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Chronicle from the Future
by Rosana Agudo. Vision & Life Coach In the year 2020, “The Year of the Great Pause”, human beings, in search of Unity in Diversity as the main global aspiration, found that the planetary crisis, the COVID 19 virus, not only affected human beings without distinction of race, gender, social class… but also made us aware that it was a virus that affected the HUMAN BEING, not as a plural concept, but as the unity we represent, as the species that represents the mind, the thought on the planet, the HUMAN archetype. That of which the great Masters speak to us, “The Only Son of God”, “The One”, “The Buddha” ……. That year, we discovered that we represent the One, who we are, because we are not really separated. We understood that everything the Human Being had created is the representation of what it is, the step-by-step narration of its existence, the need to tear away the veil of ignorance and fear and to discover what we are and what we represent in the world of the reality we live. Our cells remembered their immortality and ceased the insanity of destroying their host, the body of the human being, instead they began spreading their discovery of light and the mutation of the human began to become conscious. We realized that if we were able to understand, retrospectively, our evolution as a species, if we had become aware of this, and had accepted it as a reality, we were at the historical point where it was important to help our evolution in a voluntary way, it was the great Adventure of Our Time, and we were going to participate. In the year 2020, “The Year of the Great Pause”, the Human Being became aware that the global crisis was due to a great planetary evolutionary crisis, led by the thinking species. The entire planet was preparing to offer the necessary resources to that species and a critical mass of humans was able to see and understood that the contagion not only served in terms of disease, but was also necessary for the transmission of confidence and certainty. Great pressure on the different forms of human unity, on the means of production, agriculture, energy… spread and created great confusion; these were the years of “post-truth” due to the great differences among social classes and fear of the future, of the new. Little by little, the binary dimension of our mind opened up and diversity stopped being a theoretical concept of the binary, contradictory and dual thinking mind. The disruptive went viral and gave way to a great surge of creativity and made the species support each other and understand themselves as responsible partners in a new form of planetary association. Diet was one of the first changes experienced. The body of the more evolved Human Being could no longer digest certain foods, depending on which, and especially those of animal origin. Non-exploitation began to include not only fellow human beings but also other evolving species; collaboration was the key. On the other hand, Democracy, having regressed towards “Democracism”, took a step forward and diverse national confederations began to be established. Nationalisms ended and Unity in Diversity emerged. The Ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity finally acquired their broadest and deepest spiritual dimension. A new Human organization, more in line with the aspiration of a more evolved being, was gradually installed. In short, these were very difficult and complex times for understanding and implementing, mainly because the mind we were accustomed to for working, thinking and therefore building our reality, no longer served us, we could only make versions of the known, versions that quickly became useless vanished like sand between the fingers. Only the certainty of our Unity as cells of the great ONE, the Human Being, the Only Begotten, helped us to move forward, with iron will. The seed of our continuity in life without limit, as creators in time and space, in this body made of time, like everything created, everything we can comprehend and understand, that seed was already buried in fertile soil and brought forth wonderful human beings. These, equipped with Strength, Clarity and Beauty, were pioneers, great sculptors of reality, gave unexpected, multidimensional forms to all matter. They created the symphony of the World in which all species had their own score and we played together, at first a little distorted, but then in a majestic way. We, the children of those pioneers, little by little we were building the societies of Unified Consciousness once we were acquiring consciousness of our temporal matter in its form, but knowing that our primordial substance, pure consciousness vibrating, is eternal, infinite, multi-diverse, all vibration …… All this came in that Year of the Great Pause, and for those who heard, the Great Adventure of Our Time began, it began to come true. Time became Art, because we understood that this, our body is made of Time, and Consciousness. rosanaagudo@gmail.com Rosana Agudo. © Mayo 2020
DDOs (Deliberately developmental Organizations) – The Future Now Show
