Starting ‘Exploring What’s Next’
Announcing: #weeknotes on exploring ‘Atelier of What’s Next’.
So, I have an idea. Which might be a stupid idea. Actually, I have two.
The first stupid idea is: what if I acting as if I was running an 'Atelier of What’s Next’, a ‘studio' which developed innovations of many different types (methods, practices, insights, policies, institutions, businesses...) that meet the following criteria:
In an immature stage and stand a chance of flourishing. They could be what's next for the world.
If they flourish, they would accelerate transformation to a better world. They should be what's next for the world.
What the innovations need next is something that I can help with. My contribution could make a difference.
Below there is much more detail on the why and next steps of Atelier of What’s Next. Basically, I’m wondering if a wrapper like this could help me generate more coherence on what I am doing, and push me to to do it with more deliberateness.
The second stupid idea is: use Substake to right a regular ‘weeknotes’ of exploring creating an Atelier of What’s Next. Several different reasons for that:
The practice of writing regular notes and updates will require me to go through some kind of regular action learning cycle. More on #weeknotes here.
Doing that on Substack means I can test the functionality here, while being a little away from my own website and social media presence. I realise that traffic to both of those is small. I’m giving myself permissions to be rough around the edges.
I don’t really expect anyone to read this — though great if you are here!
Below is my explanation on why an ‘Atelier of WHat’s Next’, and sketching out the next steps. More to come. Hopefully, on at least a weekly basis!
TOWARDS AN "ATELIER OF WHAT’S NEXT"
My exploring of career directions needs a wrapper.
Just over a year ago I made a choice to Face the Future and explore what my next career step might be. In many ways, things are going well. But in the last part of 2022 I was feeling my work was fragmented. Lots of interesting bits, but hard to prioritise between them or keep them all in mind.
I was feeling the need for a ‘wrapper’, a 'red thread' — a way to understand what I am doing that would help me do things better, do better things and imagine a new better.
One route for that would be to have narrowing of focus, perhaps on an issue, or a type of work, or type of organisation, or a working identity. But, at this moment, I don’t feel I can commit to a singular, narrow focus like that. I don’t feel able to make that choice.
There might be different reasons behind why I’m unable to choose right now. Maybe the variety of things I’m doing now are the right ones (at least for now). I haven’t felt a great pull into one direction because there hasn't been one yet. Or the pull has been there but I’m not listening in the right way. Maybe the various family emergencies in my private life are taking up bandwidth and interfering with my sense-making. Perhaps I’m temperamentally biased towards having a diverse portfolio. Or, perhaps I’m temperamentally biased against making tough choices.
Whatever the reasons, whether good or bad, I'm going to be exploring a slightly arbitrary portfolio of activities spanning different combinations of:
Working identities I evoke (including: consultant, practice advisor, teacher, content creator/broadcaster, non executive, social entrepreneur, policy entrepreneur, investor, mentor/coach, futurist, creative writer, researcher).
Sectors and industry domains I work in (including: finance; for-profit business; for-benefit business; civil society; public policy-making).
Organisations types I work with (including: corporates, start-ups, NGOs, research institutes).
Topics and issues I work on (including: climate change, purpose, community-led power, innovation, corporate-government affairs).
You can see why this is bewildering and exhausting.
Turning ugliness into beauty
There is a prompt card from the International Futures Forum which says “turn ugliness into beauty.” I also write to myself each work-day morning the precept of ‘Accepting today’s realities’.
One of today’s reality is that I am still exploring ‘what can we do in these powerful times?’. I don’t know exactly what to do next in my career, but I am exploring possibilities with a brilliant but fragmented portfolio of activities. This is not likely to change in the short-term.
Another of today’s realities is that I am not learning deep enough or fast enough from these activities. If I am honest with myself, I cannot really call them experiments, or rather I cannot say they are disciplined experiments. I am not being explicit about my hypotheses, capturing data well, making sense of it, and then using that insight to revise my hypotheses and changing the actions that follow. There is, I’m embarrassed to say, no action learning cycle.
That is today’s reality. But it doesn’t need to be reality forever. The other precept I write each morning is ‘growing tomorrow’s possibilities’. What would grow tomorrow’s possibilities?
Towards an "Atelier of What's Next"
These thoughts where on my mind as I was at the end-of-year drinks for The Greenhouse, London's pre-seed climate innovation programme run by Imperial College and the Royal Institute. I heard entrepreneur after entrepreneur talking about what they were building. I also remember a line from Paul van Zyl’s Powerful Times interview, where he said he really valued people who were building new things.
So, I started asking myself: what am I building right now. The answer leapt straight in: "An Atelier of What's Next".
