Who is involved?
Scenario planning is almost always done as a group exercise, with the group ranging anywhere from 9 or10 up to perhaps 30 participants. One facilitator can handle a group of about a dozen: after that , it’s advisable to have additional facilitators, as the process works best by breaking the group into smaller working teams for certain steps. Each team ought to have somebody hovering nearby to coach them.
Choosing the actual participants is an important task needing some real consideration. If the scenario planning is to have the greatest potential value,then the people who help create the scenario should be open, intelligent,motivated,imaginative and strategic thinkers.
But that’s not all They also need to be good communicators--able to formulate ideas and also to explain them clearly to the others. The group also needs to include people who represent different perspectives and interests. This diversity of experience and point of view is crucial. Without it,there can be a tendency for the group to fall in line with the thinking of the boss. Other stakeholders involved keeps everybody true to their interests and viewpoints.
Last,the people chosen to participate in a scenario planning exercise should be individuals who are well respected. This point cannot be overemphasized. Within the group, you cannot afford to have participants whom the others don’t find credible, or whose contribution to the various discussions will already be discounted before they even open their mouths. This doesn’t mean that everyone has to be a senior vice president.(in fact, it’s better if everyone is not a senior vice president.) but even if nine hierarchical levels separate the highest-ranking member of the group from the lowest-ranking member, all of the participants need to have respect for each other’s position and opinions
Another important reason for assuring that the group consists of individuals who command some respect is to make buy-in easier when the results are communicated to the rest of the organization, the public, or other stakeholders. Remember that scenario planning is a tool that ultimately helps you make big decisions about the future direction of your organization. That means a lot is potentially at stake,for many people.When they are first exposed to the scenario planning results,it’s natural that some people may conclude that they will be big “winners” in the future; others will see themselves as “losers” A well-respected scenario planning team can dispel this idea..or,as the case may be, make bad news easier to swallow.