There’s a facilitation exercise called Blind Portraits that has some interesting lessons for futures facilitators.
Two people sit facing each other. Each draws the other’s portrait for three minutes without looking at the paper and without lifting the pen. You have to keep your eyes on the other person the entire time. The results are rarely flattering. But that’s not the point.
What’s interesting is what the exercise trains: attention without control, action without certainty, and trust in a process whose outcome you can’t see while you’re in it.
I’ve been thinking about how closely this mirrors futures work. When we work with the future, we’re always drawing blind. We’re acting, deciding, and shaping without being able to see the final picture. The temptation is to peek,to over-plan, over-model, or force coherence too early. But just like in blind drawing, that urge to control often degrades the outcome.
Good futures facilitation isn’t about producing perfect visions. It’s about helping people stay present, attentive, and engaged while meaning emerges over time. Much of what matters becomes visible only after we’ve acted.
Blind drawing reminds us that the future isn’t something we can see clearly while making it. It’s something that takes shape through relationship, attention, and a willingness to keep going even when we feel unsure. That’s not a failure of foresight. It’s the nature of the work.