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Tomorrow Makers

Stewarding a future by design, not default

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Featured
Jul 26, 2025
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
From the Archives: Turn Around Sam
Jul 26, 2025
gail@tomorrowmakers.org

"Anyone can talk to a tree but not everyone can carry on a conversation because they will not stay still for long enough. Sometimes it takes a whole day for a tree to tell you its name." Tokien

Joanna Macy speaks of the great turning... our turning away from a world no longer working to something more fit, more thriving for all those who are part of Universe, and in particular, Gaia, our Earth planet. In my day to day life, it is difficult to see the changes happening ... the great turning in the becoming. Rather, I keep wondering when it will begin. And then I think of Turn Around Sam one of the many characters in Tom Robbins' Skinny Legs and All. In the book, Turn Around Sam is a living statute that turns around so slowly that no one can see him move, yet move he does turning in a complete circle several times a day... everyday in a New York park.

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Jul 26, 2025
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Jun 29, 2025
Todd Johnston
From the Archives: Good Enough to be True
Jun 29, 2025
Todd Johnston
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Jun 29, 2025
Todd Johnston
May 22, 2025
Todd Johnston
From the Archives: When is an Expert Dangerous?
May 22, 2025
Todd Johnston
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May 22, 2025
Todd Johnston
Apr 27, 2025
Todd Johnston
From the Archives: Coming to knowing Group Genius
Apr 27, 2025
Todd Johnston
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Apr 27, 2025
Todd Johnston
Apr 21, 2025
Todd Johnston
From the Archives: What do you do with an Idea?
Apr 21, 2025
Todd Johnston
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Apr 21, 2025
Todd Johnston
Apr 30, 2024
Todd Johnston
In Loving Memory of Gail Taylor, Tomorrow Makers Founder and pioneering change agent
Apr 30, 2024
Todd Johnston
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Apr 30, 2024
Todd Johnston
Sep 14, 2023
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Tomorrow Making with Lilly Pads and Tipping Points
Sep 14, 2023
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
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Sep 14, 2023
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
upCreation poster 1.png
May 20, 2020
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
UpCreation Workshop coming this July 2020 through January 2021
May 20, 2020
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
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May 20, 2020
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Jun 12, 2019
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Good Enough to Be True
Jun 12, 2019
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
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Jun 12, 2019
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Apr 9, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
The 2030 Project
Apr 9, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org

This is my first journal entry that features another project. I find Michaels project so compelling and aligned with my beliefs.  It models our axiom "You can't get there from HERE but you can get HERE from there.  In other words, today is too full of baggage, fear, frustration, and talk of what we don't want. Leaping out and having the courate to create a "new world" is the only way to go.  While I have every person, every client  I work with learn to do  backcasting and gain an ability to play with the future, to design possibilities and potential, to explore the natural emergence that will erupt and disurpt our thoughts, making room for viable fresh ideas that can create a better future.  

Another one of the MG Taylor axioms is "The future is only rational in hindsight" rings true. This is why any robust project like 2030 needs to attract people to come together and model preferred future. Together we have tremendous energy and know how to work with ideas, to mix and match, to integrate, and explore how to procede with the least negative unanticipated consequences.  

I'm looking forward to how Tomorrow Makers can play a role as an organization and as a tomorrow maker.  Together, we can help 2030 be rich and vital for all species.  This is going to be quite an adventure!

In assembling complexity the bounty of increasing returns is won by multiple tries over time. As various parts reorganize to a new whole, the system escapes into a higher order.   Ilya Prigogine

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Apr 9, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Apr 8, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Quotes are like photons
Apr 8, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org

Quotes are like photons, discrete packets of energy that circulate at the speed of light. I love to stumble onto them in my reading.  There I am reading along when suddenly I read

 ‘In assembling complexity the bounty of increasing returns is won by multiple tries over time. As various parts reorganize to a new whole, the system escapes into a higher order.” — Ilya Prigogine

Its like I’ve fallen into the white rabbit’s hole and the entire universe changes shape.  I first read these words in the late 90s and to this day, it still speaks to me as fresh and wondrous as the first time I read it.  These 30 words speak from the heart of the universe and can teach me more than some of my university semester-long

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Apr 8, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Feb 23, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
We the People
Feb 23, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org

The list below was one of the first set of assumptions that Matt and I created together when we first met in 1976.  We have used and evolved it over time. It defined many of the first principles we used in creating our way of working.   It is form these shared beliefes that we proceeded to created our process and method.  While it seems painfully simple today within the midst of a dying, fighting paradigm, and our radical either/or mentality, to me it still holds true.  I've shared this list before along with the URL about "We the people" being the second super power.  Both, along with my recent posting for what is a Tomorrow Maker, I think I have the bare begining of a form for engaging others in the creation of a healthier world.  We can't afford to merely tweak the existing infrastructures and cultures and expect to transform ourselves or others.  While we are building on ten thousand- or more - years of history, ours is a new story, one just being born.  Our history will be reframed from within the anthroposcene era.  We won't throw it away, nor do we let it control how we design, decide, and create....

