Speed Futuring - planning in no time

Here is the plan and notes from the Social Creator network's Speed Futuring workshop on November 28, 2012.

Attendees: Tony, Wolfgang, Susan, David H, Shea, Dorit, Nick, Andrew.

There were eight options for topics to be used for developing a plan during the evening.  We would use a combination of whole brain thinking of the whole situation (Mind-Mapping) and fore brain thinking (stages proposed within Self-organization of communities.)

Here they are, together with vote counts:

In-house facilities that distinguish condo buildings – 0
YouTube channel for a neighbourhood - 1
Clean technologies – 2
3D Printing - 3
Education - 4
Vertical farming up outside of high-rises - 4
Customized stays for visitors to Toronto - 4

The winner was:
Social development through community education - 6

Social development in response to crime, threats, bullying is a challenge that requires holistic methods. 

Who can be against something that would address these problems?
Why not use a breathing wall created by Wolfgang (an ecology of plants and animals and placed on an indoor wall,) as an experiential teaching method for holistic learning based on the study of ecologies.  This would engage youth and seniors particularly and could help participants look at local communities as social ecologies.

Strategy: Take Social Creator to a Finch and Jane community centre where people are thirsty for change.  They would probably like a YouTube Channel for the neighbourhood. 

Canadian Human Rights Orgn and Northwood Community Centre could be our initial local lead organizations.

With a lot of help from David H who works in a social agency at Jane and Finch, we first identified some pieces of the puzzle of self-sustaining social development.  See diagram below:

Then we developed the following stages of implementation as interdependent and integrated.  Later stages depend, and build on earlier stages.

The three developmental stages are:

1. Inspire a community –

·       Get neighbours to imagine / visualize (rather than stating some benefits)

·       Build a high-profile mini version of project that you almost have to walk over / believable 3D rendering / diorama  

2. Engage a community –

·       Lead partners must already have trust of the community

·       The 3D rendering is revealed to be evolving over time – delight

·       Educational information about the project is graduated in stages responding to feedback, as with education

·       Deliver persistent and consistent yet evolving messages

·       Means of giving anonymous responses at the rendering location

·       Appeal to youth

·       Facebook and Twitter

·       You Tube

·       Petition

·       On-line funding site mechanism where people vote and donate to initiatives

·       Speaker events or conference

3. Neighbourhood education, coaching and enrichment -

·       Community centre as a partner that facilitates setting up a school operated totally by kid participants (as with a government program in Costa Rica)

·       Lead kids record findings, and teach what’s been learned to following classes and in other schools

·       Focus on international collaborations amongst kids

·       Focus on breathing walls and society as ecologies

·       Similar programming for seniors

·       Inter-generational programming

Lectures from Wolfgang. 
Community coaching sessions. 
Free wikis for on-line storage of findings from classes

As an introduction to the planning segment we had the following "insights into the future":

·     
Apprenticeship movement will grow - Learning trades from elders who want to leave a legacy - as selected by the community centre, free of charge, candidates willing to work for free.

·       Souls will come in that have worked out much more of their karmas.

·       People will be together more. 

·       Lots more computerized on-line facilities from a young age.  Elimination of schools with traditional teachers and teaching methods.  We now see children in very different ways than we have in the past.  Some kids will be educating themselves.  We ask kids what they have an affinity for. 

·       Access to a world knowledge bank – material or spiritual storage.

·       Ineffective government and massive social turmoil leads to slowest thing becoming the fastest at bringing wealth as we thoroughly engage in them.

·       Wealth and abundance is created through addressing reality which has synergies where and 1 + 1 = 3 or more.  It creates massive engagement of people which brings happiness through helping one another.

·       Putting ideas in people’s heads (with marketing included) rather than have people ‘wasting time’ reading books.

·       Thought-controllable machines are going mainstream.  Wider recognition of danger with biofeedback because the brain becomes unbalanced. 

·       High, connecting bridges between high buildings.  Objects floating due to telekinesis.  Self-sustaining buildings reliant on solar power, kinetic energy derived from movement of inhabitants.

·       3D printers in every home.  Everyone doing 3D pictures at home. CNC machines (since 1990’s) computer controlled shaping machines that cut and shape wood go mainstream. 

·       Interactive walls that shape to what we want.  ‘Whole ceiling’ lights.

·       Food will grow in our houses as parts of our houses.

·       Photosynthesis by humans to get around eating.

·       New forms of personal transportation.