with Ferananda Ibarra DDOs move organizations from business as usual to a rethinking of the very place of people’s development in organizational life. What if a company did everything in their power for people to overcome their internal barriers to change? to transcend their blindspots and see errors as opportunities as personal growth? Welcome to the world of Deliberately Developmental Organizations (DDOs). Credits Ferananda IbarraChief-Harmony Officer, Unified Field Corporation for the brand JustOne OrganicsMaui, Hawaii You find more by Ferananda here Felix B Boppfounder & former chairman, Club of AmsterdamProducer of The Future Now Show
Truth Decay and Truth Engines
7 JUNE 2018 – OLUMIDE – RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT Written by Dr Peter Cochrane. “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” For most people it is hard to think of truth as a dynamic property and they naturally seek absolutes as reassurances of their particular belief system, political or other persuasions. This contrasts strongly with science and the scientific method where we continually test and probe our ‘expensively’ established truths to make sure they remain accurate and pertinent. One example is our planet: which has variously been considered to be flat and round before we proved it spheroidal; only to later discover it an oblate sphere, and more recently a dynamic oblate sphere. How come? It is entirely down to the accuracy and sensitivity of our instrumentation and their platforms of observation. History tells us that every society has advanced or collapsed by its ability to establish and maintain vital and applicable truths. As far as we aware; our modern world is pre-eminent in systematically establishing a strong web of related truths binding governmental, legal, economic, commercial and scientific systems. Here the value of continual cross-checking and calibration is axiomatic and beyond dispute, but is all now under significant threat. “Today: porn starts tell the truth and presidents lie “ Only three decades truth was a necessary quality at all levels of society. Indeed, we stored and curated these vital components in our libraries, publications and news media. Fact checking and information cross-checking was seen as a must at every level. But the strength and value of all our achievements in this regard are being questioned and attacked. Proven facts, knowledge, wisdom and expertise are now readily derided by those predisposed to conspiracy theories and the lies of others. The Flat Earth Society is back supporting its views with pseudo science, distortions, lies and ignorance on a grand scale. Apparently global warming is a political conspiracy and the moon landings were staged on a movie set, and there is data and photographic evidence to prove it all. And this is just the start of a very long list of ignorances challenging very expensive and hard won knowledge, and being championed by the poorly educated and politically/religiously motivated. Surprisingly, a large swathe of humanity appears to be prepared to listen, follow and support. Sadly, the internet and social networks have given everyone a voice and a means of publicity in the worst possible way. The scale of this has rendered the establishing any truth no longer easy or straightforward, and in some cases it is tending toward the impossible! For sure people cannot solve this problem, and for many, perpetuating it is to their advantage, but there looks to be a technology solutions based upon ‘Truth Engines’ that might test every political statement as it is made whilst purging the internet of all falsehoods and misconceptions. This they could do relentlessly 24x7x365 like an information vacuum cleaner that preserves the correct and destroys the rest! Most of the components to realise such a mechanism exist along with many of the necessary conceptual technologies and techniques. The principle progression follows the following path in the context of news reports: 1) A plagiarism checker searches through the 100 and 1000s of posted reports, articles and blogs on a specific topic to identify the primary sources. 2) The likely veracity and error bounds for each original source can then be established by looking back over decades (if necessary/available) of previous reports to characterise the progression from initial to final report over a given time. 3) So a source might report a terrorist incident with hundreds injured and dead identifying a known group which might become more accurate with time as the official numbers are established. Even later the actual terrorist group may be identified or they may identify themselves. By aggregating such reports from many events we can establish long term statistical trends as to the accuracy with time. 4) By repeating (1-3) many thousands of time all the key news sources and media outlets can be allocated a truth weighting factor in a mathematical descriptor of the whole field. 5) This same process (1-4) can be repeated for all organisations and individuals on a vast scale as it can be automated to track down and identify falsehoods and lies by source. Beyond this basic engine there are many refinements possible including inference correlations and fact projection analysis to identify the many strains, paths and filament connecting truths, untruths, lies and conjectures. Not every lie may be deliberate, it may be derived from carelessness, naivety and a lack of fact and veracity checking. Like the law, we have to presume innocent unless proven guilty, and one error does not prove consistency, and so we too have to cross-check…automatically of course!
