A friend of the podcast got hired to run a facilitation: “vision on day one, backcasting on day two.”
He asked Tom for tips on backcasting workshops. Tom rolled up his sleeves and out fell a number of beefs.
In this one we walk through why visions and step-by-step plans keep falling apart, and how to smuggle something that actually works into a workshop that’s already been sold as backcasting.
Including:
Why the first hour of every exec visioning workshop is people scrawling “seamless interactive experience” on every sticky note
Our many beefs with backcasting (assumption of linear cause and effect being only the first)
Sidecasting, and the curious joy of paying attention to the evolutionary potential of the present rather than gazing forwards or backwards
Jabe Bloom’s “Ideal Present” 2×2, plus an extra scaffolding step Tom adds so people don’t freeze like deer in headlights
Why your organisation’s “maladaptive” behaviours are actually adaptive (you just don’t like them)
The rule that makes it all work: you’re not allowed to throw future you under the bus
Why a strategic plan is really a holiday brochure
For anyone who’s ever been asked to deliver a vision on day one and a plan on day two — and suspects neither will survive contact with reality.
Get in touch: tentacles@crownandreach.com
References
Dr Jabe Bloom’s Ideal Present, explained by Ben Mosior https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19KUsV_qeyk
Pavel Samsonov’s recent piece on vision workshops and the ubiquitous “interactive experience” sticky note https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/ai-is-not-the-future-of-software-development-but-the-last-dying-gasp-of-the-past
Dave Snowden — Estuarine Mapping: https://cynefin.io/wiki/Estuarine_framework
Stafford Beer — POSIWID (“the purpose of a system is what it does”)
The Serenity Prayer (Reinhold Niebuhr)
Intro to Multiverse Mapping: https://youtu.be/577_CXCfHMI?si=NhgLcF4KqL0n2VN7
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