What 2084 could be like if more attention was paid to making it happen

Tue Nov 7 19:37:05 PST 2006

From: Paul Raskin <praskin at tellus.org>
Date: Oct 18, 2006 11:52 PM 
Subject: RE: What 2084 could be like if more attention was paid to making it happen 1
To: Alan Stewart <alanmstewart at gmail.com>
Cc: Orion Kriegman < okriegman at tellus.org>, James Goldstein <jgold at tellus.org>

Dear Alan,
Back from extended travel, I was pleased to find your kind email about my GT Today essay and our wider activities. Thanks so much for passing it on to your network. As we enter the next phase – developing GT Today 2.0, so to speak – we will wish to involve an expanded circle of GTI Participants people with strong interests and background for exploring, debating, and elaborating the possibilities for the future through our ongoing e-dialogue. If you, or others you know of, would have such an interest, do let us know. Meanwhile, all the best and thanks again. 

Paul

Paul Raskin, Ph.D.
Tellus Institute
11 Arlington Street
Boston, MA 02138

Email: praskin at tellus.org 
Tele: 1 617 266 5400
Web: www.tellus.org 

Dear Paul and All (including bcc'd) 

I appreciate your gracious response to my distributing your thought provoking and 'hope-full' essay 
The Great Transition Today - A Report from the Future  

which spells out what a 'wonder-full' future is possible if we pay it due attention. (See Press Release below).*

And your invitation to participate. 

I wish to express my interest in being part of the evolution of this most inspiring enterprise. 

For I - and my many fellow facilitators - have passion and skills for processes through which people world wide may be included and enchanted to engage in bringing the bold vision into being.  

Two such new processes are the focus of an article which has just been published, entitled 'Conversing Matters' 

In this I outline how these new approaches are being used very imaginatively to create opportunities when addressing complex issues. 

It is featured in the November 2006 issue of XL Magazine  which is distributed widely in Asia and increasingly beyond. This publication is produced by XL Results Foundation, an organisation for entrepeneurs of which I am a member. 

To entice <smile> you and others to examine how the ideas in the article may be of value I take the liberty of quoting (with her permission) a colleague in NYC who wrote: 

I LOVE your article.  It is so well written, so clear, so heart touching.  I can only image you will have executives knocking at your door.  You express what happens, why, how who, when in most simple terms and leave nothing of importance out.  It truly moves one to do want to do what you are offering.

                                                                                                                                                                                                             Robyn S Berkessel   

[I received a lot of assistance in composing this piece].

There are practitioners of these and similar processes all around our little blue planet who could be invited to facilitate the kind of conversations which focus on the vision and values you articulate. In doing so they could add to the vibes and vibrancy inherent in the emergence of the collaboration required on a global scale. 

Among these practitioners are those who participate in the listservs of Open Space Technology and The World Cafe and others.  

In this vein, as I indicate in the article, World Cafe processes are now being used widely at showings of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. This enables people to talk confidently about what they noticed in the documentary and what appropriate actions could be taken in their local communities. And the scale and diversity of participation in conversational gatherings keeps growing ...

Could connecting with young people, such as through Youth Noise, be a 'way to go' here? 

I would add that there are two people who, in my opinion, could be key allies as they are networkers par excellence about things that matter. These are Tom Atlee of Co-Intelligence Institute http://www.co-intelligence.org/

and Dave Pollard of ‘How to save the world.’  http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/

As David Isaacs, co-founder of the World Cafe has noted: 

yes, processes like the World Cafe and OS " did help to make 2084 happen " 

what a ride it was!!

I wonder if you see that assisting Paul and his associates to co-create a 'coherent popular movement' could be a priority activity - and great ride:-) - for you? 

Please contact Paul if you do. 

Looking forward ...

Go well

Alan 

Alan Stewart, PhD

Professional Conversationalist 
Principal, MultiMind Solutions
Now based in Hong Kong and operating throughout Asia-Pacific 

Tel +852 9438 7680
www.multimindsolutions.com
alanmstewart at gmail.com

* PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Orion Kriegman

Tel: 617.266.5400 

GTI Paper Series Released

Boston, MA, Oct.1 -- The Great Transition Initiative (GTI- www.gtinitiative.org) is a collective endeavor by scholars and activists who share a broad commitment to addressing the major problems confronting humanity: poverty, security, and the environment. GTI's mission is to imagine, assess, and advance a great transition to a global future of enriched lives, equity, solidarity and a healthy planet. It takes seriously the slogan of progressives everywhere that "another world is possible," but proposes that such a world must first be imagined creatively as a plausible human project. 

GTI's network of 200 participants from 40 countries contributed to the preparation of this series (http://www.gtinitiative.org/default.asp?action=43) through a more than year-long process of general exploration of ideas, thematic working groups and review. The 15 papers in the series elaborate the global challenge, future visions, and strategic directions in various domains of culture, politics, technology, economy and society. The papers offer no "blueprint" of the future, but are meant to be imaginative ventures that engage and intrigue others to contribute to the enterprise of inspiring change beyond the crisis and despair of the day. According to Paul Raskin, the Coordinator of GTI and President of the Tellus Institute, the GTI's paper series will " sharpen the critique of conventional thinking, deepen the understanding of the global possible, identify critical levers for change, and promote a coherent popular movement."

The GTI is facilitated by the Tellus Institute (www.tellus.org), formed in 1976 as a a not-for-profit research and policy studies organization based in Boston, and now a world leader in assessing critical environment and development issues. Tellus has worked at every level -- global, regional, national, local, and enterprise -- bringing both vision and analytic rigor to fashioning strategies, policies and decision-support tools. Key foci have included energy, water, sustainable communities, corporate social responsibility, and climate change. Our projects are distinguished by an integrated perspective that illuminates linkages across spatial scales and the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of development. The Institute’s sponsors -- foundations, government agencies, multilateral organizations, civil society organizations, and business -- reflect this diversity. 

________________________

Orion Kriegman, GTI Organizer
www.gtinitiative.org

Tellus Institute 
11 Arlington St.
Boston, MA 02116-3411
Fax: 617-266-8303
Tel: 617-266-5400
http://www.gtinitiative.org/ 

*
*
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