How to CollaborateAdam Kahane, Reos Partners18 November 2014

Reos’s Work on Complex ChallengesCountriesArgentinaBrazilCanadaColombiaGuatemalaIndiaIndonesiaIsrael/PalestineThe NetherlandsSouth AfricaThailandUnited KingdomUnited StatesZimbabwe

ChallengesChild malnutritionClimate changeCorruptionEconomic policyEducationEnergyFood securityGovernanceHealth careIllegal drugsJudicial reform Peace accordsRegional developmentSocial inclusion

Half the habitable land on earth is farmed.Half the habitable land on earth is farmed.

Food production uses huge amounts of chemicals, fossil fuels, and water.

We are losing soil at an alarming rate.

Falling crop prices put stress on farms and farmers.

Millions of farmers and farm workers live in poverty.

Fisheries around the world are being pushed to the point of collapse.

How do we turn things around?

Social Lab Process

Retreating to access deeper knowing

Making sense of the structure of the system

Immersing in the system

Crystallizing vision and leverage points

Convening a strategic microcosm of the system

Institutionalizing innovations

Co-Sensing

Co-Presencing

Co-Creating

Co-Initiating Co-Evolving

Prototyping innovations

Sustainable Food Lab Pilot Projects Sysco, Integrated Pest Management Institute: supplier standards to reduce use of

chemicals and natural resources Carrefour, Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation, local organizations in Africa: fish

procurement standards to improve lives in fishing villages Green Mountain Coffee, International Center for Tropical Agriculture: measuring

impact of procurement specifications on poverty City of Rome, US schools: healthy, sustainably produced food Unilever, JP Morgan, Soros Investment: biofuels benchmarking tool Foundations and think tanks in the US and Europe: shifting public attitudes and public

policies Unilever, PepsiCo, Heinz, Sysco, Marks & Spencer, Oxfam: farming system greenhouse

gas emissions practices Sysco, Superior Foods, International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Oxfam: fresh

vegetables from Guatemala ASDA, Hershey, Kraft, Catholic Relief Services, International Institute for

Environment and Development: enabling African smallholders to trade with international companies

Unilever, Rainforest Alliance: certification of Lipton tea globally

Approaching Complex Challenges As If They Are Simple Challenges Creates Stuckness

Dimension Simple challenges Complex challenges Stuckness if complex approached as if simple

Definition Necessary approach

Definition Necessary approach

Dynamic Cause and effect are close together

Piece by piece

Cause and effect are far apart

Systemic: attending to interconnected-ness

Fragmenta-tion

Social Actors have similar perspectives and interests

Relying on experts and authorities

Actors have different perspectives and interests

Collaborative: involving the actors themselves

Polarisa-tion

Generative Future is familiar and predictable

Planning based on existing best practice

Future is unfamiliar and unpredictable

Experimental: learning through acting

Obsole-scence

Social Labs

From ToFixing symptoms or effects Addressing structural diseases or causesMaking recommendations on paper

Developing solutions in practice

Relying on experts or authorities

Involving all key stakeholders

Learning then doing (policy preceding implementation)

Learning by doing (policy arising from implementation)

Implementing one chosen solution

Iteratively incubating, prototyping, and managing a portfolio of promising solutions

A once-off project A stable and growing platform that delivers results over the short, medium, and long term

Transformative Scenario Planning Process

Step 1: Convene a team from across the

whole system

Step 5: Act to transform the system

Step 2: Observe what is happening

Step 3: Construct stories about what

could happen

Step 4: Discover what can and must be done

Four Ways of Talking (T) and Listening (L)

DownloadingT: Politeness/fear

L: Projection

DebatingT: Clash of ideas

L: Judging

DialoguingT: Self-reflectivity

L: Empathy

PresencingT: Generativity

L: No boundaries

Primacy of the Parts

Primacy of the Whole

Enacting emerging realities

Re-enacting existing realities

Source: Kahane after Scharmer

Suspending

Letting goRe-directing