future mapping

the why and the how

TL:DR — It is impossible for organisations to “demonstrate their impact” if they work in complex environments. Asking them to do so requires them to create a fantasy version of the story of their work. This corruption of data makes doing genuine change work harder because it is difficult to learn and adapt from corrupted data.

Rodrigo Turra from The Nexialist • 🛗✨The Nexialist #0133

Brand Anarchy is not terrifying chaos, but instead the new order that emerges when old paradigms and playbooks crumble, giving way to unexplored creative and cultural potential. And honestly, it’s just a more fun and human way of doing things.

From Brand Strategy to Brand Anarchy

Vision: A nonprofit startup starts with a vision. There must be some large, intractable problem, for which the solution is hard to capture value from. This must be the animating vision behind the nonprofit, like Stripe’s ‘increasing the GDP of the internet’ or SpaceX’s ‘colonize Mars’. The vision must be sufficiently ambitious to attract talent

marklutter.com • Startup Nonprofits

there’s simply no way around the fact that we’re pretty fed up with a certain philosophical framework in Silicon Valley. It has many names: the growth mindset. OKRs. KPIs. Even Minimalism — the predominant aesthetic of our era. But at its core, it all comes down to one thing: the relentless optimization of everything in our world.

this mindset has... See more

The Browser Company • Optimizing For Feelings

Liminal creativity can help carve a path from disorientation to discovery, from uncertainty to curiosity, from fear to innovation. It can turn scary situations into transformational experiences of self-discovery and self-authorship. In fact, life itself is a liminal space between birth and death.

Anne-Laure Le Cunff • Liminal Creativity

We need to make intentional spaces for people to tell, share, or co-create these stories, spaces that are well facilitated and feel safe and inviting.

Rob Hopkins • From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want

If we’re to resist the gravity well of banality, extract ourselves from of the containers of the past, escape the stifling grip of pre-packaged thinking, refuse to be complicit in the astro-turfing of culture, and create better, desired futures rather than merely slipstream into default ones, then what we really need is imagination. And the... See more

martin weigel • Fighting The Astro-Turfing Of Culture, The Gravity Well Of Banality, And The Stifling Grip Of Pre-Packaged Thinking — Martin Weigel

We need three things to release our imaginative power and exercise that muscle:

* Dedicated time and space to unblock our imagination.

* Permission, which is often withheld in a performance culture, where people may fear humiliation or being laughed at if they exercise imagination.

* Help through portals and exercises, which unlocks not just the... See more

Medium • Rewilding the Imagination

inside-out & outside-in thinking combined, alongside strong brand strategy, are how brands get to rich new spaces for breakthrough innovation.