Creating the Future is in build-out mode!
Having established a track record in our start-up years, the 10-year clock towards “Mission Accomplished” officially kicked off last year – full steam ahead to a world filled with systems that bring out the best in us all.
As we asked, “What will it take to accomplish the mission?” the answer was simple: infrastructure that will propel the mission forward.
To that end, we are in the middle of two big efforts this year:
- Finalize the new structure (more about that coming soon!)
- Determine what it will take to resource that new structure, to ensure we have sustainable footing upon which to build our work over the next 9 years.
January 31 was the first meeting of the team that will be working on #2 – resourcing the build-out of our mission. You can watch / listen to that meeting at the bottom of this post, with the prep materials for that meeting at this link.
Our Approach to Resourcing Our Mission
If you have been following our work over the past few years, you know that we have been seeking approaches that align our resourcing efforts with our vision, values and mission. If our goal is a more humane world, supported by systems that bring out the best in all of us, what would it look like to walk that talk in our resourcing efforts?
With traditional resourcing efforts, the focus is on generating ongoing sources of cash, which leads to seeking people and groups with money to provide support. Because cash is scarce, individual organizations and programs must compete with other independent organizations and programs who care about the same thing.
The results of this focus on cash and competition include ongoing cycles of scarcity thinking, which feed decision-making about everything, not just budget-related issues. That scarcity thinking feeds assumptions about “going it alone,” which builds silos, reinforcing scarcity and, in the long run, actually costing more money. In addition, the focus on cash models the very inequity it is our mission to move beyond, where people with money have the power and everyone else plays by the rules established by that money and power. Contrary to our mission to bring out the best in what it is to be human, the traditional approach brings out the worst in everyone.
In our efforts, we are focusing not on cash, but on real resources – the real stuff we need. Because together we have everything we need, we are seeking to share resources with other organizations and programs, creating together what none of us can create on our own.
Our goal is to model what it takes to create and sustain cycles of enoughness – the power we have together – encouraging social change groups to do more together (adding even more to the enoughness cycle). This aligns our resourcing efforts with our mission to bring out the best in what it is to be human, walking the talk of the equitable world we want to see – a commons where people are participating with what they have and who they are.
We acknowledge that this is an experiment – that we do not know what will work and what will not. What we do promise is that we will document what we learn, and share that as we go along.
You can find more about our journey in this area at this link. And because this is about walking the talk of our values, you’ll find the Statement of Our Values in Action at this link.
Action Plan
During our first meeting, we reviewed the structure Creating the Future is building to support our mission, and reviewed the approach we will use for supporting and sustaining that effort. We explored the questions that review raised for team members. You can watch / listen to that discussion below.
The approach we will take from here will be about creating true partnerships, where both partners share who they are and what they have. The first step in finding those partners will be a major sleuthing effort, with the intention of learning from and connect with influencers who have been seeking to accomplish the same things we are seeking to accomplish. (Why influencers? See the 2 minutes of conversation from 23:20 to 25:40 in the meeting below!)
Starting at our next meeting (February 14th), we will use Catalytic Thinking to craft our sleuthing plan. From there, it will be time to get to work, connecting with influencers who want what we want in the world. If you would like to join us for that conversation, head to this post to learn more.
We are excited about moving forward on all fronts, as we hear the 10-year clock ticking at our heels. At a time when the world is dealing with so much scarcity, fear, and suspicion, our mission feels like it is needed now more than ever.
January 31 Meeting: Video and Audio
Below the video, you will find a downloadable audio version of this meeting. If you are watching the video, and would like to speed it up (voices sound the same, just faster, to save time), this 2 minute video tells you how to speed up videos on YouTube – a handy tip for anyone!
Listen to the Audio
(To download to your hard drive, right-click {or click and hold on a Mac} on the link above and select “Save Target As”.. or “Save Link as”… depending on your browser)