Note: last week's Future Here Now didn't post because of a glitch in the settings (my old friend Human Error again). Sorry about that.
This week's FHN series looks at how we try to create or push for change - and why our efforts so often amount to so little. The reason why it's so important that we understand the sea changes underlying this transition to the Fusion Era is that when we don't deeply and fully re design our systems on this new set of foundations, we too often end up twiddling the edges and making changes that don't change anythng. Except to dash peoples' hopes. No wonder we all feel so burnt out.
If we want to lead or suport important change, we have to get away from thinking "if we just do This One Thing, then ***Magic*** will happen and it will all be fixed!!" Far too often, we assume that people will react they way we want them to, they way that they should when they encounter our brilliant creation, and we conveniently forget that people seldom do the fully rational thing. We are complex, and messy, and conflicted, and we very often need more than a nudge to change our behavior. That goes for personal change, and for community evolution. We need systems that change the base underpinnings of our behavior such that our intent and our behavior line up.
Try It On
Spend a couple of minutes tracing out a system that you encounter in your everyday life. This will be easier and probably more helpful if you pick a very small system, like using the elevator at your office or parallel parking or making pasta
Look at three dimensions of that system:
what are the physical components of the system? What equipment do you need? What powers it? Where do you have to go to get that equipment.
what are the skill components of the system? What do the people involved have to be capable of doing?
what are the social conventions of the system? Are there behaviors that most people know to do without being told, like stand facing the elevator door?