Example:
The executive committee of a large multinational corporation heard of scenario planning and liked the idea of implementing it. The company appointed a committee (with no members from the executive committee on it) to create a set of scenarios for 10 years conducted extensive research, talked with suppliers and even competitors, and then created 12 extensive scenarios.
The team then met with the executive committee to present the scenarios. a half day was set aside, and the team made an elaborate presentation of the scenarios. After the presentation, members of the executive committee asked a number of questions and then dismissed the team members. They continued to meet for the rest of the day.
Following the meeting, the executive committee reported to the team that they had selected scenario 6, as that was the most desirable outcome. They would out their time, energies, and resources into responding to the scenario. Clearly, they did not understand the purpose of scenario planning and basically wasted the 6 months of work accomplishment by the team. The chair of the team met with the executive committee in an effort to educate it about how the scenarios should have been used, but the committee was not responsive. If any of the other scenarios should happen, this organization will not be prepared, in spite of the good work by the scenario planning team.