Collaborative Scenario Experimentation for Strategy Formulation to Shape Desirable Futures

Abstract

OVERVIEW: Organizations struggle to envision and shape the future amid increasing volatility and uncertainty, as traditional strategic planning often depends on past experiences. This article explores the intersection of foresight and future making to cocreate desirable futures. It examines the role of collaborative scenario experimentation in strategy formulation and the influence of technology and design in this process. Using an action research methodology at the Innovation Center at Pontificia Universidad Cat & oacute;lica de Chile, this study investigates how collaborative scenario experimentation can facilitate strategy formulation that shapes desirable futures. We identified four key sensemaking processes that strengthen this connection: experiencing diverse future scenarios, amplifying collective imagination, confronting expectations to envision desirable futures, and imagining the future to impact the present. We also identified two exploratory enablers-integrating technology to enhance collaborative scenario experimentation and translating design approaches into prospective theorizing and future-making practice-that support the application of these sensemaking processes by deepening immersion in future possibilities and enriching the artifacts and tools used during collaborative scenario experimentation.