What is a Futures Literacy Laboratory (FLL)?

A Futures Literacy Laboratory (FLL) is an innovative participatory method developed under the leadership of Riel Miller at UNESCO, designed to enhance our capacity to use the future rather than merely predict it. It’s rooted in the idea that imagining different futures is a skill—like reading or writing—that can be learned, developed, and used to better navigate uncertainty and complexity.

The Evolution of the Method

Futures Literacy (FL) grew from a recognition that most decision-making is based on hidden assumptions about the future—what Riel Miller calls the “used future.” Initially shaped by futures studies, complexity science, and anticipatory systems theory, FLLs emerged in the 2010s as a way to make people more aware of their anticipatory assumptions and to experiment with alternative futures in a safe, collaborative setting. UNESCO formalised this approach, bringing it into diverse contexts from education to governance, development, and innovation.

Futures Literacy Labs are experiential and dialogic. They are less about forecasting and more about sense-making—helping people understand how they frame the future and how they might reframe it.

Objectives of a Futures Literacy Laboratory

An FLL aims to:

1. Reveal and question assumptions about the future (especially unconscious ones).

2. Improve the ability to imagine multiple futures, not just the most probable or desirable ones.

3. Empower participants to embrace uncertainty and use it productively.

4. Foster innovation and resilience by breaking free from dominant narratives.

5. Build collective intelligence through shared exploration and meaning-making.

How Does It Work?

Futures Literacy Labs are experiential and dialogic. They are less about forecasting and more about sense-making—helping people understand how they frame the future and how they might reframe it.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Designing & Facilitating a Futures Literacy Lab

📍 PHASE 1: PREPARATION

• Define the Lab Theme: e.g. “The Future of Mobility in Cities.”

• Select Participants: Ensure diversity in backgrounds, roles, generations.

• Clarify Objectives: Learning, system change, policy insight, etc.

• Set the Stage: Logistics, materials, co-facilitators, emotional safety.

PHASE 2: FACILITATED LAB EXPERIENCE (Short description)

Step 1a: Reveal Current Assumptions and Expected Futures

• Exercise: Ask participants to describe their vision of the future (e.g., “In 2050, what will [X] look like?”)

• Debrief: Explore the assumptions embedded in their narratives—what’s taken for granted?

Step 1b: Reveal Desired Futures

• What would an ideal future look like in 2050 for you / your community / your field?

• If everything went well, what kind of world would you want to live in?

Step 2: Introduce the Concept of Futures Literacy

• Mini-lecture or guided conversation: explain anticipatory systems, different anticipatory assumptions (e.g., probable vs. desirable futures), and how we can “learn” to use the future.

Step 3: Explore Alternative Futures

• Present a disruptive scenario (or let participants co-create one) that breaks away from current assumptions.

• Ask: “What if that were true?” Encourage immersion in this new logic, even if it feels implausible.

Step 4: Reflect and Make Sense

• Group discussions: What did we learn by stepping into a different future?

• Mapping assumptions: Compare “used” futures with newly explored ones.

• Capture insights about blind spots, novel possibilities, and systemic patterns.

Step 5: Reframe the Present

• Shift focus: How does this new lens help us act differently today?

• Design prompts or small-group activities: “What would we do differently now?”

• Closing circle: Consolidate learnings and new anticipatory capacities.

PHASE 2: FACILITATED LAB EXPERIENCE (More detailed description)

STEP 1a – Reveal Expected Futures

Purpose

Surface participants’ default anticipations—what they assume will happen. These are often based on linear extrapolations of today and shaped by dominant narratives.

Methods

• Prompt: “Describe what you think the future of [X] will look like in 20–30 years.”

• Format: Silent reflection, short write-up, sketch, or group discussion.

• Facilitation Tip: Encourage realism, not optimism/pessimism.

Outputs

• Shared map of expected futures.

• Identification of main assumptions (technological determinism, continuity of growth, etc.).

• Start building awareness of mental models.

Why It Matters

Sets the baseline. These “used futures” shape how we perceive options and risks, often invisibly. Making them explicit opens the door to deeper sense-making.

STEP 1b – Reveal Desired Futures

Purpose

Uncover participants’ normative hopes and aspirations. Highlights the difference between what is likely and what is ideal. This step surfaces participants’ aspirations and normative visions of the future—what they want to see happen. It helps distinguish between futures people expect (Step 1) and those they hope for, which often remain implicit. This is essential for understanding the emotional and value-laden drivers behind people’s thinking, and for later reflecting on how desires shape anticipatory assumptions.

Methods

• Prompt: “What does a good future look like to you in this domain?”

• Formats:

  • Creative writing or storytelling

  • Drawings, metaphors, vision boards

  • Group sharing

  
  

Outputs

• Emotional connection to futures.

