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“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”
—Machiavelli, The Prince
As we outlined in Chapter 09 | The Scale Of The Challenge, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that, fundamentally, real change is going to need all of us to shift our trajectory back towards the safe and just space of thriving in balance with nature — the scales of this transition being long emergency, polycrisis and multiple planetary challenges.
Kavian Kulasabanathan’s essay, What if we lived with and for one another?, included in 08 | Reimagining Economic Possibilities states:
“If we collectively come to the work that we want to do with the foundation that life is precious, then we should treat life as such. And that includes everyone.”
Two ideas can be simultaneously held together here. On one hand, we have deeply untapped courageous civic movements to be unlocked in our neighbourhoods, and in many ways. On the other, we have large-scale systemic innovation that calls for ‘big teaming’: intense collaboration between professions and industries with completely different mindsets.
In the call to look carefully and ambitiously towards the possibility in our neighbourhood, we see the role of many actors — particularly business, and national and local government — to both see us in their story of big teaming and — particularly business — to take radical responsibility for their own radical transitions and intense, generous and humble collaboration.
“The future can’t be predicted, but it can be envisioned and brought lovingly into being.”
—Donella Meadows