[In Progress]: the Futures Literacy Campaign invitation text

Workspaces Using the Future
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Using the Future:

Using the Future is an introduction to anticipatory systems

It is powered by collective intelligence and learning by doing

It allows everyone to develop their futures skills.

Experts build better projects by engaging with more people.

Organisations participate in risk and reward.

Background

In August of 2014 we convened a diverse group of leaders from different fields and parts of the world at the Futures KnowLab, an event organised by Unesco, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and hosted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre .

What came out of this meeting is a powerful insight: not everybody can use the future – in fact most people cannot. The ability to do foresight, and learn from foresight done by others has to be forged. So we decided to launch an experiment together: a collective learning journey on using the future.

We have identified five waypoints on the way to futures literacy – each of them an ability itself. For each waypoint, we invite you the participant to share relevant experiences and lessons learned from your work and life. Participants submit articles and for each waypoint and we all come together in an online discussion facilitated by wise and remarkable hosts who are selected on the basis of their domain knowledge and experience. The process is designed for each participant to come away with a deeper understanding of critical skills and abilities they need, and how they can acquire or develop them within their respective organisations and fields.

The first ability is the ability to learn to look beyond one’s construction of reality.

The second ability is the ability to understand that the outlook on the future is contestable ground, and why that matters for the present.

The third ability is the ability to think like a complexity scientist, leaving behind narrativised accounts of reality and teaching oneself to recognise emergence and self-organisation.

The fourth ability is the ability to learn from others already using the future.

The fifth ability is the ability to manage the tension between the need for sense-making and the need to act.

Who is this for?

One sentence that will capture attention of the people you wish to reach and engage. What is futures literacy a response to- e.g. plans never working out in practice :slight_smile:

Are you a trying to …?

Does…frustrate you or get in the way of achieving…?

Do you often wonder why… often ends up…?

How does it work?

We have identified 5 wayoints

How can I get involved?

  1. Spread the word about the initiative. If you see something you like share it on Twitter or Facebook. or Email.

  2. Contribute an article by sending it to reil.miller@unesco.org (or do you prefer Edgeryders to handle it?)

  3. Invite friends and colleagues to join in this experiment.

Where does it all go?

Here we need to have the social contract for contributors spelled out. i.e:

If you contribute [x], you can expect to get role [y] in the outcome of this initiative which is [z].

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a few thoughts

hello one and all

I’d say this is for “everyone” - meaning if we pitch it right almost everyone can relate to the proposition that they “use the future” - where things get difficult is when people think that the medium or the language apply to “someone else”, like an expert or a young in-the-know person or someone with “power”. So one way of looking at this challenge, keeping in mind the media we’re likely to use - with all that the medium implies, is to find a basic entry point to questioning something almost everyone takes for granted in everything they do - from going on a date or studying for a test or deciding to experiment by doing in order to make a difference or invest or satisfy voters or… that they don’t have to think about what kind of future they are using to make these choices and what methods they are using to imagine the future.  But, in fact, there are different kinds of future and different ways of imagining the future and different ways of using the future.  How to get the illiterate to know that they are illiterate?

What is going on - depends of POV, but basically I’d put it that we’re being challenged to “grow up” and rediscover ways of thinking that aim to generate wisdom. Thinking in terms of this ‘campaign’ or effort to co-create a process for negotiating and experimenting with the creation of shared boundary objects - sense-making that empowers, it seems to me we need to test different articulations of the basic proposition in many different communities. But the tests need to real - meaning we need to find ways of walking-the-talk of empowerment and using the future differently.  So, I think most of all we need to invite, encourage, undertake, join-in as many experiences of using the future in structured ways as possible.  The structure is crucial for the “learning” and generation of shared sense-making.

That’s it for now. Hope it is helpful.

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Invitation text missing the engagement offer

Hi Riel,

My reasoning around your comment is  the kind of persuasion you want participants to experience is something that happens as the result of a longer learning process. The text above is a intended to draw in people to the conversation/start of the learning journey. I published a test post here. It seems it is a good basis for the Official Campaign Invitation Text.

What I feel needs to be added to that text to make it a Campaign Invitation Text are two things: an offer and a call to action.  Below I describe this in more detail (please note that offers cannot be provided by Edgeryders as this is outside our current means).

The Offer:

The campaign ought to offer opportunities to pursue their own learning journeys starting from whatever their point of entry is. This can be an opportunity to participate in the full process of designing & planning, executing and evaluating a futures exercises. Ideally the opportunity would be offered to more than one person so they can compare notes.

Example of possible offer

We are offering x nr of people a unique opportunity to learn & contribute by being part of x events in Europe/Africa/Asia/LATAM/ etc. You will get to work side by side with practitioners and in doing so get valuable, hands on experience in the full cycle of a participatory futures exercise.

The call to action

The call to action is something you are expected to do/contribute which results in x good thing happening (unlocks access to opportunity for you).

Example of possible call to action

There’s two ways you can join us. Just register for the event here [url] and make your travel arrangements.

We also have a limited number of travel grants to offer. To be eligible for a travel grant, we ask that you demonstrate your interest in contributing and learning by participating actively in all stages of the campaign.

  1. Share your story.Tell us about yourself and what you are working on or trying to figure out. Ideally it's something about which you really are passionate.
  2. Leave thoughtful comments on the 5 posts to help us all move forward together. Share experiences and references from your own life and work.
  3. Share the posts with your friends and colleagues, invite them to share their perspectives too.
  4. Write one blogpost with deeper reflection around what you have read and how it related to your future work.