• Awareness of value-laden assumptions.

• Foundation for contrast with non-normative exploration later.

Why It Matters

Desires influence what futures we consider possible. Recognizing this helps prevent desirability bias in policy, innovation, or strategy development.

STEP 2 – Introduce Futures Literacy Concepts

Purpose

Building a shared conceptual foundation for exploring futures. Helps participants move from “future = prediction” to “future = tool for learning”.

Methods

• Mini-lecture or guided dialogue on:

  • The three anticipatory systems: anticipation for planning, for preparedness, and for emergence.

  • Difference between probable, plausible, preferable, and possible futures.

  • The role of Futures Literacy as a capability to reframe problems and sense-make uncertainty.

  
  

Outputs

• Shared vocabulary and cognitive scaffolding.

• Participants understand why they are being challenged to unlearn.

Why It Matters

Without this reframing, the rest of the lab risks becoming a brainstorming session. This step anchors FLL in epistemic humility and complexity thinking.

STEP 3 – Explore Disruptive / Non-Normative Futures

Purpose

Expose participants to radically different futures (also called alternative futures) that break assumptions, reveal blind spots, and spark new frames of reference.

Methods

• Pre-built disruptive scenario or

• Co-created wildcards and systemic shocks (e.g. full AI governance, moneyless society, climate techno-utopia).

• Using of fiction, immersive storytelling, or provocations.

• Encourage emotional and cognitive immersion: “If this were the world, how would you live?”

Outputs

• Expanded “possibility space.”

• Recognition of the limits of current mental models.

• Discovery of unseen options, vulnerabilities, or enablers.

Why It Matters

This is the heart of the lab: creating cognitive dissonance to stimulate deeper insight. Unsettling, but generative.

STEP 4 – Reflect & Compare (Sense-Making Phase)

Purpose

Guide participants to compare their expected, desired, and non-normative futures—and unpack how each is shaped by different assumptions.

Methods

• Guided reflection questions:

  • “What surprised you?”

  • “What assumptions were challenged?”

  • “Which ideas made you uncomfortable—and why?”

  • “How would your actions or decisions change in this new context?”

• Tools:

  • Futures Wheel (to explore ripple effects)

  • Causal Layered Analysis (CLA)

  • Framing matrix or worldview mapping

  
  

Outputs

• Awareness of anticipatory assumptions and their origins.

• Shifts in perception and openness to emergence.

• Group dialogue on new questions that arise.

Why It Matters

This is the learning phase: where anticipatory systems are decoded and reconfigured. Helps participants realize: “It’s not just what we think about the future—it’s how we think about it.”

STEP 5 – Reframe the Present

Purpose

Translate future-facing insights back into present-day awareness and action. The goal is not strategy, but renewed sense-making of today’s complexity.

Methods

• Prompts like:

  • “What new questions do we need to ask today?”

  • “What practices, policies, or assumptions could we revisit now?”

  • “How has your understanding of [X] changed?”

• Co-creation activities

  • “Signals of emergence” mapping

  • “Next experiments” ideation

  • “Trigger points” or “What now?” boards

Outputs

• Reframed understanding of the challenge.

• Concrete insights or principles to guide next steps.

• Seeds for future sense-making, not necessarily a roadmap.

Why It Matters

FLLs don’t prescribe solutions—they enhance the capacity to imagine better questions and navigate ambiguity, which is vital in a world of systemic disruption.

PHASE 3: POST-LAB (Harvesting & Integration)

• Synthesising Outputs: Narratives, maps, assumptions, insights.

• Optional Follow-ups: Strategy workshops, systems mapping, scenario building. action plans using backcasting

• Internal Debrief: Reflection on facilitation process, group dynamics, emergence.

• Documentation: Report creation, story map, and insight deck.

In summary:

Step	Focus	Output
1a	Expected Futures	Default narratives & assumptions
1b	Desired Futures	Normative visions & emotional anchors
2	Futures Literacy Concepts	Cognitive foundation for anticipatory thinking
3	Disruptive Futures	Cognitive dissonance, expanded possibility space
4	Sensemaking	Comparison of assumptions and perspectives
5	Reframing	New questions, insights, and present-day shifts

Why Use a Futures Literacy Laboratory?

In an age of complexity and disruption, being able to learn from the future is as important as planning for it. FLLs offer a unique, structured way to surface blind spots, reframe narratives, and open up transformative possibilities. They’re not about predicting what’s next—they’re about expanding how we think about what could be next. For leaders, communities, and organisations who want to build resilience and innovation capacity, FLLs provide a fresh, human-centred approach that strengthens both collective intelligence and future-readiness.

Details about the theory and functioning of FLLs can be found in the freely available book 'Transforming the future: anticipation in the 21st century'