ve done? What are we most pleased about? What procedures or decision-making processes have we put in place to make sure the project is sustained? How are we measuring success? Is there anything we still need to tackle? What are the challenges we face now? What have we learned from our successes and failures?	Split into groups of 6-8. Each group should have their own flip chart paper with post-it notes or their own space on the electronic whiteboards. If the groups are working virtually, try to have a project team member as facilitator. Encourage the group to speak in the present tense and to take ownership of the future they have created. Participants should treat this element of the conversation like a brainstorm – all ideas are valuable and worth including. Differences can be ironed out in the next stage. This will form the basis for the write-up, so capture the output. If you have time, you could ask the groups to create some media headlines to bring the visions to life.
00:55 (10 mins)	Plenary report back	Ask groups to present a brief summary and then compare the visions. What are the differences? What do we agree on and will form the core of the vision? What details will need to be considered later?	Call everyone back into the plenary session and ask for feedback, then have a plenary discussion
01:05 (10 mins)	Break	Stretch and refreshments	If the groups are working virtually, encourage them to stretch and take a break.
	Current situation and steps
01:15 (60 mins)	Agree the current situation and define the steps to deliver the vision.	Recap the core vision agreed in the previous session. Ask the groups to consider the following questions: How close are we to our vision? What needs to change to achieve the vision? Which changes are in our control? Which are not? What are the key steps towards achieving the vision? When do we need to achieve them by? What resources do we need? Who will lead the process? Who will be the winners and losers in this change? How do we bring people with us? Ask the groups to build a timeline of the key steps.	Slide outlining core vision. Line the walls with flip chart paper or provide whiteboards for the timeline. If working on a software tool, create templates for the groups
	Present
02:15 (20 mins)	Present the vision	Ask the groups to feed back as visually as possible.	5 minutes per group plus 5 to 10 minutes of discussion, focusing on their timeline. Facilitate a short discussion to agree what needs to happen now and how change will be resourced. Acknowledge differences of opinion, but do not overplay them.
02:35	Close	Thank you and questions.	Agree and explain next steps
	Next steps	Position with further work e.g. on Roadmapping or Backcasting.	You will want to write up the Visioning workshop in some detail. Use the results from ‘describe the vision of success’ as your basis for the vision.