| Keywords: | Organisation and Planning; Democratic Change Process; Active Participation; Commitment |
| Objectives: | Considering and clarifying the importance of working together. Formulating a plan for future joint work. |
| Target group: | Committed and focused members of interest groups seeking to make changes within their interest group. They must be confident in expressing their opinions verbally, although strong language skills in the target language is not necessary. |
| Duration: | On average 180 minutes. However, the workshops may be adapted to a specific context, meaning that they can also last for several days. |
| Methodology step-by-step: | Inform the participants of the theme, working method and time frame in advance of the workshop. 2. There are three phases, the first two of which are discussed in either plenary or small groups. – THE CRITICISM PHASE: the participants express their negative experiences and feelings in relation to the overall theme, for instance a bad experience with contacting other colleagues. All statements are described in key words on flipcharts and are then arranged in thematic circles. – THE FANTASY PHASE: the participants turn the criticism around and discuss how it can be turned into dreams and visions. The participants prepare proposals for a solution, called utopian drafts. – THE REALIZATION PHASE: the fantasy phase’s solutions / utopian drafts are assessed in the light of how possible it is to put them into practice. NOTE: It is necessary for someone to guide the discussions, whilst writing key words on the flipcharts and continually summarizing the results. Depending on the size of the group, 2-3 facilitators are required for this task. It is imperative that each participant is given the opportunity to speak and be listened to. The most important rule in this exercise is to listen to others without interrupting and without rejecting their statements in a tactless or degrading way. |
| Resources needed: | – Flipcharts. – Post-its for participants to write their own keywords. – Large pieces of papers for working groups to design visions etc. |
| Challenges: | If the group is large, it may be a good idea to divide participants into smaller groups. In this case, it is important that the results from all groups are carefully presented in plenary, thereby ensuring that the results from the Future Workshops express the views and desires of all participants. |
