Click here to join our next debate on Mar 1. 4pm (UK time)

Let’s say we consider deBono’s approach of zero budget thinking. If nothing was already decided, what would we want our socio-economic model to look like?

That’s too big a question, so let’s reframe it.

What does the new capitalism have to do for me? What do you want from it?

Bill Gates says Creative Capitalism is the answer… more here

This RSAnimate video might also help get us started…

On Jan 26 we paused for thought to consider our relationship with time. We were joined by Old Father Time who posed some challenging questions. Quotes below got majority support from the group. Those in bold were top 10 statements. Read the full list here Thinking Tank Time or read the summary below

Short of time?

Many of us were aware of a time squeeze.

• chasing my tail trying to get what has to get done today done – thinking about this afternoon as opposed to time in the context of broader lifespan

While others seemed to have more of a balance

• Time is like a rhythm. I am invigorated by sometimes racing through tasks and doing a lot, other times by sitting in silence watching the water. I like the changes in pace
• I love wasting time once in a while.. just hang out, drink a glass, watch a stupid film on tv.. It gives me peace

So we had some advice on making better use of time

• I try to make sure there’s some time-freedom in amongst a usually time-bound week
• Those with life threatening illnesses talk positively about their better relationship with time and making good use of it

How much time do you want?

Old Father Time offered us a hypothetical choice of how long we wanted the rest of our life to last for. Choices varied from 10 to 1000 years but the majority plumped for about a century.Aside from wanting to be healthy during this time there were only two strongly shared views on the reason for wanting more time:

• [I would spend it ] enjoying it and giving it sense
• Time to have several lives /careers

Time for a change?

In closing we considered any learnings from the discussion. There was certainly more consideration of time, and an intention to be more conscious.

• I think we are not enough in touch with time, the present. How could it be is we feel we are chasing all the time, needing to prioritise constantly.  A greater connection with the moment should educate us to have a better relationship with time.
• [we can consider] high value uses of time and low value uses of time … looked at and determined by contribution, progress, impact on quality of life

Click here to join our next debate on Feb 23. 4pm (UK time) where we will be discussing the future of capitalism. Bring your bonus, your politics, your resentments and your ideas!

Espresso Summary: Top 5 (the most supported comments)

• You don’t need “official” rituals to have rituals of your own – different and at different periods of the year
• Rituals are fine as long as they can be somewhat “tempered” otherwise they could be quite boring
• Christmas feels like a big task. Not just the work involved (wrapping presents, preparing food etc) but also the ritualistic ways people behave at this time of year
• Christmas is too commercial
• Rituals don’t work when they too superficial – no time and no space to really pay attention to people

Latte Summary: when you have a bit more time

ROLE OF RITUALS

General view is that they can – and should – be personalised to increase their meaning

• You don’t need “official” rituals to have rituals of your own – different and at different periods of the year
• Rituals are fine as long as they can be somewhat “tempered” otherwise they could be quite boring
• Some of the old rituals appears as not mine, others are new and very welcome

There were less supported comments about the specifics of Christmas preparations – carols and family and gifts and food.

BENEFITS

Benefits of rituals were contemplative: a time for reflection, pause for thought.  rather than anything to do with pomp and circumstance.

• The positive side is that it creates space for family time, that it creates moments in the family history
• Is almost a way to learn myself better, getting a deeper insight into myself
• My marriage: although I don’t believe in God, I enjoyed the ritual.
• a time to share

Opinion was divided on more mundane rituals – these comments became Synthetrons but also attracted negative scoring.

• arriving home. Not just shuffling in and getting straight into the jobs but taking a moment to arrive, greet each other, be present
• Having a cold shower after a family struggle – you are immediately nourished by fresh energy
• The checkin and checkout of meetings: To get a sense of the feelings that are in the room, to see the development of the meeting, to get a closer feeling to what happens

HAZARDS

There are potential downsides to rituals that the group were aware of, mostly around coercion and falseness:

• when a ritual is felt more as a constraint rather than an event to look forward to
• When the ritual itself becomes more important than its original intention
• When everyone pretends

The group agreed on some strategies to avoid these risks

• rituals must be considered as occasions – not obligations
• Distinguish between personal rituals and traditional rituals. Maybe knowing our own reason for participating makes a difference too. It’s not the ritual that has meaning in itself, it is we who choose to bring it meaning (or just go through the emotions)

IDEAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A RITUAL

Ah. Let’s hope that we can all remember these wise words in our hearts during the Christmas and other seasonal festivities

• a ritual that encourages me to think of the rhythm of life, the tides, the seasons, the births and deaths. Get a sense of perspective and stop obsessing about my own trivia
• a ritual that encourages us to look within hearts and also at our global connectedness
• A trueness-ritual … perhaps … like this: If I was born in Ohio, now i would be this, if i was born in Kabul, now i would be this, if I was born in ….
• A ritual that includes time for deep reflection in a safe environment
• pause to think about the meaning of what we do
• It’s not about the stuff – or the stuffing! It’s about the meaning. I can choose for it to be meaningful or I can choose for it to be a chore. Right now I am hoping to have the presence of mind to choose meaningful.
• Relax, be authentic, thoughtful of others

Full Summary

Click on this pdf file to see all the comments 1112 Rituals full report

Click here to join the debate at 4pm UK time, Thurs Nov 24

One Thinking Tanker has commented

“The war on drugs not only is a total failure, it makes the problem much worse.
It creates much more and much bigger problems than it is trying to resolve, because it starts form a totally wrong premise: for purely ideological reasons, it totally irrationally defines a difficult medical problem as a criminal one.”