Natural Capital & new innovation strategies
By Tom Bosschaert, Director, Except Integrated Sustainability Jan 27, 2014 The land we grow our food on, water that flows through it, animals and plants living in this environment, and the oceans – the birthplace of life. This, and more, is our natural capital; the value represented by our ecosystems, species, and everything in between that we rely on to persist on this planet. All of our natural systems are declining fast, and this threatens our future. It puts at risk the continuation of any business with a complex supply chain, and jeopardizes the resource availability of any nation. The Natural Capital (NC) movement attempts to halt and reverse this trend by embedding the value of natural systems into economic systems. This article talks about how Natural Capital works, what the pitfalls and opportunities of such a system are, and how we can accelerate implementation in government and business. While there is debate about NC as a concept, it is one of the few answers we have. Organizations around the world are moving to implement it because of rapidly increasing ecological destruction. But there is much to be done, and progress is slow. There are opportunities to accelerate and improve Natural Capital based on innovative systems solutions for business and policy alike. Solutions that not only conserve nature but puts the front runners of NC in a position of significant advantage, both in business and policy. Why Natural Capital? The concept of Natural Capital has been around for more than a century and is not without controversy. Debate about its ethical foundations has been going on for decades, raising ethical questions without clear answers, but the global decline of nature pressures us for action. Nature currently has limited economic value, causing it to be regularly sacrificed. This ‘tragedy of the commons‘ plagues conservation efforts and the debate has delayed solutions resulting in preventable losses. At the 2013 World Forum on Natural Capital in Edinburgh, organized by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, most policy and business representatives agreed it’s time to take action, putting the ethical discussion to the background. Barry Gardiner, UK shadow minister for the environment, said it most poignantly: “We use nature because it gives us value, and we destroy it because it’s free. Nature should be given the rightful value it deserves, it’s the only real way we can safeguard our natural resources for the future.” Because NC is one of the few tools that allows direct action to be taken, the message is to implement it as fast as we can. How can we do this? The challenge can be summarized as follows; what mechanisms can we use to make natural capital work, how to value nature in all its facets, and how to create an advantage for policy and business for rapid implementation. What mechanisms make Natural Capital work? The solution supported by the largest NGO’s introduces national NC profit and loss balance sheets in each country and company, and tracks this balance as is done with finance. These balance sheets express Natural Capital both in terms of quantity and quality of resources (amounts of forests, water, biodiversity, etc), and, where possible, as currency. For every asset that disappears from the balance sheet, something else needs to be brought back. This functions to increase awareness and transparency about the state of our natural resources, and improves their management. When successful, Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) injects a balancing system for our planet’s physical limits to growth into an economy currently aimed at capitalizing on limitless growth. Implementing Natural Capital is not without risk, as demonstrated by the carbon credit scheme that often creates perverse incentives, shifting damage from one place to another due to incomplete valuation. To prevent this, NCA needs to take into account the full spectrum of value we recognise today, and leave room for values that appear in the future. Values that cannot be expressed in a monetary equivalent need to appear on the balance sheets in their qualitative form. It will not be possible to account for all value, but this should not hold us back. As Professor Dieter Helm explained at the forum in Edinburgh: “We do not need to be entirely correct in our assessment of Natural Capital. Even if we’re only 80% or even 50% in the ballpark, that’s at least better than the value of zero we have currently. We need to act, now, to prevent further losses to an already marginalized system, regardless of not being able to accurately value Natural Capital.” How do we value nature? This is undoubtedly the greatest challenge of Natural Capital as a concept. What value does a tree have? Ask a hundred scientists and economists and you will get a hundred different answers. In order for NC to work, we need to agree on a basis of valuation. A tree is worth more than just the price of its wood, as it provides a home to many animals, it acts as shade in summer, it buffers and filters rainwater, it cleans the air, and it also