I’m back to thinking about Miti Desai’s essay, “An Indigenous Pedagogy in Contemporary Times: My experience with the gurukul system of training”. In the Gurukul system, learning happens through proximity, repetition, observation, and relationship, as . Not through mastery slides or certification.
That resonates deeply with me as the way that futures capability actually develops.
You don’t “learn futures” by memorising frameworks. You learn it by sitting with uncertainty. In doing so, you notice your urge to collapse possibilities too quickly. And in watching how groups respond when no one pretends to know the answer, I’ve learned more about futures than any book, or course, or conversation.
Futures facilitation is an apprenticeship in not-knowing.
The facilitator doesn’t stand at the front of the as an expert. They operate from within the system, shaping the conditions in which collective intelligence, imagination, and responsibility can emerge. It’s challenging work, but it’s fascinating. It’s also transformative, for the facilitator, and done well, for the people and the group, too.