[...] in order for me to refine what we do next I’d really value some reflections on the day about how you thing Scenario Planning could benefit you/your organisation, what you valued most about the day and what you valued least about the day (just post them back to me – feel free to say what you want) [...]
[...] had a chance to reflect on your questions, and at risk of sounding too far out of the box, am attaching the latest government steer in my field of practice as somewhat of a backdrop to the context I have been working in.
Should also mention that I’ve applied to be both a community member and a member of the support team(s) for the recent User and Innovation call, strands 1a, 1b, and 2, and am conscious that whatever I can say here, there may be a chance to help shape in practice, perhaps, in some form or another.
Therefore, as a potential ongoing proactive participant of “Scenario Planning”, here are my summary reflections on the day [...]
[...] The Higher Education Institutions I work with are, in the main, set up as charitable institutions. Such institutions, in relation to what the UK Government has recently come to categorise as “the Third Sector”, are currently in a state of flux – both in terms of their founding principles and values, and in terms of their socio-economic operating climate. Here, effective socio-economic operation is key to their ongoing charitable sustainability. And understanding the socio-economic scenarios that such institutions strategise within on a day-to-day basis is perhaps key to facilitating the same.
Scenario planning workshops in general, as a technique for bringing people of different specialisms/operating perspectives together, and considering how each may share expertise with one another in order to effect a coherent – and agreeable – way forward (for the time being at least), is no doubt a useful exercise.
However, there remains the problem of relevance with respect to what exactly serves to populate the handful of scenarios discussed; how those scenarios came to be part of that handful for discussion; and what happens next.
In some senses, the problem of populating scenarios with relevant data is akin to the broader turn to user-focused consultation and the potential that new technology-enhanced processes of community governance can bring. In the context of our efforts towards innovating next generation technologies, this then becomes an issue that almost folds back in upon itself in order to inform a possible next stage. So here we have a potentially uniquely reflexive relationship between scenario-taking and scenario-making that may be made visible, to differing degrees, to all participants through expert observation, analysis, and participatory design.
In short, we may have happened upon something really quite innovative here, as a potential driver for next generation technological development. If so, I would even go as far as to say that the scope for such timely innovation could only possibly result in benefits to me/my organisation through working in collaboration with [...] itself, and [...]’s User and Innovation programme in particular.
Otherwise, the scenario planning enacted by the workshop facilitators on the day falls woefully short of being relevant, save for some outline economic scenarios based on stylised realities that are always already out of date. As a trained economist who has priced financial derivatived based on detailed scenario planning in relation to international risk and regulatory environments in the past, I can safely say that this approach does not work in our expanded socio-economic context of educational institutions, and rather detracts from where our unique potential for added value may actually lie. This is why I have been playing such an active role in the Govt’s review of the Third Sector – we are both looking for, inter alia, more evidence-based scenario planning methods that reach beyond the traditional business enterprise logic (interim report attached). Our timescales span a 10-year cycle.
The facilitators showed some flexibility in coming to terms with the aspects of our group that may have been rather different to the groups that they have worked with before. However, in their final commentary, where they both suggested that not one of us had questioned their scenarios, it was clear that they had been missing our points all the way along. Certainly, we had constantly strived to question the viability of their scenarios, trying to find ways of taking them out of their own field of view in order to start to get a handle on what is unique to ours, but perhaps next time we should be a little more blunt in this respect. The ground rules of the workshop setting appeared to paint the faciliators as experts and ourselves as novices – here, perhaps, instead of attempting to “transfer the knowledge of scenario planning techniques from facilitator to participant”, it may be an idea for the facilitators to take more of an “expertise sharing” stance from the outset. Scenario planning as a concept is no great thing – populating scenarios as relevant to any given community of practice is where the value-added lies.
[...] in order for me to refine what we do next I’d really value some reflections on the day about how you thing Scenario Planning could benefit you/your organisation, what you valued most about the day and what you valued least about the day (just post them back to me – feel free to say what you want) [...]
[...] had a chance to reflect on your questions, and at risk of sounding too far out of the box, am attaching the latest government steer in my field of practice as somewhat of a backdrop to the context I have been working in.
Should also mention that I’ve applied to be both a community member and a member of the support team(s) for the recent User and Innovation call, strands 1a, 1b, and 2, and am conscious that whatever I can say here, there may be a chance to help shape in practice, perhaps, in some form or another.
Therefore, as a potential ongoing proactive participant of “Scenario Planning”, here are my summary reflections on the day [...]
How scenario planning may benefit you/your organisation [...]
[...] The Higher Education Institutions I work with are, in the main, set up as charitable institutions. Such institutions, in relation to what the UK Government has recently come to categorise as “the Third Sector”, are currently in a state of flux – both in terms of their founding principles and values, and in terms of their socio-economic operating climate. Here, effective socio-economic operation is key to their ongoing charitable sustainability. And understanding the socio-economic scenarios that such institutions strategise within on a day-to-day basis is perhaps key to facilitating the same.
Scenario planning workshops in general, as a technique for bringing people of different specialisms/operating perspectives together, and considering how each may share expertise with one another in order to effect a coherent – and agreeable – way forward (for the time being at least), is no doubt a useful exercise.
However, there remains the problem of relevance with respect to what exactly serves to populate the handful of scenarios discussed; how those scenarios came to be part of that handful for discussion; and what happens next.
In some senses, the problem of populating scenarios with relevant data is akin to the broader turn to user-focused consultation and the potential that new technology-enhanced processes of community governance can bring. In the context of our efforts towards innovating next generation technologies, this then becomes an issue that almost folds back in upon itself in order to inform a possible next stage. So here we have a potentially uniquely reflexive relationship between scenario-taking and scenario-making that may be made visible, to differing degrees, to all participants through expert observation, analysis, and participatory design.
In short, we may have happened upon something really quite innovative here, as a potential driver for next generation technological development. If so, I would even go as far as to say that the scope for such timely innovation could only possibly result in benefits to me/my organisation through working in collaboration with [...] itself, and [...]’s User and Innovation programme in particular.
Otherwise, the scenario planning enacted by the workshop facilitators on the day falls woefully short of being relevant, save for some outline economic scenarios based on stylised realities that are always already out of date. As a trained economist who has priced financial derivatived based on detailed scenario planning in relation to international risk and regulatory environments in the past, I can safely say that this approach does not work in our expanded socio-economic context of educational institutions, and rather detracts from where our unique potential for added value may actually lie. This is why I have been playing such an active role in the Govt’s review of the Third Sector – we are both looking for, inter alia, more evidence-based scenario planning methods that reach beyond the traditional business enterprise logic (interim report attached). Our timescales span a 10-year cycle.
What you valued most about the day [...]
Meeting people – like-minded people, and unlike-minded people alike
What you valued least about the day [...]
The facilitators showed some flexibility in coming to terms with the aspects of our group that may have been rather different to the groups that they have worked with before. However, in their final commentary, where they both suggested that not one of us had questioned their scenarios, it was clear that they had been missing our points all the way along. Certainly, we had constantly strived to question the viability of their scenarios, trying to find ways of taking them out of their own field of view in order to start to get a handle on what is unique to ours, but perhaps next time we should be a little more blunt in this respect. The ground rules of the workshop setting appeared to paint the faciliators as experts and ourselves as novices – here, perhaps, instead of attempting to “transfer the knowledge of scenario planning techniques from facilitator to participant”, it may be an idea for the facilitators to take more of an “expertise sharing” stance from the outset. Scenario planning as a concept is no great thing – populating scenarios as relevant to any given community of practice is where the value-added lies.