What will future carnivals be like?”
A journey of self-celebration and the co-creation of collaborative network plots…
Inspiration
I was invited to give a lecture on the future of work as part of the formative journey of Digital Future Insights, a partnership between Inclusive Futures, Fa.vela, and the UK Brazil Tech HUB. It was a journey that deeply moved me due to the affectionate and welcoming manner in which each stage of the formative journey was conducted, and the high technical level of the group of teachers, mentors, and the team involved. I feel honored to be part of this group, as it is a formation of future articulators for people of different ethnicities, genders, states, and sexual orientations, united in this desire to change the world and focused on protagonizing and transforming the futures they dream of for themselves and for all those around them.
The program plays a fundamental role in democratizing knowledge, content, approaches, and references that often remain in the hands of a few, thus generating a huge crisis of curation and lack of representativeness in the co-creation of multiple futures under the influence of a few privileged translators and enablers of futures. In this context, the market ends up consuming and reproducing discourses, positions, and maintenance of structural injustices, laden with unresolved pasts, presents of great incoherence, which generate stocks of limited/predictable and elitist futures.
DUB VERSION
This article is an updated and supplemented version of the original that was published along with other articles by the teachers at the conclusion of Digital Future Insights.
Seeking to remix topics related to the future of work, new economies, impact strategies, learnings from the communities of practice we are part of, and what we call Ecosystem Center Design, I was inspired by a song from Baiana System’s first album, called “Frevo Foguete,” as the initial chords of this exchange.
“Entering the avenue, Baianasystem
With their frevo rocket orbiting the earth
What will become of the Baiana guitar?
What will future carnivals be like?”
Thus, the idea of this text is to promote a playful reflection on three important dimensions to be taken care of in the journey of development of these change agents/composers of more inclusive and regenerative futures, whether these readers are from the Baiana Gamboa, in the port zone of Rio de Janeiro (where we undertake Goma) or from any other territory and soundsystems in the orbit of the Earth, whether they like carnival or not.
Here, I invoke a freedom of musical tastes, carnival experiences, and spiritual paths, so that we can embrace the importance of celebrating life and the journey of co-creating futures in high spirits and with "open smiles" (Sorriso Aberto music from Jovelina Perola Negra), because as important as the direction we want to go, is the quality of how we walk, for only then will we discover the real possibility of the “becoming” of our futures.
The person who loves to walk will walk further than the person who loves the destination. When you fall in love with the journey, everything else falls into place.
1st Dimension — ABOUT THE COMPOSER (Agent of Change)
The Ethics of Care as the storyline for building regenerative futures
Care has a dual function: to prevent future harm, repair, and regenerate past harm. This is the value of care. (Bernardo Toro, 2011).
We believe that future composers, agents of change (entrepreneurs, socio-environmental innovators, activists, futurists, cultural articulators, holders of ancestral knowledge, etc.) should have a commitment to the Ethics of Care.
The ethics of care is based on three fundamental values: 1) Knowing how to care (for oneself, for others, and for what belongs to all); 2) Knowing how to conduct transactions where both parties win (win-win); 3) Knowing how to converse.
1. Knowing how to care (for oneself, for others, and for what belongs to all)
As composers of these change plots, agents will be tested intensely and chaotically until the materialization of the transformations they desire. And if we are not careful, triggers and types of win-lose behavior patterns manifest almost automatically, either due to the necessary time for change or the complexity of the challenge to be solved.
A common pattern is to assume the persona of the “Savior” — who is willing to sacrifice everything for the cause/purpose, accumulating roles, responsibilities, and possibly reproducing perspectives of command and control, even if subtle, to play the music their way, as they consider them to be the only correct arrangements to be played.
Self-regulation, self-care, empathy, and support networks are needed so that we can not only survive the positive impacts we want to generate but also live them in a dignified manner. Ethics are a set of criteria that allow us to make decisions in the face of dilemmas and select what allows us to live with dignity.
I love those who plant trees even knowing that they will never sit in their shade. They plant trees to give shade and fruits to those who are not yet born. (Rubem Alves)
Support Network as Return Speakers
From time to time, seek to investigate yourself deeply and lovingly, expanding these perceptions through the eyes of others around you (teams, professional partners, networks where you interact, and friends/family), receiving not only feedback on points and characteristics that you can and should improve but mainly positive appreciations about you. Re-understanding your values, skills, stage of professional development, and delivery qualities in your relationships expands your perception of yourself and accommodates better this reverberation of intentions, helping like a sonar to listen, feel, and experience this network of relationships and rhythms in this construction of futures.
2nd Dimension — ABOUT THE PURPOSE AND ESSENCE OF THE JOURNEY (RHYTHM)
2. Knowing how to conduct transactions where both parties win (win-win)
Today we see the pattern of networks increasingly influencing new experiments within different business/institutional organizational cultures.
