The Power of Future Design Teams
The Core Idea: Currently Elders Climate Action in Northern California is engaged in planning a multi-generational "future design" retreat on October 19, 2024 in Silicon Valley. We expect this retreat will spawn a new initiative -- elders leading “future design” workshops -- in partnership with climate action organizations in other locations around the country.
What is Future Design? It's a powerful changemaking method inspired by the Japanese economist Tatsuyoshi Saijo -- the essence of which is to tackle any number of current climate-related crises from three distinctly different perspectives:
It is this third step – “time traveling” into the future to better inform how we problem-solve today – that’s the essence of “future design.” This thinking has been proven to be very successful in Japan, and we anticipate that Saijo's method will translate well into the America of today. It promises to become a an innovative approach to civic and environmental planning.
As Tatsuyoshi Saijo says, “Once you go to the future you can never go back.”
To start your own team, contact: Clint Wilkins at [email protected] to learn about starting your own Future Design Team.
The Core Idea: Currently Elders Climate Action in Northern California is engaged in planning a multi-generational "future design" retreat on October 19, 2024 in Silicon Valley. We expect this retreat will spawn a new initiative -- elders leading “future design” workshops -- in partnership with climate action organizations in other locations around the country.
What is Future Design? It's a powerful changemaking method inspired by the Japanese economist Tatsuyoshi Saijo -- the essence of which is to tackle any number of current climate-related crises from three distinctly different perspectives:
- looking backwards to understand how the problem originated;
- drawing on the way we think today we forward, say fifty years into the future in 2074;
- taking an imaginative leap into the world of 2074 and putting on distinctive costumes, citizens-of-the future negotiate for their own generation’s interests with citizens of today.
It is this third step – “time traveling” into the future to better inform how we problem-solve today – that’s the essence of “future design.” This thinking has been proven to be very successful in Japan, and we anticipate that Saijo's method will translate well into the America of today. It promises to become a an innovative approach to civic and environmental planning.
As Tatsuyoshi Saijo says, “Once you go to the future you can never go back.”
To start your own team, contact: Clint Wilkins at [email protected] to learn about starting your own Future Design Team.