Some people will totally shift the window of possibility, some work on the minute detail, some that do a bit of everything, some that focus in one are, some who will go long into the future, some in the now, some huge visions, some everyday extraordinary details, some loudly ...
... some quietly, some one step at a time for a very specific goal over time, some that jump in lots of directions, some who quietly influence a few, others will move masses, none of these positions binary over lifetimes, some will introduce or reintroduce us to game changing ..
... ideas and some will keep us in line diligently with our basic values reminding of what it means to veer from them with detail, focus, some with vigour and others gently. There will be those who remind us what it means to stray too far from our basic collective humanity ...
... somewhere amongst all of this, is a beautiful space and privilege which allows us to build together, be wary of judging too quickly, or writing off whole ways of thinking, ways of working, ideas, communities, skills, visions, histories ...
... very little is entirely true or false or right or wrong. Sometimes those before us were diligently doing the best they could in the contexts they sat within, they may have paved the way for us to go way further, way quicker, or to understand more deeply or act more boldly.
Fighting with focus + relentlessness for the world you believe is possible can sit alongside the the idea that vision won’t be able to be absolute or happen in one very specific way, consensus or revolution, the spaces in between is where we grow + build + nurture the future.
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If you are joining for today’s #NLF2020 talk, there will be lots of different things I quickly mention in the short speaking time, but this is decades of many people’s work, communities & places are leaderful, no systemic work is done alone. Here is some of the work mentioned:
There are some people who fundamentally transformed the last decade for me & work that I look forward to following. Here is a little thread, of work to think about as we go into 2020. I’ll update it through the day though, feel free to add people things to the thread ...
1. My person of the decade would be @AlastairParvin, because he is smart, but with that he thinks, researches, writes, builds practical examples, is generous, shares all his thinking & doesn’t even care about attribution but just that the work / ideas get out there ...
... and people start to play with them, improve them, & experiment into the future. I think if our leaders were more like him, this decade would have been very different in the UK. He gives me great hope, from an inspiration point of view but also because he does the work ...
Five years ago today, @AndyReevo and I signed the lease on the beautiful space for @ImpactHubBrum, the Walker Building, a rich history, & beautiful restoration of the space in the heart of the creative quarter & the cities designated 'Social Enterprise Quarter', it was ...
.. expensive, & they demanded a huge deposit, but having been gloriously thrown out of Millennium Point a few months early, and with a eclectic and inspired public movement, and our huge inspiration from @impacthub_oak, we knew the time was right to start, & build our dreams ...
... we got together a deposit, accepted the rent and got going. The basics were there in the spaces, they weren't falling apart, but they were dusty, the walls weren't sealed, there was no electricity, hot water, glazing, doors or anything other than a blank canvas ..
In my #NestaGov2019 talk this morning, I will signpost to 4 pieces of work, because not possible to talk about deep work required for knotty, complex challenges in 5 mins. You can check them out here, it’s good to elevator pitches, it’s better to have something deep behind them.
If you’re doing deep, radical, transformative work in this period of great transition. You absolutely won’t see the fruits of your labour.
Don’t get lost in people who are looking for short term returns, pointless metrics & fudging outcomes out of people to justify themselves.
You have to work liberated by the fact you won’t really ever see the real results of your work. Even though the whole system is stacked up against you, to do that.
In times like these, it’s going to be a real brutal fight. Anyone whose money depends on being vanilla, pleasing those in high office, aren’t going to be able to do what’s need unfortunately; as much as that’s hard to swallow. So stop looking for it there.
I walked into @ImpactHubBrum this morning, there was three people & a bike mechanic fixing bikes outside, numerous meetings happening every corner I turned, coffee shop full of laughter, an artist residency starting in one corner, children in the Creche, someone fixing ..
... & cleaning a Saxaphone. Some people heads down working a way, a local councillor walked in, the distant laughter of children, a large cities think tank from London in one of the meeting rooms. This is what I’d always dreamed of it being & now this is just an average day ...
... & so much bigger stuff is happening. It might have been hard, people might have laughed at what we were trying, we’ve never quite been enough for big funders, generated loads of our own revenue & not waited for grants to move, but never quite enough of anything ..