We created it, we can change it

If you look at the world today, especially if you mainly read mainstream media, you might say it’s far from ideal. It often seems like we are powerless, floating on a river we have no control over, often in a boat that’s not completely ours. Keeping the boat afloat and making sure we don’t drown is top priority for a lot of people in this world. It’s such a time consuming task that we often forget that the river we are floating in is man made and that we all help shape that river. Not in a direct way but in many invisible ways we are often not even aware of.

The society we live in is completely made by humans, us. That means it can also be changed by us, all of us. You might be wondering how. It’s simpler than you think because you are already changing the world, you just might not be aware of it yet.

Threading on this path is not always easy, but most meaningful things in life aren’t. Why do people do volunteer work? They don’t get paid for it and it’s often for people they don’t even know. The simple answer is, it makes them feel good, they are contributing to something bigger than themselves and it gives meaning to the work they do. Why do people grow their own food? It’s much easier to just buy it in the supermarket. The feeling of accomplishment trumps all the hardship and the difficulties along the way. Actually, it’s these hardships and difficulties that contribute to the feeling of accomplishment.

We need to face a reality, our world is changing and that change is happening faster and faster. Our old methods of dealing with problems no longer work and it’s time we start approaching the challenges we face in a radically different way. As Einstein said: we can not solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them. Yet, this seems what our governments and a lot of others are still trying to do. It’s not going to work!

The major challenges of today are:

• Climate change
• Poverty
• Power distribution
• Income gaps
• Paralysed political systems
• Economic crises
• Splintered efforts
• Lack of systemic understanding
• Ageing population
• Pressure on social security systems
• Pressure on health care
• …

And the list goes on and they are all interconnected.

This ‘book’ gives an insight in the challenges we face and it aims to challenge our way of thinking about these problems. It also invites to embrace systemic leadership, which I believe is crucial if we want to construct durable solutions for these challenges.

This is a work in progress. The legend indicates what is already written and what is a glimpse of things to come.

I want this work to be interactive. I don’t just want to send this out into the world without giving the world a chance to react back to me. Therefor, I invite everyone to start a discussion on the topics that spike your interest.