supplies a number of other ecosystem services. It may also be valuable in other terms, for example culturally, and for its role in the ecosystem as a whole. Therefore, the value of a tree in its entirety isn’t the same as the price for its wood in the store, and can be expressed in a different manner, for example in liters of water buffered and filtered, its contribution to biodiversity and well being, and so on. Quite a few studies have attempted to account for some of these values and converted them into currency. Research conducted by Johnson and Wardle gave the Canadian Boreal forest a value of US$ 3.7 trillion for all of its ecosystem services and carbon sequestration. Another study from 1997 by Costanza et. al put a pricetag of US$ 33 trillion on the world’s biosphere’s ecosystem services. These and other studies give starting points for value estimation, while there are certainly large gaps to cover. To find and fill these gaps, a more inclusive framework to assess value is necessary. SiD as a structure for value The Symbiosis in Development (SiD) systems analysis framework is such a tool. It can be used to assess the full spectrum of value for any given subject, including the relational values of the system as a whole. Its flexible structure allows room for future discovery while providing clarity to start valuing with limited insight today. Using SiD the value of the tree can be seen on three ‘scales’: the object (direct physical) value, the value of its network (services and relations), and its systemic value as a whole. The first being the easiest to assess, and the last the hardest but having the most impact. Combining these three scales results in a estimation of the tree’s Natural Capital value. This diagram is a simplified example of the structure of SiD’s value assessment when applied to a tree. Using SiD, there are opportunities for other values to join the party, such as transparency, diversity, health, and wellbeing. SiD reserves room for these values, allowing them to be slotted in once research makes them available. Because it is a universal framework, it works for other measurements as well, allowing it to be inclusive of other movements such as social justice or poverty alleviation and stand stronger together. This flexibility prevents the system becoming solidified once adopted, preventing perverse incentives that occur when real value and value in the system are dissonant (an issue that plagues carbon trading). Tracking the flexibility of the Natural Capital system is therefore essential. Giving Natural Capital teeth There are frameworks for valuation, which can be filled in using existing research. Then incentives are needed for organizations to implement them. Using systemic innovation strategies, the most effective approaches can be explored. As a trial, a small interdisciplinary team at Except, a sustainability strategy firm, held a short systems exploration session and came up with a few approaches. It was discovered that effective solutions are those that make Natural Capital a base economic requirement for growth, rooting it into the core of the economy. One approach is to create a secondary currency backed by Natural Capital rather than gold. This means Natural Capital is not expressed in Dollars, Euros or Yen, but in its own currency, for example called the GreenBack. This currency is purely digital, relying on similar technology as BitCoin, and coupled to the balance sheets of nations, capturing both qualitative and quantitative values in separate indicators. When demand for this GreenBack goes up, a direct increase in demand for Natural Capital results. This creates a natural marketplace where the only way to grow wealth is to grow Natural Capital. This currency thus couples economic growth to its necessary precursor: the resources our planet needs to sustain economic growth. Solutions like these accelerate the implementation of Natural Capital, but both business and government have their own challenges. What are the opportunities for countries and companies to implement NC? Opportunities to accelerate NCA in policy “In 50 years’ time we will look back and say that our governments were economically illiterate. They simply did not understand the true value of the most important service providers on our planet. We will marvel that they failed to capture and make explicit the value of Natural Capital and ecosystem services in their national accounts.” – Barry Gardiner, MP Several projects researching the role of NC in policy are underway, for example TEEB, a global research project through the European Union. But progress is slow, hampered by lack of oversight, tools for valuation, accessible knowledge databases, and stakeholder awareness. These challenges can be more effectively solved with innovative systems-thinking than traditional approaches, saving resources and time. And time is of the essence here. One way to speed up the process is to apply distributed innovation mechanisms, such as crowd-solutioning and serious gaming. These approaches have managed to resolve in weeks highly complex problems such as unraveling the secrets