Graham Leicester

Maureen O'Hara

If the idea of a conceptual emergency seemed original when it was introduced in the first edition of this booklet, it now appears inescapable. Brought on by the global credit crunch and the collapse or effective nationalisation of so many familiar institutions (HBOS, Lehman Brothers, Woolworths...), we face a fresh crisis of faith, as the instability of our previous perceptions of identity, morality, cultural coherence and social position is revealed. In a world where we are losing our collective bearings, we urgently need leadership inspired by fresh and insightful thinking. This little book provides a remarkable amount of both. The authors are writing under the banner of the International Futures Forum (IFF), an innovative and forward-thinking group that has inspired many communities to respond powerfully to severe social and economic challenges. Ten Things records IFF's learning over seven years on how to take more effective and responsible action in a world we do not understand and cannot control. This second edition has been expanded and updated with seven inspirational case studies from around the world, generated by IFF's work. Insightful yet playful, compact, readable and touchingly illustrated, this is a gem of a book. It will appeal to managers and organisational and political leaders but also to environmental campaigners, social psychologists and educationalists.

Ten Things to Do in a Conceptual Emergency

Building on a 1980 essay by psychologist Carl Rogers, the authors consider the qualities and competencies needed by the 'person of tomorrow' to help society navigate complexity in turbulent times.

Competence, Culture and Organization in the 21st Century

Dancing at the Edge

Denis Stewart

Keir Bloomer

Jim Ewing

This is the second edition of a book first published in the spring of 2009. Since then it has gone through a number of reprints. Its message has resonated with readers around the world: given the right kind of guidance and support, our institutions of education are perfectly capable of instigating the kinds of radical changes they need to make in order to prepare our young people for an uncertain future. The authors can say this with some confidence because the insights, tools, suggestions and recommendations in the pages of Transformative Innovation in Education are rooted firmly in practical experience. The 'three horizons' framework on which it is based allows everyone free rein to share their concerns about the present system, to admit deeper aspirations that might be frustrated or under-realised today, and to design a 'second horizon' transition strategy to shift the system in that direction. This is not 'blue skies visioning' but hard-headed engagement with often uncomfortable facts about changes in the real world. But it also allows space for inspiration. In partnership with the Scottish inspectorate of schools, Education Scotland, IFF worked with a wide variety of educationalists, practitioners, policy makers and others to explore how transformational change might be achieved. As a result, IFF has developed significant new resources to support transformative innovation in a highly decentralised, bottom-up, system-wide approach. Powerful frameworks for moving from insight to action developed by Jim Ewing are described in a substantial new addition to the original text on 'practical approaches to transformation'. The permissive policy framework set in Scotland by Curriculum for Excellence, which invites transformational change in the education system, has now attracted positive attention in different parts of the world - particularly the US, Asia and Australia. But the question remains: how can we make it work? How can government and other agencies best support a permissive programme of radical innovation in education? How can schools themselves take the lead? This book explains how. It tells a story in six sections: a widespread international story of disappointment in educational reform the three horizons framework for thinking about longer-term transformational change the limitations of international models of 'standards-based reform' developing a transformative framework in Scotland an outline of the tools and processes that are shifting the Scottish system into the future recommendations for a policy framework to encourage transformative innovation in education: 'making shift happen'."

A Playbook for Pragmatic Visionaries

Transformative Innovation in Education

In his 1969 essay, The World of Tomorrow and the Person of Tomorrow, the psychologist Carl Rogers looked ahead to the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world we inhabit today. He suggested that living in such a world would require a whole new set of competencies - demonstrated already by the 'persons of tomorrow' he saw around him even then. In Dancing at the Edge, Maureen O'Hara and Graham Leicester pick up the thread fifty years on. Drawing on extensive research and their own wide experience, they map the 'powerful times' in which we live, the 21st-century competencies required to thrive in this complexity and how to discover and develop them in practice. They identify: - Three emergencies: real, conceptual and existential - Three potential responses: denial, collapse and transformation - Three literacies: psychological, cultural and epistemic These literacies - or ways of reading the landscape - open the door to our 21st-century competencies, which are innate, relational, and will develop through practice in a supportive organizational or social setting. The picture that emerges is complex but remarkably clear and surprisingly hopeful - even exhilarating. Organizations of every sort from businesses to schools and healthcare, from government bodies to NGOs, can create the conditions, offer the support and provide the context within which engaged, aware, passionate and compassionate people can rise above denial and take on the challenges of today's powerful times. This is a handbook for anyone aspiring to develop their 21st-century competencies and for any organization hoping to cultivate the persons of tomorrow in its midst.

Graham Leicester

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