For those futurists who have had considerable experience in scenario building and scenario-based planning it is good to have more knowledge on one of the most interesting methods in scenario planning. The method is called Carousel as it is a circling activity among the related posters and enriching scenario planners' ideas in order to offer better scenarios.

Thanks to Dr. Ian Miles' useful comment on my request to elaborate more the carousel method, I found it enough useful to get published on my website especially for those who have not become a member of Shaping Tomorrow Network. Here is the comment written by Dr. Miles:

I'm responsible for the first of the two descriptions above [Extracted definitions from scenario-related texts by Hejazi]. We used the term "carousel method" - also "samba method" to describe a very simple step in a scenario workshop. (I think one of my colleagues introduced the term - I don't know where it came from, but can find no earlier references in the scenario literature - the people who use it in the Qualitative Research article came later.)

We had had groups working on specific topics within a success scenario - but the method could be used with groups that had been working on different scenarios, too.
Our particular purpose was to start collecting suggestions for action that came out of the deliberations in the workshop. We wanted (a) to give people some time on their feet, since they had been sitting all day; (b) to get them to rapidly generate a lot of suggestions, rather than to spend a long time thinking about the background, or going back to earlier discussions.

So we set up a series of posters in the room, with each poster assigned a label like "Education and Training", "Infrastructure", "R&D" and so on. The participants were able to see that there were a lot of posters, and that they would have limited time to write down ideas on each before moving on to the next one.

The result was that we rapidly had a lot of ideas put down across the posters. We then moved on to discussing this set of ideas, choosing priorities, and so on.
So "carousel method" is just a single, quite simple, step in a workshop. I'm sure it can be used in other ways. The need for people to get moving, and the impact that simple changes on how they interact can have, were evident.

Here is something from my files:

The final working group task is to provide suggestions for steps that need to be taken to maximize the likelihood of the success scenarios. This work may be conducted within the original working groups. One approach here is to use a carousel method?, where stations are set up with wall posters dealing with specific types of action? typically different policy areas. For example, a broad categorization of areas is:

* Research
* People/Human Resources
* Facilities and Infrastructure
* Finance, capital, and taxation
* Regulatory and IPR issues
* Social issues ? consumers, privacy, liberties

In the carousel method, each group proceeds round the posters in turn (but starting at a separate point). It is free to read and comment on other groups? suggestions when visiting a station that another group has previously visited. (An alternative approach is to form new working groups, dedicated to specific action areas. It is possible to envisage other ways in which this task may be organized.) As well as specifying actions, participants are asked to indicate who might be responsible for seeing them through. The outputs of this phase of work need to be synthesized and prioritized, and plenary sessions are typically used to achieve this.

Instructions - Critical Success Factors and Actions

The task now is to provide suggestions for steps which need to be taken to maximize the likelihood of your success scenarios. Please do so by discussing them in your groups, and writing points down on the wall posters. We invite each group to precede round the posters in turn ? feel free to read and comment on other groups? suggestions. Please indicate on your suggestions if they are specific to certain application areas. If there is a suggestion which divides your group, it is probably best to write it up and indicate the lack of consensus! Please try to indicate who might be responsible for seeing particular actions through. You might also be able to indicate what sorts of systems, indicators, feedback, etc., they could be using to see if actions are having the desired effects.

Thank you Dr. Miles!