Click here to join the debate at 4pm UK time, Thurs Nov 24

Start the debate now by tweeting with #thinkingtank

Stimulus

• Yesterday’s article in the NY Times ““It could lead to a nationalist backlash in the countries involved,””
• Huffington Post: Is legalisation the answer?
• RSA Drugs – is it always abuse?

Click here to join the debate at 4pm UK time, Thurs Nov 17

Future Thinking Tank Discussions

(always Thursdays, always 4pm UK  / 5pm Euro / 11am US East Coast…). Topics may change if there is a more pressing issue at the time. Please feel free to make suggestions by adding a comment below

• 22 Dec (Winter Solstice): Rituals and their role in modern society. As you prepare for Christmas, Hannukah, recover from Eid or plan your own rites, we take a break to reflect on why rituals are so important to us and how they might help even a post-modernist society.
• New Year (Jan 26). Stopping and Starting. What will you leave behind with 2011, what will you work on in 2012?
• Feb 23: The F-word. Over a century after New Zealand gave all women the right to vote and nearly 50 years after the US Equal Pay Act the situation is still far from balanced. 70% of the world’s poor are women and girls and the gender pay gap still exists. Where do we go from here?

Here are some highlights of what they said (statements in italics are verbatim, those in bold were supported by at least 70%):

Prosperity is a broad concept

• My definition of prosperity is much broader than when I was in my 20s. The sun is shining, I am learning new things

Also mentioned: freedom,. education, family, sharing, mentors, work hard play hard. Seen by some as a privilege, a luxury for some people in some countries, not broadly available to all.

Prosperity is desirable and allows progress / evolution

• Your kids are learning a lot of things that you had no chance to… (thanks to increased prosperity)
• if all my energy goes into finding the next meal, when is the moment of brilliance going to emerge?

Prosperity also comes with risks

• risk: smugness, complacency, stagnation
• Risk to forget about the less fortunate

Though a smaller group disagreed with this view

• At systemic level I disagree about complacency …. there is always a push from the bottom …. if you get complacent you stop growing …. others will ….

Prosperity and Scarcity

• Scarcity creates some urgency in solving problems. So a good driver. But I think it leads us to focus on the basics so no good for human evolution
• I like the occasional bit of scarcity eg a 2 hour power cut, a day when the shops are closed. It leaves me joyful when it is over
• Plenty of budget makes us unimaginative, plenty of time makes me lazy
• At the begining, need / scarcity motivates change, creativity …. then without a bit of prosperity you get stuck

Prosperity can be nurtured

The greatest levels of agreement were around ways to encourage properity

• Continue to give freedom to women
• Invest in clean and cheap energy (we are not there yet!)
• Teach prosperity in schools (an inclusive view of prosperity which includes social capital, beauty, creativity, caring as well as financial security)
• Continue to reduce trade barriers (e.g. CAP policy in Europe, fran subsidies in the US)
• Continue to try to remove dictators …. (e.g. good news today about Gaddafi!)
• Continue to educate all people
• Nobody needs more than ten years living expenses. So increase your prosperity by sharing your wealth (or skills)

When do you lie? Does it matter? Is lying increasing or on the wane as transparency shifts our expectations but mobile phones and Second Life allow us to be who we want, when we want? Good for you? Bad for me?

CLICK HERE to join the discussion on Sep 29th

Stimulus:

• The Most Common Lies, Twitter
• Lying is good for you, Forbes.com
• I see you lying, BBC
• “No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar.“Abraham Lincoln
• “The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.” Aristotle

CLICK HERE to join the discussion on Sep 29th

Future Thinking Tank Discussions

(always Thursdays, always 4pm UK  / 5pm Euro / 11am US East Coast…). Topics may change if there is a more pressing issue at the time. Please feel free to make suggestions by adding a comment below

• 20 Oct: Prosperity. As we approach Diwali* let’s consider what prosperity means in the 21st century and how we can enjoy and spread it
• 24 Nov: tbc
• 22 Dec (Winter Solstice): Rituals and their role in modern society. As you prepare for Christmas, Hannukah, recover from Eid or plan your own rites, we take a break to reflect on why rituals are so important to us and how they might help even a post-modernist society.
• New Year (Jan ). Stopping and Starting. What will you leave behind with 2011, what will you work on in 2012?

