Originally recorded live at the Association for Experiential Education International Conference after Chad Littlefield’s interactive opening keynote. Graphic Recording by Mellisa Cain of Iceberg Creatives.
How do you actually edit the future?
In this video, I’m going to summarize a 45-minute interactive keynote where I attempted to bring this question to life. This fast-forward summary pulls from my session with 500 incredible experiential educators, designed to help anyone in a leadership, facilitation, or teaching role reshape the path ahead with greater intention, clarity, and connection.
Act One: Get Crystal-Clear on Your Intent
If you want to bring people into a new reality, recruit them into a future you’re excited about. Start by getting really clear about your intent.
Make sure that intent doesn’t just meet your needs but also includes the needs of others. Only then can people enthusiastically (and authentically) say, “Yes, I consent to that future. I’m in.” Your intent creates the option for consent.
And just as importantly? Let them say “no”. You’re not trying to coerce or convince. You’re inviting.
Act Two: Use Storytelling to Shape the Future
I once met a professional storyteller who was triple my age and radiated wisdom. I asked her the secret to great storytelling, and she replied instantly:
“All you’ve got to do is know the first thing you’re going to say and the last thing you’re going to say. Then fill in the middle with the truth.”
So that’s what I did. I began my talk with:
“A choice of words is often a choice of worlds.”
And from there, we begin creating our world. With our words.
Icebreaker Inspiration: Word Collisions
As people trickled into the room, I invited them to grab from 200 scattered word cards and choose one that could serve as a lens for the next three days. (Try this with your own team or classroom—it’s one of the most meaningful icebreakers for large groups or conferences!)
From there, we launched into one of my favorite games and icebreakers for adults: word collisions.
We asked: What happens when two seemingly random words collide? Like joy and generosity. Separately powerful, but when combined? Magic.
Participants wandered, found a partner, and mashed their chosen words together to explore what’s possible when ideas—and people—intersect.
⚡ Want instant access to free printable cards and more tools like this? Download our free tools here.
Act Three: Snap a Strategic Selfie
Inspired by Michael Bungay Stanier (author of The Coaching Habit), I shared the idea of a “strategic selfie.” Most selfies are self-centered and ephemeral. But what if you snapped one today with someone who might just become your best friend, a future collaborator, or a changemaker 30 years from now?
We took selfies—not as throwaways, but as seeds of future connection.
Act Four: Use Questions as Edit Buttons to the Future
Here’s where it gets really powerful: questions are literal edit buttons to the future.
When I ask someone a question like:
- “What’s something you’ve realized about yourself recently?”
- “How do you want to pay it forward?”
- “What brings you joy?”
…I’m not just collecting data. I’m inviting them to generate insight, speak it aloud, and possibly shape new actions moving forward. The act of asking becomes a moment of editing what comes next.
This is why I designed the We! Connect Cards and other tools in our shop—to help facilitators and educators ask better questions that change the future, not just fill time.
🧠 Grab a free sample of the cards, plus book excerpts and bonus tools at weand.me/tools
Act Five: Let the Group’s Expertise Lead
This keynote wasn’t about me being the expert. In a room of 500 brilliant experiential educators, they were the experts. So I handed it back to them.
Each group received a deck deck of the brand new Future Focused We! Connect Cards (launching in February 2026) and just a few minutes to brainstorm how they’d use them with their students, teams, or clients. The ideas that surfaced? Way more creative and contextual than anything I could have come up with alone.
I call this the The Contribution Method: Trust that your group holds the wisdom. Then give them the space to share it.
Act Six: Reflect to Solidify Learning
We closed with a deceptively simple but transformative debrief question, borrowed from an author hero and mentor or mine, Peter Block:
“What struck you?”
According to my friend and fellow experiential trainer Mark Collard, “Without reflection, no real learning can occur.”
This question helps groups process not just the content, but the experience. It moves insights from private to shared, and from fleeting to sticky.
Final Thought: You Are Able Edit the Future
If you remember one thing, let it be this:
The questions you ask are edit buttons to what happens next.
Editing the future doesn’t require a time machine. It just takes one part presence, permission, and the art of asking.
