Active Hope

This past Wednesday evening, at our regular members evening, we explored with the wonderful Scott Perret what it means to be changemakers.  James continues this theme and invites you to be part of the story of the great turning…

Anyone who considers the reality of global limits and planetary boundaries that we have already crossed and the trajectory we are currently on can quickly fall into dejection and hopelessness. Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone’s book Active Hope offers a toolkit of useful approaches to help innovators, change-makers and anyone who thinks about the future we face stay resilient in the face of huge challenges.

I particularly love the simple way that they frame up the three stories that people chose to be part of to understand the future we face. They talk about the three stories being like three concentric circles. At the centre, the inner circle is the story of Business As Usual; all we need to do moving forward is to keep the economy growing and everything will be fine. The story in the circle outside this is The Great Unravelling; the people who can see that the systems that support human life on Earth are deteriorating at an accelerating rate. They call the story in the outside circle The Great Turning; the people in this story can clearly see The Great Unravelling, but instead of falling into despair or apathy they are taking action to prevent or slow the damage and create restorative solutions.

If you want to be part of the story of The Great Turning, Active Hope provides some of the tools you might need to face the mess we’re in without going crazy…

Read the book or check out this distance learning course from the Centre for Resilience, Happiness and Positive Change if you’d like to find out more…

http://www.resiliencehappinesschange.com/active-hope.html

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Start at the very beginning

Customer need + design = possibility

We’ve heard about the power of design to transform products and services into new models that can support better environmental and social outcomes. We know that clever design can also improve resource re-use. Everyone is talking about the circular economy. Closed loop and cradle to cradle have been around for years. Manufacturers are looking into design for disassembly.

What I like about this particular idea – provided by the wonderful Caroline Wensley – is the fact that they started with three distinct customer contexts and then designed solutions that are more environmentally friendly in response to those particular needs.

This means:
Designing solutions to multiple, specific customer needs
Starting with design – not trying to make things better after the fact

Have a look: http://www.agencyofdesign.co.uk/projects/design-out-waste/ for the most interesting toaster project, ever… 
And – do feel free to subscribe here: http://6-heads.com/ or send us any ideas you’d like to contribute to info@6-heads.com