* Diwali, the festival of light, is an important day for Hindu (awareness of inner light), Jain (equivalent of Easter when Lord Mahavira attained Nirvana) and Sikh (celebration of freedom) communities as well as the beginning of the Indian financial year

CLICK HERE to join the discussion on Sep 29th

Power corrupts: we must all be vigilant and selective.

Watchwords: Governance, ownership, checks and balances, avoid concentration of power

• In Latin America we also see a similar phenomenon with the media companies and their power

The clean up process: ugly but welcome

FULL WORKS

Click on the pdf file to see the full list of synthetrons ordered by topic 1107 Murdoch Effect full report

In this month’s Thinking Tank we consider

• Are these cosy arrangements inevitable or should we fight to expose them?
• Does this decision signify a new era of transparency or is it just a one off?

Previous Thinking Tanks have often cited the media as the cause of the problem.

• Is this a moment of truth for their role in our lives?
• Or are they right when they blame consumers who buy the scandal and horror stories?

Don’t miss out. Have your say in this debate and let’s make the news for ourselves.

Click here to join us 4pm (UK time) July 21st.

Espresso summary

Online networking in particular is on balance seen more as a force for good, encouraging transparency, connectedness and egalitarianism.

Medium summary

USAGE: All participants network more now than 5 years ago, mostly much more. The additional networking is on-line though offline is still used – in a focused and contributory way.

• online platforms are a great tools to get back in touch with people we somehow lost track of
• more efficient use of my professional time, especially with respect to increased time pressure
• Offline I am having more focussed conversations with people I largely know, making the most of relationships that are already solid

BEHAVIOUR: there is not a consensus on how personal behaviour changes online

• I think I am more open, more human, online (SPLIT VOTE)
• still weird to market yourselves almost as a product  this way (SPLIT VOTE)

TOOLS: most mentioned is LinkedIn. Feels safer and more professional for the group. Also useful for finding the right people to employ or collaborate with. Facebook seen as much more lightweight – entertainment and gossip, not serious business. Not much twitter yet for these senior managers.

• those profiles on LinkedIn do help to stay in touch or to find people with specific qualifications
• I find twitter the most efficient for developing contnections in a new sphere (SPLIT VOTE)

BENEFITS: The speed of communicating uncensored information has risks but is mostly seen as a benefit. There is a sense that conversations are more direct, fairer, more objective – more productive.

• indeed there is much more social openness in groups on the net then in real life
• Now an idea can gather support, be challenged, be improved, increase awareness and get implemented in a much shorter space of time
• crowdsourcing to generate ideas in any possible fields
• more people can participate.. it creates a new democratice force
• you connect on the basis of shared needs / interests – which makes it easier to set a step towards ‘action’
• more egalitarian in terms of rich/poor countries and individuals. Not just the CEOs and presidents who know the score.

RISKS: there is only half as much support for comments about risks – of course they exist, but they are not seen to be as important as the benefits. There was some concern of risk of fraud and manipulation but not widely supported.

• lack of critical reflection
• fragmentation of focus and shallow analysis
• good people or organisations can get taken down by an online campaign that spreads like wildfire but is just malicious, not true

FUTURE: the majority think that online networking is a game changer and it will make a difference to how we work, how we present ourselves to the world and what we can achieve.

• We are just a the beginning of learning how powerful we can be if we connect
• Surprisingly it is in world of politics that we have witnessed impact the most so far, but this is very new, business will follow with some dramatic changes due to networking
• Maybe the idea of work has to change to reconcile this! [networking/notworking]
• I think we are in a new world: Egypt, Tunis, Libya, Syria are all examples of this new world.

And final word of advice from our posters to all our readers:

• follow your values and don’t post crap

Grande summary

This pdf file contains all the 64 statements that made it to Synthetron (supported) status plus the results of the polls. Interesting to note that 36% of the Synthetrons were originally stated by the same participant – one of you has their finger on the pulse! 1106 The Thinking Tank Networking or Notworking full report

Is twittering just for twits? Or can you not work without networking? Are you face to face or screen to screen? What does that reveal about you?

Here is a random selection from tweets on #networking:

• How to: Supercharge Your LinkedIn Profile
• Tired of adapting to Facebooks constant changes? Need a new networking platform?
• Driving Results Through the Power of Social Networking
• The invent of the social networking sites have made everyone these self-imposed multi talented humans

Just a quick sample but already it shows what an obsession this is all becoming.

• I tweet therefore I am? (Tweet now with #notworking)
• Do you use work to avoid networking or the opposite?
• What is the breakthrough thinking that takes this up a notch from chatting aimlessly at the virtual bus stop to something that can change our world?
• Top tips for networking?
• Top tips for notworking?

Join the debate live online here. 4pm UK time. Thursday June 16th