Build a Shared Picture of Where You Want to Go. We’ve found the arts to be powerful tools for creating a picture of where people want to go. Artistic talent isn’t required—just the willingness to share a personal vision of the future. For example, you might invite the members of your team to make simple drawings that capture an aspect of the future they dream of. Even crude sketches can carry powerful messages about the future. Writing can also be used to uncover the future. Try asking people to imagine themselves five years in the future and spend just five minutes writing about what they see in a freeflowing, open ended style. The insights that emerge may surprise you.                                                            

Try simple conversation. Invite people to pretend it is five years from today. Ask them to discuss what they are doing, how they are working together, what their new workplace, church, school, or community looks like. The key is to conduct the conversation in the present tense, as if the future is now—discussing not how you would like it to be, but rather how it “is.” Many varied observations will emerge from this discussion, but in time some common themes will emerge. These themes represent the shared picture of the future—the goal toward which your work will be directed.