of protein folding, which previously took teams of scientists many years. If strategies such as these were to be applied to the issues that hold back Natural Capital, solutions could be implemented at a much faster rate, and Natural Capital Accounting could be in place in many countries within the next decade. But, Natural Capital can only be effective if it’s adopted voluntarily by both government and business. Enforcement takes too long and the stick causes loopholes, while the carrot accelerates the process. Why would a profit driven company be interested to implement and invest in Natural Capital? Advantages of embedding NCA in business At first sight, business may not seem to have an interest in Natural Capital or Natural Capital Accounting, as it does not directly lead to profit. But there are several reasons why this is not only advantageous, but critical to the survival of business today and tomorrow. In complex supply chains, change comes quickly and strikes hard. Most companies rely on one or more natural resources somewhere in their supply chain, yet may not be aware of where and how. Tracking NC is essential to ensure continued business in the short and long term. If a sizeable business is not tracking this, it is not conducting proper risk management. In addition, business can use NC to find valuable ecosystems services while improving CSR performance at the same time. For example, companies have found bio-based alternatives to artificial or fossil resources that save money and provide long term sourcing security. It is also good for businesses to be ahead of the curve when it comes to issues that governments will eventually demand. Waiting to be forced into something through regulation risks costly solutions being enforced. Also, being one of the first to start NC accounting has its perks. It allows an organization to shape the conversation, be more opportunistic with investments, and get public recognition for leading the good fight. This has been shown by Puma, which started publishing the first Environmental Profit & Loss Account (EPLA) under direction of their holding company Kering, and already tracked 145 million in environmental impacts in 2010. This resulted in positive press globally, several companies following suit, and creating a catch-up game for everyone else. Lastly, insurance companies are becoming interested in Natural Capital Accounting. After all, threats to resources that a company relies on are threats to the company, and insurance will go up or become unavailable. And it is not just insurance firms. Standards & Poor’s, one of the Big-Three credit rating firms, is investigating Natural Capital Accounting as a new input for the same reasons, directly affecting a company’s credit rating. That should be reason enough for the big players out there to start moving. Making it happen There are many reasons to start implementing NC as fast as possible. A structured and systemic approach is critical to make it succeed. This is why solutions like SiD exist. We call on the front runners of NC to aim higher and gain the advantage of using innovative systems tools and implementation strategies, such as natural currencies, crowd-solutioning and systemic risk assessment. The front runners in policy, business, and NGOs should be brought together to collectively accelerate the process and support each other. It is in our joint interest to do so. We have the tools, expertise, and manpower to do this, so let’s make Natural Capital accounting a reality within a few years, and gain huge benefits for each organization and society alike. Media & Downloads Systemic value of a tree
X Reality – The Future Now Show
with Harish Shah Harish Shah talks about X Reality – immersive technologies that can merge the physical and virtual worlds. By 2022, the XR market is expected to reach $209 billion, which is eight times what it is today. This tremendous growth could mean the realities of our 2030 lives are beyond our imagination’s ability to grasp. (Forbes) Credits Harish Shah, SingaporeStratserv Consultancy http://www.stratservconsultancy.com
The New Future of Marketing – The Future Now Show
with Mylena Pierremont During the months of lockdown and self-isolation, we have been, in fact, writing a new future. This has important implications for marketers trying to build lasting relationships with customers. In depth monitoring of data and trends in consumer behaviour has always been fundamental to support innovations. Given the unprecedented nature of the pandemic and the profound changes it is causing, we believe that harnessing imagination will be just as critical. Right now, there’s a great opportunity to revolutionize visibility, reach, and trust. Social media that is based on community and intimacy between brand and consumer communities generate a higher degree of trust. The exact same is true in terms of marketing strategies and within the grand scheme of the omnichannel. New technologies have made a new level of connectedness and intimacy possible, and it’s time to start. The Future Now Show CreditsMylena PierremontFounder – Connected Circleshttps://www.connectedcircles.net <
