Facilitating Foresight: Lessons from the Field

Facilitating foresight workshops is about holding space for uncertainty, imagination, and collective insight. Here’s what I’ve learned about how to make these sessions meaningful and transformational.

Over the past eight years, I’ve facilitated dozens of foresight and scenario workshops across sectors and regions, from global beverage brands to NGOs working with sub-Saharan Africa, government ministries to local democracy projects in Eastern Europe. Some were intense one-day sprints. Others spanned months. Some were with CEOs and strategists, others with grassroots activists and frontline employees. No matter the format, one thing always stands out: how much the room matters. Not just the people in it, but the design of the experience itself.

This article shares what I’ve learned about facilitating meaningful foresight workshops, the human, practical side of it. From selecting participants to working with uncertainty (in and around the workshop), from setting the tone to adapting mid-stream. These are insights drawn from real-world facilitation, where culture, power, mindsets, and expectations are just as important as methods.

1. Design Starts Before the Workshop

The most important part of any foresight workshop happens before people even enter the room. That means understanding who they are, what they expect, what kind of futures thinking culture they come from, and what blind spots they carry.

Whenever possible, I try to speak to participants ahead of time. What’s their relationship with the futures? Are they skeptical? Curious? Do they prefer data over discussion? Have they done this before? In an ideal world, I also run a simple foresight readiness survey. This helps me calibrate the level of abstraction, choose the right tools, and make sure we’re not leaving anyone behind.

I also always push for diversity. Not just demographic or disciplinary diversity, but different levels of seniority, different ways of thinking, and different comfort zones. We want to shake things up, gently. Especially in early phases, more voices often means better input and stronger buy-in. Later, we narrow in with smaller groups focused on decisions and action.

2. Set the Tone (And the Temperature)

People walk into a futures workshop with all sorts of expectations. Some are excited, others confused or cautious. That’s why tone-setting is key.

Be human. Say hi. Make space for smiles. Acknowledge the weirdness of talking about 10-year horizons when most teams struggle to plan 6 months ahead. Then flip it: this is a privilege. We get to imagine and shape what’s next. And the futures are full of possibilities. That’s exciting.

My job early on is to open that space. To say: you’re already thinking about the futures, just maybe not consciously. And: there’s no right answer here. We’re here to explore, to learn, to reframe. Some people are quick to speak. Others need a nudge. It helps to build in small group exercises, turn-takings, and time for reflection.

3. Tailor the Methods to the People

Choosing the right methods and exercises is about matching the process to the people, the culture, the time available, and the outcomes desired. Not just picking your favorite or always the tried-and-tested.

Executives often don’t have time for lengthy co-creation sessions. That’s fine, we have to be a bit pragmatic. So bring them in to respond to scenarios rather than build them. Teams unfamiliar with foresight might need examples to react to instead of blank canvases. In communities with painful histories, opening the futures can be both liberating and triggering. All of this must inform the design.

At ANTICIPATE, we always use our ACT Foresight Framework:

• Anticipate: Explore trends, uncertainties, scenarios and work on new mental models.

• Create: Translate insights into ideas, strategies, or prototypes.

• Transform: Define next steps, ownership, and how it will live on.

Both in a single session or a multi-month process, we go through these phases. That structure lets us stay grounded while being flexible and we have found it resonates with most and bring great value.

4. Facilitate for Power Dynamics

One person can change the room. I’ve seen CEOs dominate tables, even unintentionally, and junior staff shrink back. That’s why facilitation needs to be designed with power in mind.

Break people into mixed groups. Assign rotating roles. Use anonymous input tools when possible. Set clear ground rules for participation. There are many small tricks like these. Explicitly ask quieter voices to weigh in. Remind everyone: foresight is not necessarily about being right, it’s about being open and asking the right questions.

Sometimes it helps to assign each group a “devil’s advocate” or internal facilitator. Or roles in general that people can step into. And I’m always ready to step in if one voice starts to dominate. Disagreement and friction is good if it’s constructive but for that, we need to create a healthy space with psychological safety.

5. Expect Resistance, Then Invite It In

Not everyone will love futures thinking. Some see it as vague. Others find it threatening. Some just don’t like the format.

Instead of avoiding resistance, I try to understand it. Is it discomfort with ambiguity? A preference for data? Political undercurrents? Status anxiety? All are valid. And most can be addressed with a bit of humor, context, and empathy.

The key is flexibility. Engineers may need clearer logic flows. Lawyers may seek precedent. Executives may want actionable takeaways. You can adapt the framing without diluting the method. Meet people where they are, and nudge them gently to think broader.

6. Keep One Eye on Implementation

Great workshops don’t end when the post-its come down. That’s why I always ask: what happens after?

Transformation doesn’t start with long reports. It starts with building capability, sparking new initiatives, embedding insights into strategy. I try to design every workshop with next steps in mind, be it internal reflection, further synthesis, or follow-up sprints.

Sometimes, planting a seed is enough. One participant says, "This changed how I see our work". That ripple matters.

7. And Another Eye on Your Own Biases

I bring my worldview, my cultural lens, my preferences to every session. That doesn’t disqualify me, it just means I need to be aware of it. No facilitator is completely neutral.

I’ve facilitated across continents and for people from all over. Cultural context matters: hierarchy, time horizons, formality, collectivism. What works in Copenhagen might flop in the Basque Country or be counterproductive in Indonesia. We can’t assume our methods translate universally.

That’s why humility and local insight are essential. Do your research. Ask questions. Adapt language and examples. And remember: people often surprise you. The quietest participant might come up after the session and say, "That changed everything".

Final Thoughts on How Practice (Almost) Makes Perfect

Facilitating foresight is about so much more than applying methods or public speaking. It’s about holding space, for imagination, for discomfort, for connection, and for possibility. The futures are never neutral. And the way we talk about them, explore them, and design for them matters.

There are no two workshops that are the same, just like there are no two people that are. That’s why we really need to practice, to get experience, to test and experiment, and tweak and change things when don’t work (and even sometimes when it seems that they work).

More than produce insights, the best workshops also shift mindsets. They build trust. They open doors. And they remind people that futures aren’t fixed.

We get to shape them. One conversation at a time.

Want to learn more? Explore our tools, methods, and trainings through The Futurist’s Guide to Foresight.