If you are awarded one of the grants we expect you to write a daily blogpost from the event on what was discussed and highlights from each day (please include images in your posts).

What do you think could be a feasible offer?

Participating in the session at lote4 is an option however we cannot offer participants travel grants as the ones we have are earmarked for participants who have actively engaged in building the event.

Any other ideas for events or learning opportunities?

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Invitation version #3: Personal invitations sent out by email

Dear [Name]

In August of 2014 we convened a diverse group of leaders from different fields and parts of the world at the Futures KnowLab, an event organised by Unesco, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and hosted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre .

What came out of this meeting is a powerful insight: not everybody can use the future – in fact most people cannot. The ability to do foresight, and learn from foresight done by others has to be forged. So we decided to launch an experiment together: a collective learning journey on using the future.

We have identified five waypoints on the way to futures literacy – each of them an ability itself.  For one hour each week, we all come together in an online discussion facilitated by wise and remarkable hosts who are selected on the basis of their domain knowledge and experience. The process is designed for each participant to come away with a deeper understanding of critical skills and abilities they need, and how they can acquire or develop them within their respective organisations and fields.

We invite you to participate in this experimental initiative in which we harness collective intelligence towards Using the Future. The campaign starts on November 20 and lasts for 1 month (just in time for the new year).

How you can participate:

As a Curator: This is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on lessons learned from the bleeding edge of the field and how they apply to your work and organisation. Time commitment: 5 hours spread over 5 virtual meeting with the other editors scheduled in advance.

As a Contributor:  To prepare we invite you to share relevant experiences and lessons learned from your work and life in the form of an article of no more than 2000 words for publication on usingthefuture.com. It does not need to be original content, we only ask that it is relevant to the topic for that week. This is a good opportunity to present your work and expertise to novel audiences and gain access to new perspectives. As well as to shape and be involved in novel collaborations emerging out of the conversation.

As a Partner organisation: Host a Using the future pop up event- multiple events availble both online and physical. You get to position yourself at the centre of a global interdisciplinary conversation and collaborations with a broad range of stakeholders.

Regardless of how you wish to be involved we ask that you and your organisations starts by following the usinthefuture twitter and or facebook accounts and sharing 1-3 status updates/day.

Using the Future in a nutshell:

An online campaign organised by Unesco, Supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and coordinated by Edgeryders. Participants contribute thought leadership articles one of give learning goals for Using the Future and meet to discuss the contents over a series of 5 online conferences lasting 1 hour. The articles and discussions are documented and curated into a digital publication as a foundation for future collaborations and partnerships. Pre-order your copy at:

Start date is November 20, 2014 on www.usingthefuture.edgeryders.eu and twitter.com/usingthefuture

Please direct enquiries to: Project Manager Nadia EL-Imam, nadia@edgeryders.eu | +32 4850 791 63

 

Press announcement/ Invitation:

Using the Future in a nutshell:

We are pleased to announce a one month long online campaign organised by Unesco, Supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and hosted by Edgeryders. Participants contribute thought leadership articles one of give learning goals for Using the Future and meet to discuss the contents over a series of 5 online conferences lasting 1 hour. The articles and discussions are documented and curated into a digital publication as a foundation for future collaborations and partnerships. Start date is November 20, 2014 on www.usingthefuture.edgeryders.eu and twitter.com/usingthefuture.

Please direct press enquiries to: Nadia EL-Imam, Project Manager: nadia@edgeryders.eu | +32 4850 791 63 | @edgeryders

Announcement:

In August of 2014 we convened a diverse group of leaders from different fields and parts of the world at the Futures KnowLab, an event organised by Unesco, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and hosted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre .

What came out of this meeting is a powerful insight: not everybody can use the future – in fact most people cannot. The ability to do foresight, and learn from foresight done by others has to be forged. So we decided to launch an experiment together: a collective learning journey on using the future.

We have identified five waypoints on the way to futures literacy – each of them an ability itself.  For one hour each week, we all come together in an online discussion facilitated by wise and remarkable hosts who are selected on the basis of their domain knowledge and experience. The process is designed for each participant to come away with a deeper understanding of critical skills and abilities they need, and how they can acquire or develop them within their respective organisations and fields.

We invite you to participate in this experimental initiative in which we harness collective intelligence towards Using the Future. The campaign starts on November 20 and lasts for 1 month (just in time for the new year).

How one can participate:

As a Curator: This is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on lessons learned from the bleeding edge of the field and how they apply to your work and organisation. Time commitment: 5 hours spread over 5 virtual meeting with the other editors scheduled in advance.

As a Contributor:  To prepare we invite you to share relevant experiences and lessons learned from your work and life in the form of an article of no more than 2000 words for publication on usingthefuture.com. It does not need to be original content, we only ask that it is relevant to the topic for that week. This is a good opportunity to present your work and expertise to novel audiences and gain access to new perspectives. As well as to shape and be involved in novel collaborations emerging out of the conversation.

As a Partner organisation: Host a Using the future pop up event- multiple events availble both online and physical. You get to position yourself at the centre of a global interdisciplinary conversation and collaborations with a broad range of stakeholders. Talk to us to learn more.

The articles and discussions are documented and curated into a digital publication as a foundation for future collaborations and partnerships. Copies can be pre-ordered at:

Start date is November 20, 2014 on www.usingthefuture.edgeryders.eu and twitter.com/usingthefuture.

Please direct press enquiries to: Nadia EL-Imam, Project Manager: nadia@edgeryders.eu | +32 4850 791 63 | @edgeryders