Report: Meetings in 2020
by Christine Perey, AMI Consortium Technology Transfer This white paper is provided to the members of the Club of Amsterdam and the members of the Community of Interest by the AMI Consortium as part of an ongoing initiative to increase global study and understanding of the human-to-human communications and the future of technology-assisted meetings using automation and intelligent agents in an environment of virtually unlimited processing and bandwidth resources. This white paper is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard of the future of meetings. It is made available by the AMI Consortium, with the permission of ParkWood Advisors LLC, with the understanding that the intent is not to render legal, investment, accounting or other professional advisory services. If investment advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Requests for permission to reuse the contents of this document or for further information about its contents should be addressed to John Parkinson at ParkWood Advisors LLC. PrefaceSpeaking and digitally publishing about a subject are two very, very different things. In the case of predicting the future, however, the tangible results may be the same. When speaking about meetings in 2020, a presenter has a lot of liberty because chances are relatively high that no one in the audience will remember what he or she said about the subject by 2020. And, in contrast with what you might expect, a digitally published/stored archive of the same concepts will probably also be “lost” for all intents and purposes. For John Parkinson, Chairman and Managing Partner of ParkWood Advisors LLC, the risk of his words fading and disappearing long before the accuracy of his predictions are tested just comes with the territory. Parkinson introduced his talk, a keynote address at the Wainhouse Research European Forum 2006 in Berlin entitled “Meetings in 2020,” with a touching reminder that predictions of the future-even the future of technology over the past 50 years-have more frequently been wrong than right. All predictions/forecasts and recommendations made in this paper are the rights and responsibilities of ParkWood Advisors LLC. Only time will tell how well the words of 2006 will fit the future. Download the report as *.pdf click here
Innovation – a hybrid connection between old practices?
by Humberto Schwab, Director Club of Amsterdam, Innovation Philosopher2007 Club of Amsterdam: Humberto – you are an Innovation Philosopher – most people hardly see a connection between philosophy and daily life and even less between philosophy and business. What is the added value? Why has philosophy something to say? Philosophy is the body of experimental and theoretical knowledge collected and shared by humanity since the invention of this specie. It is the richest fountain of wisdom about our selves as human beings, our needs and aspirations, our world outside and inside us and most of all about our values. In philosophy we investigate falsehood and truth, the permanent and the temporarily, good and bad acting, good government and bad societies, beautiful and ugliness. Most of all we have gathered wisdom about the quality of life. We try to make our daily life every day an experience of quality. At least many people try to reach this. This striving for quality is what connects our life with philosophy. Essential in our daily life is that we have our eyes wide open to see the right elements in their right relation; this is where philosophical methods are. We need to get rid of prejudice and false presumptions. In business – more and more – the essence lies in the ability in enhancing the quality of life, in part or as a whole. This quality is related to issues of ethical policy and sustainable business. Sustainable is not only a matter of the natural environment, more and more we realize that sustainability concerns the quality of our communities. The pursuit of the good life is more and more the frame in which innovation in the experience economy is moving. Last but not least, philosophy contains all the possible concepts, approaches, notions and strategies to frame productive ways of reasoning. Innovation is essential the rethinking of tradition, tradition as recipes for life. Taking traditional steps over again leads to new insights. That is why innovation is often a hybrid connection between old practices. Innovation sometimes demands new paradigms; philosophy is the producer of new paradigms. You have been involved in large-scale educational programs. Can you give us an example of what you did and what the outcome was? We managed to position philosophy in the official juridical structure of the secondary school system in the Netherlands. This old philosophy was recognized as one of the strongest innovation in Holland. I designed a complete program for the schools. A big innovation was the transformation of 100 excellent Dutch teachers from different disciplines into real Socratic teachers. That means wise people who put forward the right questions and not the answers. At the moment I am involved in fundamental