Often, a carefully designed futures sessions, packed with sound methods and provocative prompts, yields futures that are flat and oddly familiar. I think that this happens, not because people aren’t imaginative enough, but because they don’t feel safe or brave enough to risk saying the thing that might sound naïve, unpopular, or unfinished.
Instead, they self-censor, defer to louder (more popular?) voices, and default to whatever they feel the group is choosing.
Which means the future that emerges from discussions is the one that already has permission to exist. Which is a problem when the aim of a session is to uncover opportunities and challenges that are hidden, that don’t have permission, and that we don’t want to see.
That’s why, when I am facilitating futures, the first 20 minutes of a session is telling. I observe and notice who speaks first, whose uncertainty is welcomed (and whose ideas are dismissed before they fully develop), and whether disagreement is handled with curiosity or subtle shutdown.
In their Creative Empowerment Model, Partners for Youth Empowerment (https://www.partnersforyouth.org/ ) talk about safety as something that’s co-created, not imposed. I agree. Psychological safety isn’t something I “provide” as a facilitator. I can’t force people to feel brave enough to speak up or to challenge others. It’s something I help the group practice together.
And this matters to me, because the futures we can imagine and share and take time to explore are directly shaped by the risks we feel allowed to take.