Future composers, by purpose or by necessity, who may be within institutions promoting structural/cultural changes or in lean teams in recent ventures, NGOs, or networks will need to articulate, enchant, and facilitate the organization of different talents (Long live Master Letieres Leite and the Rumpilezz Orchestra), intelligences, and professional experiences for the propagation of their change plot.
Skills that can be developed by a facilitating/empowering leadership of regenerative futures
It is increasingly common to hear references to the top ten skills to be developed related to the future of work, according to the World Economic Forum. They are:
- Analytical thinking and innovation;
- Active learning and learning strategies;
- Complex problem solving;
- Critical thinking and analysis;
- Creativity, originality, and initiative;
- Leadership and social influence;
- Technology use, monitoring, and control;
- Technology design and programming;
- Resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility;
- Reasoning, problem solving, and ideation.
Looking at this list of desired attributes and mindsets by the market/society for this desirable near future, we realize four clusters of mindsets and skills:
A) Problem-solving — Analytical thinking and innovation; Complex problem solving; Critical thinking and analysis; and Creativity, originality, and initiative.
B) Self-management — Active learning and learning strategies; and Resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility.
C) Working with people — Leadership and social/network influence.
D) Use and development of technologies — Technology use, monitoring, and control; and Technology design and programming.
Three of the four clusters are what we can call “low-tech sciences”, referring to analytical, behavioral, and interpersonal skills, possible and necessary to be practiced in any context.
This type of rhythm alignment, talent supplementation, and sound layers will require openness from its musicians (multidisciplinary teams) for improvisation, and space for talents to develop along the way.
Therefore, we believe that facilitation skills can and should be developed as primary or secondary skills regardless of role, responsibility, segment, or sector of society. By serving as a leader/host of co-creative processes, it will be possible to develop a series of skills that are increasingly valued today.
“There is no community manager.”
We need to understand that intelligence is a communal asset, and this aspect of intelligence is related to: a) Learning to ask, b) Learning from those we interact with, and c) Learning to respond when asked meaningful questions.
In an increasingly complex, liquid, and chaotic world, intelligence and new forms of leadership are closely associated with knowing how to ask for help, formulating questions that are not yet being asked, and articulating the right parts with the appropriate motivations to converge efforts.
What is a great leader? It is someone who knows how to ask for help from collective intelligence and facilitates efforts to execute various engagement strategies and articulate parts. (Bernardo Toro)
Whether it’s formative journeys like João and Tati’s Future Lab or Juliette Antunes Multiplicadores B (B Leaders in Brazil), initiatives like Jess Castro’s Papo de Futuro, Computação da Hora, and Nina da Hora’s Ogunhê, self-care groups and incentives for healthy practices like Isa Nardini and Denise Saito’s As Bem Suadas (who is also the founder of Freela School), or OCLB, the community of experience creators of the beloved couple Franklin Costa and Carol Soares, are some examples of communities of practice and hosts that I admire and draw inspiration from on my journey lately.
But here we are also talking about afoxés, street carnival blocks, bate bolas (clovis), youth meetings in churches, artist collectives, soundsystems, whatever representation of your peers, connect.
These communities of practice, networks, exchange spaces can and should be seen as platforms for accelerating transitions, adopting new habits, expanding articulation capabilities, or learning new skills in the most diverse possible ways.
3RD DIMENSION — ABOUT TUNING — ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY [BAND/BLOCOS/TRIOS/ ORCHESTRAS]
3. Knowing how to converse — Internal and external engagement strategies within different co-creation approaches to futures.
When composers and rhythmists have aligned purposes and expectations, it’s time for tuning, defining the composition of the collective, and how to engage other interested audiences.
Dialogues work to transform a situation of fragmentation into a situation of connection and completeness. Through inclusive practices, we find ways to connect and include different voices and parts of a system, and thus, we truly begin to celebrate collective intelligence and the plurality of experiences.
It is through a clear flow of interactions and intentions among the parties that the possibility of authentic contributions to generating impact and building futures in which people truly feel a sense of belonging in the process and pride in the result generated will be allowed.
The greater the thesis of change, the greater the need to articulate multiple interests, agendas, and different organizational cultures, including, here, the need to insert antagonists, competitors, rivals, etc.
After all, complex challenges will demand even more of our ability to interact, understand, empathize, and even collaborate with the different and quite possibly even the antagonistic.
AMPLIFY YOURSELF
To all those who receive this Carnival message, I wish my deepest wishes that you be generous with yourselves, that you respect the authenticity of your journeys, that you know how to make good requests for help, and that you articulate, in the most powerful, regenerative, and rhythmic way possible, your future Carnivals…
Don’t waste time
Set up your satellite sound system
Around the Earth
And make For all humanity
Your Carnival
Lyrics from Frevo Foguete from BaianaSystem
Happy Carnival
May Pachamama protect us
And with the blessings of Iyemanjá echo this message…
