"We can't be part of the future if we don't have the stories." Participant in the ISSS conference

Last week during our Backcasting exercise at the ISSS conference, one group suggested a "Let's See What Happens Day" around environmental crisis.
Multi-dimensional, many-sided stories unfolded on the sides of story cubes such as this. Here's the idea: In order to bring to life the reality of global change, a series of simulations throughout the world would take place. Citizens would be made aware that on a certain day, all electricity, gas stations, water, etc. would be cut off. Citizens would have time to prepare and get ready but the simulation would be real. Several should be planned each year. Modern life would come to a halt during each of these simulations. What would happen? What would we learn from these kinds of events?

Learning from the simulation…
In the day-to-day work of organizations, it is difficult to "see," let alone understand, the complexities of the system within which we work. Information flows and feedback loops are fragmented and often subject to time lags so that it becomes very difficult to have any sense of cause-and effect. These effects are magnified in departmentalized organizations as well as those spread out geographically.

A benefit of a robust simulation is that it can model and reveal the 'whole system' in an intense, time-compressed period.