Scenario Thinking

Written By Guest User

Our weekly Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders and allied organizations. Keep checking back for more of these videos here in our blog.

Just click the picture above to watch the video.

Arundhati Roy, in this article, shares a larger vision of the pandemic as a portal:

”Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.”

Diana Scearce, author of What If? The Art of Scenario Thinking for Nonprofits, recently led the RCC's Steering Committee through a 3-day scenario thinking exercise. Scenario thinking opens up layers of possibility, and supports wise decision-making as retreat centers navigate the current COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing social uprising for racial justice.

On today’s call we shared some of these tools with retreat center leaders, and each envisioned our centers in the context of 3 very different, yet plausible, scenarios.

Some themes held true for retreat centers across all 3 scenarios. The future is uncertain, but in the next 24 months centers will most likely continue:

  • Providing respite for all those who are healing and grieving in this time

  • Developing and improving online programming

  • Finding unique opportunities for collaboration and sharing our gifts with each other

  • Being present to others in the community, and responding to their needs for both physical space and emotional/spiritual resources

  • Maintaining hope

Some related resources on Scenario Thinking:

Facilitators:

Diana Scearce, RCC

Oren Slozberg, RCC and Commonweal Retreat Center

More notes and an audio recording of this session are available at the link below.

Guest User
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