UNCORRECTEDPROOFS June 20, 2007 10:48 WILEY/SFST Page-339 c13 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 CHAPTER 13 ................... ACTING ON THE FUTURE Andrew Curry The world everyone sees is not the world but a world which we bring forth with others. Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela Some of the best-known quotations in the futures and scenarios literature are about the need for futures work to influence the present. One thinks of Gaston Berger’s remark that ‘looking at the future should disturb the present’, and of Peter Schwartz’s observation that ‘The test of good scenarios is not getting the future right  The real test of a good scenario is: Did I make better choices as a result of having looked at and understood both my own environment better and the consequences of my actions?’ The intention of this chapter is to understand better how this happens in human activity systems. It will argue that scenario pro- cesses not only enable participants to structure their understanding of their external environment, but also allow them to test their understanding against shared culture and values, which might be Scenarios for Success: Turning Insights into Action Edited by Bill Sharpe and Kees van der Heijden © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd