Creating a New Future for Our eJournal

To participate in the January 27th live-streamed meeting about this topic, head to the bottom of this post for details.

Since we began sending our eJournal years ago, the focus of that communication has been YOU.

• Exercises you can try, to apply Catalytic Thinking to your own life.
• Resources and communities to strengthen your Catalytic Thinking muscles.
• Invitations to include your voice in everything we do, to ensure the work at Creating the Future isn’t about “us” inside the organization, but all of us together.

It is in that spirit that we are inviting you to create a new future for our eJournal.

If 2020 has taught us all anything, it is the critical need to create a future different from our past. And because you are at the core of our eJournal and all our work at Creating the Future, we want to know what will help YOU in that journey.

We are starting our query with the eJournal – a communication that goes to thousands of people, each of whom has a strong desire to create a more humane, equitable world.

Here are just some of the questions we are hoping you will think through with us…

• What content do you find useful and inspiring in our current eJournal? You can see examples in our archives here.
• Would you like more stories about Catalytic Thinking in action? More real life examples and case studies?
• What content would inspire you to introduce Creating the Future’s work and Catalytic Thinking to others – to expand this movement for systems change? What would you be most likely to share?
• How often would you like to receive the eJournal? Is there a day of the week you are more likely to read it than others?
• Does the current format work for you? What would make the eJournal more readable? More shareable? More actionable?
• Do you read all the way through to the end of our current eJournal? If not, what would encourage you to do so?
• What email newsletters do you currently read all the way through? What is it about those communications that leads you to do so?
• We are thinking about naming the eJournal – something beyond “Creating the Future’s eJournal.” Do you have any ideas for a name?

There are several ways you can contribute your thoughts.

• Share your ideas in the comments at this blog post.
• Send your thoughts privately to us at this link.
• Join us for a live conversation on January 27^th (3pm ET / 12noon PT), where we will use Catalytic Thinking to reach for the eJournal’s highest potential. To be part of that conversation, let us know here. (And to watch the live-stream, just head to the bottom of this post!)

We can’t wait to hear what you’re thinking. Because there is truly no end to what we can accomplish together.

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How to participate in the Online Discussion
If you have never been part of Creating the Future's work, all our strategy and board meetings are open and participatory, for anyone who wants to be part of the discussion or to watch afterwards. To learn more about the thinking behind this openness - and our experiences with being open - click here.

Where we meet:
The meeting will take place right here at this post. If the video does not appear precisely on time, please be patient – we are probably just running a few minutes late.

How to Prepare:
This PDF graphic of the Catalytic Thinking Framework will give you an understanding of the flow of the conversation. We recommend printing it out or having it otherwise available during the meeting, to spark your thinking during the discussion. You can also follow along with the questions that guide Catalytic Thinking at this link.

How to Participate
There are 3 ways you can participate in our meetings.

• If your commitment to Creating the Future’s work is calling you to be actively involved in the meeting discussion side-by-side at our online “meeting table,” let us know, and we will send you an invitation to join us online.

• If you want to participate but are unable to be in the meeting itself (perhaps you’re at work, or maybe at home with kids running around, etc.), watch the live-stream in real time and tweet your questions and ideas to us via the hashtag #CreatingTheFuture. We read those tweets aloud during the meeting, just as if you were there. This is a great first step for those who are not as familiar with our work, but want to get more involved.

(Please note: We will only see your tweets if you use the #CreatingTheFuture hashtag. In addition, during the meeting, we will not look at blog comments here at this post. While we will check those comments later, during the meeting we will only be following the #CreatingTheFuture hashtag in the Twitter stream.)

• Lastly, if you want to just watch quietly, thinking about what you’re hearing and responding later – or if you will be watching the recording after the meeting happens – please add your thoughts into the comments here at this post. We will include that thinking into the mix of things.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Logistics: The meeting will happen right here at this post. Details are below.

Watch the meeting HERE
Note: if the meeting does not start on time please be patient as we may be running a few minutes late.

or, After the meeting - LISTEN TO THE MEETING HERE

or Download the MP3
(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)

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We are grateful to Wikimedia Commons and to Ron Unger, for the image of the stack of newspapers that heads this post.