Using Scenarios for Aotearoa New Zealand

How do you actually use scenarios once they have been written?

This 60-minute online session is a practical taster for people who are curious about scenario work, strategic foresight, and how stories about the future can help us ask better questions in the present.

We’ll use a set of four scenarios for Aotearoa New Zealand as our starting point. These scenarios explore how an external fuel shock could affect not only logistics and supply chains, but trust, social cohesion, everyday life, and the relationship between people and institutions.

The session is not about predicting the future, and it is not a deep dive into every detail of the scenario set. Instead, it offers a light, participatory introduction to how scenarios can be used as “rehearsal spaces” - helping groups test assumptions, notice hidden dependencies, explore different implications, and identify questions worth taking more seriously.

This workshop will be useful for people working across council, central government, design, strategy, community, infrastructure, public policy, social impact, and the private sector - especially those interested in resilience, trust, systems change, crisis preparedness, and long-term decision-making.

In this session, you will get a taste of how to:

• read scenarios for insight, not prediction;

• explore implications across different sectors and communities;

• notice hidden burdens, assumptions, and weak signals;

• ask better “what does this mean for us?” questions;

• and think about practical next steps without jumping too quickly to solutions.

No prior foresight experience is needed.