innovations of education in the Netherlands and in Spain. In our society of the future learning is a value as such. This demands a totally different perspective on education and schooling. In an i-society learning has a different place then in the past hierarchical society. We need business, ngo-s, academies, citizen’s organisations and local government to co-create a challenging learning landscape in Europe. In your EuroLab you use a special combination of techniques – some have been widely used in industries. Can you tell us why you choose them and how you adapt them to your projects? The most used techniques are used instrumental while I always want to work in dialogues. A dialogue involves the total presence and commitment of the individual as reflective being. This means maximal awareness and maximal responsibility. We cannot oppose general techniques on humans, without losing their individual strength. The Appreciative Inquiry method is very strong dialogue method in business, especially when – like the present situation – the relations between the stakeholders become totally different. The Appreciative Inquiry (AI) bring to light all the hidden good practices and experiences of all the individuals involved, emerged from their personal life. The top down model of the expert above sending his missives down kills the experience wisdom present in the whole organization. This AI method is fruit of a bunch of scientific insight on the effects of positive psychological approaches. The Socratic method I have adapted to learning situations in school and business is the strongest context I know. Fundamental in this method is the key role of the good question. Putting forward basic questions is the art of collaboration. It gives new air to breath new ideas. People hardly share basic questions, let alone basic assumptions. Yet they work in contexts as if they share assumptions, values and concepts. The deconstructing of a basic question and the reconstructing of a shared answer uses collective intelligence as a rich fountain and provokes strong bounding on crucial challenges. In the Socratic discourse, the philosophical tradition serves as a support system, it helps to articulate good intuitions, good arguments and good ideas of all the participants. The Socratic chair (trained philosopher) represents the tradition and embodies it in a supportive way for each participant. In a Socratic discourse the group transform in a natural way into a reflecting body that emerges a higher intelligence and a higher responsibility. It exercises human collectively at his best. It has strong rules that forces people to rethink other positions and to rehearse steps in thinking taken by others, it forces people to listen and repeat and to clarify all concepts used. The strong authoritative way of safeguarding the rules by the Socratic chair, gives rise to a real strong participation of all in an egalitarian way. The strong relation between flourishing business and democratic cultures lies precise in the opportunity to put forward any valuable question of the quality of human life. The dialogue starts with the rethinking of standing practices and will virtualize new possible worlds and actions. Good business ideas are in fact very often philosophical brainwaves! More and more good business and good government are critically checked on qualitative grounds, from citizens perspectives. From the Socratic brainstorms we have to come to a stage of productive planning. The future scenario methods are excellent in binding people on shared visions of the future and on shared actions to realize desired scenarios. Good dialogues generate an emergent intelligence that will give complete new frames and horizons. Yet scenarios without value dialogues are blind. That is why in my EuroLABS the basic structure is the embedding of the personas in a value dialogue context. The revitalization of the basic existential questions generates an energy that also creates strong creative content. I often hear that there has been enough talking and we should act now. Why do you put dialogue into the centre of your labs? And how does it relate to Do-Tanks? There has definitely been enough talking, but then we talk about talking in the one-dimensional level we are used to do. Besides this talking is mostly discussions without any check of concepts, understanding of each other or reflections on principles or presumptions. This talking is often a chat between deaf people, they afterwards will follow their own routine in the way of thinking they were used to do. The Club of Amsterdam LABs lead to a change in internal dialogue; people really need a strong dialogue with other beings to change their internal reflections and dialogues. This will directly lead to action, when you make shared action plans and design a sustainable dialogue with the stakeholders. To shift from a money driven society to a value driven society needs a new way of talking: the real human dialogue. Action is always for a crucial part guided thinking or unconscious frameworks of meaning. The Socratic dialogues make sharing intelligent action possible.