Dear Narwhals,
I hope this finds you well amidst all that is happening.
Thanks to all those who joined our most recent group call last Thursday with Nora and Alina on Detonating Narratives. You should have received the notes and recording of that session just now.
We are so excited to be sharing with you the plans for next Thursday's 5th Narwhal fortnightly call. Wendy Schultz, who some of you heard speak at the 21st May “Feeling the Future” session, will take us through a 2-hour participatory workshop using the Manoa Scenario Building technique which uses “Future Wheels” as part of its process.
You are invited to the fifth convening of the Narwhal narratives group.
The topic of the call is "Future Wheels and Weird Worlding".
When: Jun 18, 2020 4:00 PM London
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
By building up shared images of the future in our group, we will have more material to work with to collectively explore, develop and architect new narratives.
Future Wheels and Weird Worlding with Wendy…
... with Wendy Schultz, Futurist
"This is a future scenario mapping technique designed to maximise difference from the present and the past - to push people to think into the strange - and find not just novel narratives, but new questions."
In previous sessions, we have been working on narratives and metaphors for better post-covid futures. But what do these futures look like?
If you're interested in where futures, systems, narratives and poetic co-creation cross over, this workshop is for you. We will be jointly exploring paths out of the now, possibilities, changes, impacts, and emergent narratives.
What might we as a group discover by asking questions, mapping alternative histories that contribute to our diversely experienced present, and creating changes that spur ranges of cascades of possible impacts proliferating out of our nows?
Come find out.
Details of the workshop:
This is an active participatory workshop.
Come prepared with 3 or 4 potentially disruptive/transformative changes that you can see emerging and that you think might have a significant impact on the world - from daily life up through major systems - and bring them with you to this session.
Technical description: We will be using the output of an informal team horizon scanning effort (those changes you are bringing) to build a library of alternative futures stories (scenarios) using the Manoa Scenario Building technique
The Manoa Scenario Building technique is based on Futures Wheel impact cascade mapping, systems mapping, and cross-impact analysis.
Two hours to build future worlds!
More about Wendy:
Wendy Schultz is an academically trained futurist with over 35 years of global foresight practice. She has designed futures research projects for NGOs, government agencies, and businesses. Recent clients include GlaxoSmithKline, Policy Horizons Canada, Vodafone, the United Nations, the International Labour Organization, Nesta UK, Singapore’s Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning Centre, the Industrial Research Institute, and PepsiCo.
Wendy specializes in participatory futures workshops—most recently at A Temporary Futures Institute at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp; for Africa Knows in Arusha, Tanzania; at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy; and in Budapest for Vodafone. These workshops are participatory, exploratory, provocative, and creative.
Wendy teaches futures studies in the Masters Program in Strategic Foresight at the University of Houston, is a senior fellow of the Center for Post-Normal Policy and Futures Studies; vice president of training for Vision Foresight Strategy; and a principal of SAMI Consulting.
She is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists and a fellow of the World Futures Studies Federation. Her award-winning articles on futures research have been published in Foresight, Futures, the Journal of Futures Studies, World Futures Review, and APF’s Compass.
Narwhal
Narwhal is the Narratives Working-group Hopeful and Longterm. You can read more about us here: https://narwhal.substack.com/
This group is for story-tellers, narrative strategists and communications experts inquiring about the longer-term narrative work needed post-COVID-19.
We have entered a liminal chapter in human history when there is an opportunity for narratives that help establish new patterns of how we organise society so that we #dontgobacktonormal.
Come along on Thursday if you:
Are keen to explore existing narratives and metaphors being used to describe the pandemic
Want to engage in collective sensemaking to develop stories and narratives of COVID-19 that lead to a more just and healthy world
Want an opportunity to connect or re-connect with other narrative makers who want to have an impact on the outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic
Want to challenge your understanding of stories and narratives and culture change.
We hope you will join us!
Best wishes,
Phoebe
HI Phoebe, are these being recorded and will they be available after the webinar?