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Feb 23, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
The Transition Manager's Creed.
Feb 19, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
The Transition Manager's Creed.
Feb 19, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org

Matt and I had such high hopes in the late 70's when we began designing a way forward for a new way of working.  But we have been practicing, event after event, and waiting somewhat patiently for Earthlings to wake up and realize what we the people are actually capable of doing for the good of all species on Earth.  We have had fabulous mutual learning experiences with each engagement taking us further into our coming to knowing process. 

It is only now that we are beginning to see signs that there are others, many others working to make a difference.  We are all pretty invisible now but ready to spring forth.  

Enjoy our Creed and find yourself within it.  

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Feb 19, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Jan 3, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Tomorrow Makers Manifesto
Jan 3, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org

"Funktionslust means the pleasure of doing, of producing an effect, as distinct from the pleasure of attaining the effect or having something. Creativity exists in the searching even more than in the finding or being found. The word enthusiasm is Greek for filled with theos – “filled with God”." Quote from the book Free Play: Improvitazation in Life and Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch.

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Jan 3, 2018
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Big Dreams Spread their Wings Over Time....
Nov 22, 2017
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Big Dreams Spread their Wings Over Time....
Nov 22, 2017
gail@tomorrowmakers.org

"What do ideas become? Big things, brave things, smart things, silly things.  Things like stories, artwork, journeys, inventions, communities, products, and cures. Every thing we see around us was once an idea." From What Do You Do With an Idea? by Kobi Yamanda and Mae Besom.  (find more in our bookshelf.) 

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Nov 22, 2017
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Apr 24, 2017
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
An Inquiry into upCREATION
Apr 24, 2017
gail@tomorrowmakers.org

People ask me "What is up creation?" For me it is a word that says a lot. It has hundreds of stories hidden within it. It teases, appeals, speaks a rhythm and a pattern. It speaks to infrastructure, frameworks, culture, and sets me toward a long view, a big hope, and an audacious task.

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Apr 24, 2017
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Mar 28, 2017
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Either Or
Mar 28, 2017
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
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Mar 28, 2017
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Nov 7, 2016
Tomorrow Makers
An upCREATION Experience
Nov 7, 2016
Tomorrow Makers
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Nov 7, 2016
Tomorrow Makers
Apr 27, 2016
Todd Johnston
We Play in Centuries!
Apr 27, 2016
Todd Johnston
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Apr 27, 2016
Todd Johnston
Jan 10, 2016
Todd Johnston
Niche Economies
Jan 10, 2016
Todd Johnston
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Jan 10, 2016
Todd Johnston
Dec 29, 2015
Todd Johnston
Our 2016 Stories
Dec 29, 2015
Todd Johnston
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Dec 29, 2015
Todd Johnston
Nov 8, 2015
Todd Johnston
The evolution of the Knowledge Worker
Nov 8, 2015
Todd Johnston
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Nov 8, 2015
Todd Johnston
May 21, 2015
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
What Do You Do With An Idea?
May 21, 2015
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
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May 21, 2015
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Mar 5, 2015
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
What's in a Logo?
Mar 5, 2015
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
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Mar 5, 2015
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Feb 17, 2015
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Libraries and Museums
Feb 17, 2015
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
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Feb 17, 2015
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Nov 20, 2014
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
The Origin of Our Design Axioms
Nov 20, 2014
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
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Nov 20, 2014
gail@tomorrowmakers.org
Oct 15, 2014
Todd Johnston
The Power of Backcasting
Oct 15, 2014
Todd Johnston
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Oct 15, 2014
Todd Johnston
Oct 1, 2014
Todd Johnston
A timeline of the use and spread of the term "Group Genius"
Oct 1, 2014
Todd Johnston
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Oct 1, 2014
Todd Johnston
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