Why Stories Matter in Scenario Work

Alex Evans welcomes Adam Kahane  - renowned facilitator, author, and expert in scenario planning and system transformation. Adam shares insights from his experience of scenario planning as part of peace processes in South Africa and Colombia, discusses the power of stories in shaping the future, and helps us discover practical habits which can create positive change in complex systems.

Key moments:

- Adam’s journey from Shell’s scenario team to global peace-building and system change
- The Mont Fleur scenarios: bringing together divided groups in South Africa to imagine possible futures
- The power of stories and metaphors in scenario planning
- Building trust in polarised environments
- The difference between normative (vision-driven) and analytical (possibility driven) scenario planning
- Lessons from both successful and disappointing scenario processes
- What makes system transformation possible: shared concerns, openness, and diversity of perspectives
- Everyday habits for transforming systems, including the metaphor of “finding cracks” in systems to enable change
- Adam’s perspective on hope and the importance of collective, persistent engagement

People:

Adam Kahane is a leading organiser, designer and facilitator, celebrated for facilitating the Mont Fleur scenarios in South Africa as the country was exiting its apartheid era. He has worked in more than fifty countries, in every part of the world, with executives and politicians, generals and guerrillas, community activists and United Nations officials and many more.

He is the author of several influential books, including “How to Work with People You Don’t Agree with or Like or Trust” and his latest, “Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems.” 

Alex Evans is the founder and Executive Director of Larger Us. He’s also a Visiting Professor in Practice at Newcastle University’s School of Arts and Cultures, a Senior Fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, and the author of The Myth Gap: What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren’t Enough? (Penguin, 2017).

Alex is a former Campaign Director at Avaaz, where he ran campaigns on areas including Brexit and human rights. He’s also been a political adviser, including for two UK Secretaries of State for International Development and in the UN Secretary-General’s office, and as a consultant for organisations from Oxfam to the US National Intelligence Council.

Resources & Links:

Adam’s books, including “Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems”, can be found here. 

More information about the Mont Fleur Scenarios can be found here.

Our music is "Cleanse the Corruption" by Fogheart, used with permission.

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