Long-Term Visions Once Again!

Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not as in fiction, to imagine things that are not really there, but just to comprehend those things that are there.
Richard Feynman  The Character of Physical Law

The last five projects I have been asked to participate in are all long-term visions! A breath of fresh air.  It seems to me that people are reconnecting with their natural hunger for projects that matter, not only to them, but to the larger world.  I can feel the excitement in the voices of project leaders. Most are willing to reach out 25 to 50 years in the future and imagine the difference their projects are making.  A new form of strategic plan is taking place.  No one is trying to do linear goal-setting plans; rather they are leaping out into the future, envisioning the networks to help in their undertaking, and asking themselves "What is it we need to do today to make our journey into an unknown future succeed?" The MG Taylor axiom: "You can't get There from Here" is being used and lived.  During the years where only the next quarter earnings mattered, no one paid the slightest attention to the future.  It was so disheartening, boring, and of course, detrimental to life itself. 

I do feel that a new paradigm is unfolding. Perhaps the fast and slow are getting back in sync.

THE GREAT LEAP

We are at a moment of commencement. A powerful ending and dramatic beginning. Standing in the old, hierarchical paradigm is scary. It is looking straight into the abyss.None of the alternatives look good. Leaping this abyss to a paradigm of panarchy requires an optimism grounded in a trust that with these new tools and realities we can give new meaning to our place in the world.

“Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums… Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement.”
-Paul Hawken, 2009 Commencement to University of Oregon

To give this view of reality more than a short bleep in history, it needs care, nourishment, and stewardship of trust building. It demands ongoing design, engaging people of all walks of life in making this great leap and cohering into a powerful resilience on the other side.

So concludes a paper we recently wrote for a client to present to their client, and that is now available on our website. We were asked to address specific questions around paradigm shifts and how one might help to shape them. While this does put a specific context around the paper that the reader should keep in mind, there are a number of ideas embedded in it which we believe can help any individual or community think their way into a new paradigm. We have named this paradigm Panarchy.

These are:

• Our thoughts about the emergence of a new paradigm
• The Wayfinding process and why we think it an essential part of any team actively exploring future options (see additional thoughts on this re: our Journal and our services)
• The Trim Tab process and how to bring a number of projects together
• The infrastructure that supports long-term ongoing change.
• The positioning and power for standing within a new paradigm.

This is a work in progress. We have begun developing it more broadly than the initial set of questions we were asked to consider. There are countless lenses and perspectives to the notion of how paradigm shifts can, have, will, might, or will not happen. The more we learn, the more there is to learn. We hope you will provide us feedback and guidance as we continue to iterate and design our way forward.

Gail and Todd

Download a pdf of From Hierarchy to Panarchy: the unfolding of a global paradigm shift