Changing the Change is an opportunity
Changing the Change is an opportunity to visualize the opportunities and responsibilities of a better world. This is not the world of the past, a world to which we cannot return. That world was never perfect, and we cannot be what we once were. Neither is it an impossible future of utopian central planning. That future is also behind us.
Changing the Change is a chance to think our way through the different futures we can hope to inhabit, examining these futures designers.
Every human institution is embedded in an historically contingent ecology of societies and cultures. These influence every human institution, artifact, and agency.
“It’s impossible to change one thing,” John Collier once said, “without changing everything. But you can’t change everything all at once. You’ve got to start somewhere.”
Nevertheless, John didn’t believe that change is hopeless or impossible. He believed that we must learn more and do better, working with resolve and commitment to create the world we want to live in.
Genuine change involves each of us. Changing the Change is an opportunity to see how we can change ourselves to change the societies and cultures in which we live.
A remarkable work of art on the theme of change has been circulating around the world. It is drawn from the words of a political candidate, but it is not part of a political campaign. It is an unofficial campaign ad for hope, inviting citizens to be a voice and cast a vote. You can see the work for yourself at:
This could be the campaign ad for Changing the Change. It calls neither for utopia nor for business as usual.
Changing the Change is an opportunity to use design tools and design thinking to envision and shape a common future.
What I find so inspiring and realistic about Changing the Change is the understanding that we must reshape our cultures and ourselves to reshape our future. To bring change about, we must change the way we change.
Gandhi said, “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world … as in being able to remake ourselves.”
See you in Torino!
