As a futures facilitator, my attention is often less on the artefact or the method (the scenario, the trend map, the framework) and more on what’s happening in the room.
Are people speaking in abstractions, or from experience? Are they distancing themselves from the conversation or leaning in? Are multiple futures coexisting, or are they all collapsing into one?
Story is one of the most reliable ways I know to slow things down, reintroduce humanity, and reopen possibility.
Of course the processes and methods and artefacts matter, but futures are not only systems to be analysed. They are lives that we, and future generations, will be living in 10-30-50-100 years.
If we want those futures to be worthwhile, we need both stories and scenarios to do that work well.