Four quadrants of future-readiness

Introduce the aim of the session: to reflect together about the future of youth work and co-create ideas about how youth work can get more ‘future-ready’ and ‘future-proof[1]’ in a fast-changing environment.

You may then ask the group to think together about how the world is changing and list societal trends that are affecting the needs of young people and impacting the current youth work practice (e.g. demographic changes, climate, wars, technology, etc.).

You can now introduce the four-quadrant model. The idea is to understand that being future-ready cannot be answered only at the individual level, but also at the collective level (e.g. on the organisational level or at the youth work field level). In addition to that, the future-readiness has both an inner side and an outer side. The ‘inner work’ implies working on something less tangible, like mindset and awareness or patterns and values, while the outer work implies rethinking practices, skills, strategies, or support structures for youth work.

Each quadrant brings distinctive themes and questions for reflection.

If you have a larger group to work with, you may divide questions from each quadrant and give them to four small groups to discuss and come up with proposals. Alternatively, you may also do the ‘walk through the quadrants’, taking the whole group in 4 rounds of conversations. The outcomes from the discussions can be collected on larger post-its and placed in respective quadrants.

Finally, after having the 4 discussions done and all the outcomes mapped, you may conclude the session with a debriefing and action-oriented questions:

• When looking at all these ideas, what is this ‘image’ telling us?
• What are the aspects of the youth work as we know it and do it will remain, and what aspects will need to change?
• If we were to change one thing, which one would have the biggest impact on all others?
• Where do we need more information and additional insights? Where could we look for those?
• What is something we need to start working on at the individual level, and do we need to do at the collective level?
• What can we do as a single organisation, and what do we need to advocate for?

[1]   The terms “future-ready” and “future-proof” refer to the ability of a system, individuals or a community to remain relevant and successful over time. “Future-ready” means being prepared for upcoming changes, while “future-proof” implies resilience by anticipating and modifying the impact of future developments.