#Reinvention
The art of the possibilists.
For want of a better word, reinvention is the nature of our times.
I shouldn't even need to explain why but I’ll attempt to with as much brevity as I can muster.
Society.
Decay, despair, homelessness appear to be rife.
In my younger years, through oil-crises, far-away wars and conflict, famine, inequality and bias, the world felt at least stable enough for me to walk the streets safely, be educated positively and venture into work with some excitement.
Latterly there’s a growing unease at how imbalanced society has become. Divisions, disparity and difficulties framed in the same world as avarice, abundance and acquisitions. We had the adornment of Chanel bags alongside tattered sleeping bags.
We need something much better than we’ve had until now.
Education
Whilst accepting my privilege and experience of education, I didn’t go to university or hold a degree (I know I could have studied in my later life but I chose working pursuits to learn through) and we’ve seen an industrial model somewhat tinkered with, yet have serious doubts about its 21st-Century viability and an apparent stubbornness by incumbents in the field to change it fundamentally for the better.
We need something much better than we’ve had until now.
Socio-Politics
Where do I start? Dictators, to democracies, to communism, to capitalism to neo-liberalism to some mish-mash of all the aforesaid.
We need something much better than we’ve had until now.
Communities
The gradual erosion of physical, proximity-based communities to interest groups and the digitally-connected clans briefly gave hope of a restoration of connectedness to others but sadly splintered into polarising factions of ardent opposing forces for ‘good’.
We need something much better than we’ve had until now.
Economics
Nothing more to say than this.
We need something much better than we’ve had until now.
Work
Having been well served by the experiences of work in advancing my state of knowing, feeling and being, we now see a torment of the possible new world order and a worrying stoicism to what has been done before. A strange hybrid of liberating inclusion in entrepreneurial ventures that do good for all, to a mass-hoarding of power, wealth, market-share and non-competition.
We need something much better than we’ve had until now.
With SO much ‘better’ to think, shape and deliver it’s sometimes baffling to me why we stay where we are. Why we continue operating in the frames these current systems have become, and why we don’t break away from the things that only serve some, that deny opportunities and that perpetuate unfairness.
A pandemic shockwave forces us into thinking, acting and being different. At such a tragic loss of life; hardship and test of faith for so many.
Avoiding all the cliches there are, this ‘reset’ is still being underplayed by some, overplayed by others and the rest of us, veering between our new sense of order in the things we’re discovering about ourselves, life and our economic, political, societal, communal, educational and working pursuits.
Whatever the scale of this pandemic in terms of loss, we are already bracing ourselves for the second fall-out — economic depression.
How we cope is as unclear as its ever been. Magic Money Trees have been denied, found, and then need to be replenished.
Some of the cleverest people around the world appear to be coming together in trying to shape that reset. And yet, even that seems slow, too gradual and won’t convince those stuck in existing enough to shift, move and accelerate the change we sense is possible.
We, therefore, need more possibilists.
I was introduced to the term possibilists by the outstanding thinker Magnus Lindkvist. In his take on the future, he saw optimists and pessimists but also a third group — possibilists. Those who weren’t naive, romantic or hyped about the future. Nor were they disdained, fearful and rejecting of the potential future.
It’s not easy being a possibilist though.
For a start, some hyped-up futurists don’t always like a dollop of pragmatism. They seem very capable of dealing with anti-futurism. Pessimists are seemingly also not keen on possibilists and label them as naive dreamers despite their pragmatic sense of doing.
So it’s my assertion that we need more possibilists.
And how do we create them?
They need not only their sense of the possible and energy for change, but they also need tools, techniques and products to deliver to others who are either optimists or pessimists. To prove what’s possible. To enable others to do things that overcome their scepticism or match their dreams.
The possibilists of now, need to create the possibilists of next.
So how can we support our vital possibilists?
The tools, techniques and support I mentioned are framed in the word reinvention. Not too scary for pessimists and not too lame for optimists.
And that’s why, at #TeamPTHR, We know the why, we’ve looked into the how and believe we have come with the what.
Business Reinvention Labs.
A series of immersive, virtual, online Labs. Deliberately called Labs because they are real-world laboratories to test concepts; hypotheses; ideas and create a simulated experience of the world outside but in a safe, controlled learning environment. NOT a course. MORE than a workshop. And NOT a day of post-it notes and flipcharts and bugger all action.
And in bringing people together with real problems to solve through a test, reveal, learn, apply approach, that will help people go and do, instantly, what’s needed outside the Lab.
Like, the development of a new treatment, it’s worked in the lab, now take it to those who need it to fulfil its purpose.
And as a result of experiencing a Lab with us, you’re fully equipped to take the approach to the next problem, and the forthcoming opportunity to run it yourself.
Beyond ‘train the trainer’ this is experiential and applied so that others can proliferate the engagement and inclusion of others to create true people-powered change.
Not a meeting. Not just an ideation session. A series of stand-alone, sequenced or parallel Labs that can tackle the different stages of reinvention to help create more possibilists and possibilities that come to reality.
We’ve tested some, are designing others and are aiming to release this product/service line on 1 July 2020.
Our aim is Better business for a better world.
Our tactic is to create the possibilists needed to bring about that people-powered change.
Our success is reinvented businesses viable and positively impactful in a mid- and post-pandemic world.
If you’re interested in becoming a possibilist then we’re ready for that from 1 July 2020.
We will update our website, showcase how they work and will want to work with clients, partners and anyone who can help us spread the possibilist vibe, reinvention frame and NOT GO BACK unnecessarily to what wasn’t working before.
We need something much better than we’ve had until now.
We need all of us, now and we need our next to be what we desire, deserve and dream of.
We need possibilists.
We need to reinvent.
Let’s start reinvention from 1 July 2020. A new day of interdependence.
