Creating the Future's
Integrity Conversation:
Monday, April 11, 2022
10am - 12pm Pacific time
Topic:
What's Next for Creating the Future?
Watch the meeting LIVE at this post. Just scroll to the very bottom of the page.
Details about how to participate are below.
What's Next for Our Mission?
Over the past few months, the conversations of our Integrity Body (known in most organizations as the board) have shifted from initially thinking about succession planning, to the bigger questions of "What benefit must continue regardless of who is at the helm?"
That has naturally led us to the question, "What's next for Creating the Future's mission?" That is what we'll be focused on during our April 11th meeting.
Staying true to our values, we will be applying Catalytic Thinking to this topic. Here is some background of the conversation so far:
This conversation began months ago, starting with the topic of succession planning. After asking just the first few Catalytic Thinking questions, the focus moved quickly to what succession planning makes possible. The answer: Whatever is next for Creating the Future. (To see summaries of those conversations, this post has links to all of them.)
One of the most important aspects of the “What’s next?” conversation is that Creating the Future has set itself a 10 year mission. This does not mean we are sunsetting in 10 years, but instead that we will set that timeframe for our current work, to give ourselves permission to pause at that juncture - to reflect and reassess. (You can see more about the thinking behind that 10 year clock at this link.)
That 10 year timeframe also expresses our sense of urgency. We have often likened it to the shot clock in basketball, where the team with the ball has only 24 seconds to take a shot or they forfeit the ball to the other team. Before the shot clock, games would go on forever, as players just held on to the ball - much like we see organizations whose missions move from "something to be accomplished" to "what we do and will continue to do."
The shot clock demands that people take their shot. At Creating the Future, that's what we're doing. We are taking our shot.
Our 10 year shot clock started on January 1, 2017, which means we are at the halfway point. And WOW have we accomplished a lot, most importantly that through our experimenting with Catalytic Thinking, we realize we no longer need to prove that it works to bring out the best in people in whatever situation we find ourselves. We now know that Catalytic Thinking works in every situation we have tested it.
Wow is that something to celebrate! This halfway mark is clearly a time to reflect on our successes, and to consider what's next.
That brings us to our conversation this month:
During this month's conversation, we will begin by celebrating. What is different now than it was when we began this journey? What have we learned? What do we want to cheer about?
From there, we will begin to explore what we want to make possible over this next 5 years.
Our mission has always been to experiment with Catalytic Thinking, and to share what we learn from those experiments.
What do we want "sharing what we've learned" to make possible for the thousands of people who comprise our community, and importantly, for the people with whom they interact?
We’ve always said that we’ll know we’re successful when people we’ve never met are asking questions of other people we’ve never met, that bring out the best in that situation. That speaks to Catalytic Thinking being ubiquitous.
What exactly might "ubiquitous" look like? And what would it take for that to be reality?
We hope you will be part of this conversation, because this is not theoretical - this is actually determining the next steps in Creating the Future's evolution! (And if you'd like to think about these questions ahead of time, we've created some thought-starters here.)
How to Prepare
First, let us know if you plan to attend by sending a note at this link. Per the "How to participate" section below, please let us know which of the 3 ways you would like to participate.
Second, if you are not familiar with Catalytic Thinking or the Integrity functions of our board, the following will be helpful:
For those who think visually, this PDF graphic of the Catalytic Thinking Framework will give you an understanding of the flow of the conversation. For those who work best with text, you can follow along with the questions that guide Catalytic Thinking at this link. We recommend having these pieces available during the meeting, to spark your thinking during the discussion.
To get a sense of the context of our Integrity Board, this post introduces our thinking about that.
Third, review the summaries from our past conversations about this topic, to be fully present for this meeting. You'll find summaries of those conversations all linked at this post. In reviewing those conversations, if there is anything you might add, please do so in the comments!
3 Ways to participate
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. You can see more about that at this link.
Where we meet:
The board 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.
There are 3 ways you can participate in our meetings.
- If you are already familiar with and committed to Creating the Future’s work, and you would like 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. Read more here about what it means to participate in that way. (Please note that these seats are limited, to ensure everyone's voice can be heard. If you are not able to be in the room with us, no worries - there are still two other ways to share your insights with us!)
- 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 simply watch, or you want to think about what you’re hearing and respond 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 your being part of our discussion on Monday, April 11th!
* All Creating the Future's board meetings are open for anyone to participate, or to watch afterwards. To learn more about the thinking behind this openness - and our experiences with being open - click here.
Logistics: The meeting will happen right here at this post. Details are below.
Watch the meeting HERE on Monday
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)