(First published, May 2004)

Purpose

To visualize the potential impact of the newly-learned skills and concepts across different time periods.
To plan suitable application strategies.

Participants

Any number

Time

20 to 30 minutes

Flow

Find a partner. Ask the participants to organize themselves into pairs. Explain that each pair will discuss several questions and come up with joint responses.

Ponder on the distant future. Ask the first question:

Thirty years from now, what impact will your newly-learned skills and knowledge have produced?

Encourage the participants to work rapidly and to imagine broad impact on personal, professional, organizational, societal, and global areas.

Present a report. After a pause of 2 minutes, ask for a volunteer. Invite this person to report the conclusions reached by her and the partner. Applaud this report and repeat the process with another participant chosen at random.

Repeat with different time frames. Ask the pairs to imagine alternative responses to this question:

What results would you like to have achieved 3 years from now by applying your newly-learned skills and knowledge?

Point out the differences between this question and the previous one. After a pause of 2 minutes, invite presentations from a few volunteers.

Repeat with new questions. Repeat the same procedure with these three questions:

What should you being doing 3 months from now to best utilize your newly-learned skills and knowledge?

What should you being doing 3 weeks from now to best utilize your newly-learned skills and knowledge?

What should you being doing 3 days from now to best utilize your newly-learned skills and knowledge?

Ask the here-and-now question. Ask the participants to work individually to come up with personal responses to the next question:

What should you do right here, right now for the next 3 minutes to ensure powerful future applications of your newly-learned skills and knowledge?

After a 3-minute pause, invite a few volunteers to share their thoughts.

Conclude with a 3-minute implementation period. Tell the participants that you will pause to permit the immediate implementation of their 3-minute strategy. Play some music for 3 minutes while the participants complete their task.

Variation

Not enough time? Work through these time spans: 3 years, 3 months, and 3 days.