"Atelier" -- workshop for making stuff (historically especially for an artist, designer or fashion house). To be explicit I do not mean ‘lab’. My view is that a lab is a stand-alone, simplified space where experiments can be safely conducted, and then the insights applied later in the complex real world. I’m not operating in controlled environment (and I think a lot of for-impact initiatives which have ‘lab’ in the title are mis-named). I’m operating in the world as it currently is: Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible.
"What's Next" -- innovations of many different types (methods, practices, insights, policies, institutions, businesses...) that meet the following criteria:
In an immature stage and stand a chance of flourishing. They could be what's next for the world.
If they flourish, they would accelerate transformation to a better world. They should be what's next for the world.
What the innovations need next is something that I can help with. My contribution could make a difference.
One way of understanding my past work
One way of understanding my career is that I have, without knowing it, already been doing this. My own work, at Forum for the Future and elsewhere, has often been developing 'stuff' (ideas, practices, initiatives, institutions, insights and whatever) that are just beyond the current horizon, that could and should be what's next. The gods know I have not always been successful in getting those things to happen (to put it mildly). But that’s where I’ve been operating.
Also, it turns out that some of my recent strategy advice has ended up with organisations taking on this kind of role. EIRIS Foundation, which I chair, has adopted a new tag-line of 'pioneering the next steps for sustainable finance'. The Sustainable Shipping Initiative is now a 'catalyst for a sustainable and successful shipping industry in this crucial decade of action'. In both cases this result was a confluence of pre-existing stance, the in-house capabilities, the external context (basically, no one working generically at the fuzzy front end) and the risk appetite of the decision-makers.
Also, in both I could see the possibility opening up, and I resisted it. Especially with SSI, I avoided leading them to this conclusion. I feared it wasn't what the organisation needed but more what I thought was needed in the world. But the various executives and Trustees made the decisions without me unintentionally imposing it up them, I think.
So, the notion of ‘an Atelier of What’s Next’ could be seen as the current step in the narrative arc of my career. I have been acting as a workshop for new innovations for a while. Now I am making that more explicit, at least for a time.
The future direction(s)
Into the future I can see three broad tracks:
Small version Atelier. I run the Atelier, with innovations coming out and my own practices getting deeper. This is the default; a sharper version of the status quo.
Large version Atelier. Maybe others start to join in, bringing their own ideas to work on, or being part of the team. The Atelier becomes an on-going incubator / accelerator / supporter of many different 'innovations', initiated by many different people.
Superseded by success. One of the innovations goes ‘boom!’, or I feel a great pull into a smaller portfolio, or I get asked to join in with something myself.
What is exciting about this, for me?
For one thing, it would be exciting to have a wrapper, to have a way to introduce myself in a professional context in less than 500 words ("I'm David, the founder of an Atelier of What's Next").
I am also excited by the possibility of exploring (in a more disciplined ay) which leads to progress. The aha moments. The realisations.
More importantly, I feel like I have things I am working on which are stuck and need either a graceful exit or further iteration. For instance, the next step on my late wife's research (roughly: how to use time well in caring professions). The practices of spotting emerging issues that are ready for cross-sector action (one brief I have at the moment with a client, which also overlaps with the practices of an Atelier of What's Next).
Finally, there is the big picture. We live in powerful times. Lots of changes are happening, more are coming — whether we like it or not. We need the capacity to respond, to turn concepts into reality, to take what is available through to what is needed. The capability of an 'Atelier of What's Next' has the possibility of a strong contribution.
What could go wrong (and how prepare for that)?
The main thing that could go wrong is that this just gives me an excuse to do lots of random things. A wrapper that provides a figleaf. To me that implies having selection and continuation criteria ('should I really (keep) do this?').
Another is that proceeding as if I am in charge of an 'Atelier of What's Next' will not build anything. My time gets spread across different domains. Each of which is complex and already have deeply embedded insiders better placed to be in-system catalysts. As a result, individual projects don't iterate in ways that have impact. Well, that's sorta happening right now. The response is the hope, the thesis, is that challenge can be addressed by having a deliberate practice of experimenting, integrating the insights and then either ending gracefully or tying again.
Another: I don't land any insights from the practice, and so I'm not even learning from the failures. Response: have a means to capture those insights and integrate them.
Finally, me running an 'Atelier of What's Next' is just not a compelling proposition. I don't have the track record, the reach, the skills or the resources to really help anyone move their innovation along. Effort that goes into this attracts no participants or revenue, which puts pressure on my time elsewhere to earn more. And gives no experience to learn from.
What next?
The next step for me is an initial explore.
Have tests: What would need to be true to prototype the Atelier for 6 months?
Ask for help on design studio practices.
Gauge reaction from those who know me.
I'm assuming that the step after that would be to 'prototype', so act as if I was running an Atelier of What's Next for 6 months.