Futuring Is… with Rosie Cripps

In which we learn about how Appreciative Inquiry can be a tool for the co-production of inspiring futures that involve communities and stakeholders and connect present, past and possible futures..

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Rosie Cripps speaks to Suzanne Whitby in the Futuring Is... podcast.

Show notes & resources

Just three things:

Obviously we talked about more than three things, but if you only remember three things about this episode, here they are:

The Power of Positive Questions

Appreciative Inquiry begins by focusing on what works. By anchoring people in positive memories and successes, Rosie helps communities build confidence and energy for imagining—and achieving—better futures.

Dreaming Builds Collective Agency

Rosie’s work centres on co-creating visions of the future that feel tangible and achievable. Communities then break down these dreams into “mini dreams” and take action together, with each person contributing what they can.

Reciprocity Builds Resilience

Asking people not only for their ideas but for their help creates a strong sense of shared ownership and pride. It’s this commitment to collaboration and mutual support that sustains change over time.
“This is a time when we need optimists more than we have at any point in the last 60 years..”

—Rob Hopkins / Time traveller, activist, and co-founder of the Transition Movement

The discussion explores:

In this uplifting and practical conversation, Suzanne and Rosie explore how Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is used to help communities co-create futures they actually want. Rosie shares stories of working with schools, universities, and neighbourhood groups to develop visions grounded in what people value—and then taking real, collective action to move toward those visions.

Key topics include:

  • How Appreciative Inquiry uses past successes to inspire future dreaming.
  • The structure of her co-production events: starting in the present, drawing on the past, and imagining the future.
  • The power of “mini dreams” to make long-term goals actionable.
  • Her personal experience using future-visioning to shape her own life.
  • The connections between embodiment, storytelling, and behavioural change.
  • How Wales’ Future Generations Act is shaping long-term thinking in public policy.
  • The importance of being seen, heard, and included—and how this builds real community resilience.
“We can’t always move forward until we look back—at when we thrived, when we felt empowered. That gives us the confidence to dream again.”

—Rosie Cripps / Facilitator, Trainer, Evaluator

Useful resources

“Every single strong relationship is built on reciprocity. The same goes for communities.”

—Rosie Cripps / Facilitator, Trainer, Evaluator

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Meet Rosie Cripps

Rosie Cripps is a facilitator, trainer, and evaluator who works at the intersection of strategy, systems change, and community action. She has 15+ years’ experience supporting charities, public sector organisations and communities to think creatively about the future, align around shared dreams and co-produce large-scale, whole community-led initiatives.

Rosie brings a deep commitment to social justice, agency and collective leadership, often using Appreciative Inquiry to inspire large networks of people and build momentum. Her work supports communities to map influence across complex systems, build on what’s working, and take hopeful, grounded steps toward positive and inspiring futures.

Reach out to Rosie to:

  • Involve her in a community co-production project where co-creation is key
  • Get her insights and support as you launch an Appreciative Inquiry or community co-production project
  • Book consultation or training about facilitation, co-production or appreciative inquiry

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosie-cripps/

facilitator, trainer, and evaluator

Meet your host, Suzanne Whitby

Suzanne Whitby is a futurer, facilitator, and storyteller who helps people imagine and co-create hopeful, sustainable futures. She’s the host of Futuring Is…, a podcast that explores how we think about what’s next — and how we get there together.

With over 20 years of international experience, Suzanne works at the intersection of foresight, communication, and sustainability. She’s the founder of Futures Fit, a consultancy focused on futures thinking and transformation, and SciComm Success, an award-winning training company that helps scientists and researchers become confident communicators - because science matters in creating sustainable futures.

She leads And Better, a facilitation training initiative for people working at the messy, hopeful edges of change, and gives talks and runs workshops on climate change and climate action there, and for the Austrian initiative klimafit. As an active climate and sustainability communicator, she can be found running People. Planet. Prosecco. events across Europe, making sustainability conversations social and accessible.

As a researcher, Suzanne explores the intersection of place, the senses and future stories using her senstoryscapes approach to climate and sustainability communication at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. 

She lives a life full of awe and wonder with her (rather marvellous) husband, and in her free time can be found telling stories, sailing, walking, playing with puppets and attempting to play the ukulele.

Links:

 

 

Suzanne Whitby