We offer you an adapted and immediately applicable version of our home-made best-seller: the History of the Future.

The History of the Future is an offbeat collaborative workshop which will, in the long tradition of agile games, enable you to work collectively on your strategy or product. Equally effective for small start-ups and huge multinational companies.

The board game.

You will find in free download the blueprints to create your own custom-made board. You can, of course, decide to draw it yourself. However, be sure to include the space shuttle in the center, and the 4 following zones: actions, boosters, asteroids and achievements.

You will also need:

  • Many Post-its (in 4 different colours)
  • Many many stickers (in 4 different colours as well – and don’t hesitate to choose funny ones: in the shape of hearts, stars, unicorns, kittens... go wild!)

How to play?

The essential point is to jump (from a couple of months to several years) in the future, and then come back in present time. If your organization is a start-up, the future can represent a 6 to 12 months fast-forward in time. If it’s a big company, it may be more around 3, 5 or 10 years.

The storytelling is extremely important in this workshop. Everything is translated in terms of space and universe: the company is represented by the space shuttle, its strengths by the boosters, the obstacles by asteroids…

Here’s how the game is played..

The facilitator transports the participants into the future. “You are now in 2018…”

The future is bright and radiant. The company succeeded and expanded brilliantly: “What proof do we have? Well we’re now on the cover of the Harvard Business Review”. … Or any other relevant paper.

“But by the way, what exactly did we accomplish?” The facilitator asks all participants to think of any achievement the company could have put into practice before 20XX.

They have 5 minutes to silently write down their ideas on post-its. Then, they share them by putting them on the board game in the “achievement” zone. Similar ideas are put together. During this whole phase, it is the facilitator’s job to stir discussion and encourage the sharing of contradicting point of views..

Optional Vote with the stickers for the objectives you would most likely want to implement.

“But how did we get here?”

The facilitator shows you how your ship encountered asteroids (obstacles) and managed to dodge them thanks to its boosters (strengths).

“Can you name these asteroids and boosters?”

Once more, the participants will be asked to silently write down their ideas on post-its. Orange for asteroids and green for boosters. They will then share their contributions and place them on the board in the dedicated zone.

It is of course still as crucial to stir discussion as much as possible. “Why do you believe this asteroid is particularly menacing?” or “In what way is this really a booster?”

“What can we do to put this dynamic in motion?”

The facilitator asks the participants to analyse the achievements, asteroids and boosters in order to imagine what they can do today to launch the space shuttle in the right direction.

Why offer it?

Since Stormz’s foundation in 2012, we have facilitated many “History of the Future” workshops, for crowds going from 20 up to 200 participants in prestigious companies such as BNP Paribas, Lyonnaise des Eaux or Ubisoft. We have therefore been able to measure and witness the certain efficiency of this workshop.

To celebrate our V2’s exit from our factory, we have decided to offer to everyone the chance to facilitate their own “History of the Future” within his/her team or organization.

In order to ensure the widest possible diffusion of that game, we have presented a version where our Stormz application isn’t necessary, and have largely find our inspiration in the agile games as popularized in the books “Gamestorming” by Xplane and “Innovation Games” by Conteneo. You can also notice strong similarities between our “History of the Future” workshop and the games “Remember the future” and “Speed boat” by Luke Hohmanns.

Do variations exist?

Many variations (in length, complexity…) of this game exist, and it is our goal to adapt it according to every different contexts (workshop objectives, corporate culture) and constraints (length, location, online or onsite, number of participants).

You can for example boost the creativity by integrating inversed brainstorming or brainwriting techniques.

The version we offer here is the easiest and quickest to put into practice. I would advise you to try it out and progressively add ingredients that personally suit your needs. If that is the case, feel free to share it with us! If you intend to use History of the Future for very large groups, don’t hesitate to contact us!