Imagine and Ideate

Introduction

Using the Futures Wheel, participants can identify the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd level consequences of a possible future. This way, they can identify diverse stakeholders, and potential effects that they may have not foreseen before. The Futures Wheel supports worldbuilding activities to understand a wide range of outcomes that might take place in the future.

How it works

1. Imagine that you are in 2030. In this exercise, we will think of a “What if Scenario”.
2. Place a trend, a development, a signal of change, in the center of the Future Wheel. You can think of a specific technological development, but also in terms of what if a specific value became predominant in society in the context of the societal challenge (i.e. everything revolves around privacy in digital transformation).
3. In the latter case: look at the main values you included in the frame of the societal challenge. What would happen if one of the values included in your frame (i.e. transparency) governed the solution you come up with to address that challenge? What would that mean for work, interactions, people?
4. Use the Futures Wheel to brainstorm about potential effects. You can use it freely, or you can add elements like the PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Ethical) to think of consequences in those areas.

Output

Overview of potential consequences that a development (or an intentional action) might lead to.

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Overview

Other methods and tools to 'Imagine and Ideate':