Dear friends,
This is not a statement condemning the violence the U.S. is experiencing at the hands of racist, home-grown terrorists. It’s not that we don’t condemn those actions. It’s just that we don’t see the point of making such a statement. Do you really need us to differentiate ourselves from folks who approve of these violent acts? If so, then we are not doing a very good job of modeling the values we hold dear – equity, compassion, humanity, love.
And so, this is instead a statement reaffirming our commitment to large-scale systems change. Systems of colonialism and white supremacy, of patriarchy and capitalism. Systems we all encounter every day, rooted in power and privilege. Systems that delude us into thinking everything is fine, when everything is far from it.
While elected officials talk about reforming this or that, we know the real answer must go beyond reacting to our current problems. If we are to ever see the equitable, healthy, vibrant world we all want to live in, we must create what does not yet exist. That will not take a tweak or two, a reform or two, a rooting out of bad actors. That will take rethinking everything. And at Creating the Future, that is not just what we are dedicated to doing; it is what we have been working on since Day One.
CEOs at Apple and Facebook and Google may find it necessary to talk about things like “holding people to account” during this “dark moment in our nation’s history” (those are quotes – check it out at Business Insider here). But we know the issue isn’t what we say. What is important is what we will DO.
Each of us. All of us.
At Creating the Future, here is what we were doing before the attack on Congress and beyond, and what we will keep doing.
1) We will continue to support you in learning what it takes to create a future different from our past.
Helping you rethink where your efforts are aiming – aiming beyond fixing what is wrong, aiming at creating the healthy, equitable, humane, vibrant future we all want. Helping you create plans that put the dominoes in place towards those visionary goals. Helping you link arms with those who care about what you care about. Helping you see how many resources we all have to share.
We will continue to do all that, just as we have done all along.
2) We will continue to work to re-imagine the social change systems that thwart change by perpetuating power and privilege.
None of the structures and systems social change groups rely upon to get stuff done were designed to create systemic, societal change. They were instead adopted from existing norms that are intended to reinforce a status quo that was defined by those with power and privilege.
Programs whose origins stem from thousands of years of people of means helping those without, one person or group at a time. Structures like marketing and human resources and metrics evaluation that were adapted from the business world or, like strategic planning, from the military. Those invisible systems that seem so benign actually come from those places of power and privilege.
We will therefore continue to re-imagine and redesign, so that the systems that support social change work reflect the equitable, healthy world we want to see. Just as we have done all along.
3) We will continue to re-imagine our own organizational systems, to model that it is possible for those structures and systems to reflect the future we want to see.
Modeling what it looks like for our own internal systems to focus on linking arms, working openly, and building trust (vs. the norm of competition and suspicion). Modeling what it looks like to share resources (vs. the norm of scarcity and hoarding). Modeling what it looks like to value and bring out the best in people (vs. the norm of valuing money and power). And modeling all of it openly, inviting you to be part of not just our outward-facing programs, but everything.
We will continue to do all that, just as we have done all along.
This is what has created change throughout history. Reaching for what no one thinks is possible, creating the critical path towards that goal, engaging both likely and unlikely allies to become an immovable force, finding resources where people thought none existed.
Like those who have led the way before us, we know these big goals are possible. We know this because science tells us that unless something is physically impossible, it is absolutely possible. And we know it from our own experience, because we are already doing it.
That is our mission. That is our work. And that is what we do not need to recommit to doing, because it is what we are working on every single day around here.
So no, we are not going to make a statement that condemns the worst of what it means to be human. We will instead keep working to design systems that bring out the best in what it means to be human.
Because we know that the moral arc of the universe indeed bends towards justice. Here at Creating the Future, as we have done all along, we will continue to give that arc as much of a boost as we can.
With admiration and appreciation for all you are doing to create a future different from our past,
and the team at Creating the Future