Energy — our ability to generate and convert inspiration and enthusiasm into action — is at the heart of designing for change. Just like Design itself, we need to design for it to make it happen. There’s a great analogy about juggling that suggests success is as much about how many balls you have in …
What regular practice does is reduce the cost of failure and these costs are different in times of disruption. Innovation succeeds because of regular, committed practice. It’s about consistency of effort and persistence. But what happens when we’re constantly being disrupted? The Twenty Twenties will go down as among the greatest periods of disruption of …
The time to bring together three fields of practice focused on shaping the future with evidence and imagination is here. Design thinking is about problem-finding, solution-seeking, and creating the things — programs, products, services, and policies — that contribute to the solution. Futures and Strategic Foresight are about examining trends and patterns in a context …
Signals of intent can be misleading indicators of future action and may lead away from our desired change. They are everywhere: signals of intent. Whether it be protest slogans, adornments (e.g., face masks for illness), or public proclamations there are many signals of change around us. It’s hard to go online without seeing some organization …
VIsionary evaluation is about putting data to our principles and actions and seeing where we’ve come from and where we’re going at the same time. This article explores what it is and what we need to do.
Big change might come from small actions and the trust-building that comes from making those actions visible. Here’s how to make a big difference as one person.
Some problems have deep roots, seem intractable and resist change. Our first social innovation might be understanding that change is possible. Innovation is not just about making things better, it can also be about making things right. Thirty years ago today the worst mass attack on women ever committed in North America took place. A …
The business of futures is to see what possibilities lay ahead to better anticipate how to meet them when or if they become reality. When this story line follows a linear path this is a lot easier; when it follows a more complex path reality can bite. Foresight models look at trends and curves in …
If you’re working toward some sort of collective goals — as an organization, network or even as an individual — you’ve most likely been asked to use SMART goal setting to frame your task. While SMART is a popular tool for management consultants and scholars, does it make sense when you’re looking to make inroads …
Change-making is the process of transformation and not to be confused with the transformed outcome that results from such a process. We confuse the two at our peril. “We are changing the world” is a rallying cry from many individuals and organizations working in social innovation and entrepreneurship which is both a truth and untruth at the …
