Growing complexity of civilization is likely to become unsustainable at some point. How can we take control and guide our civilization toward a path that is sustainable?

1. The experiment continues

2. • Civilization is an ongoing
experiment
• It continues to adapt and
evolve
• It is
not, however, evolving
into any preconceived
utopia
• We make it up as we go
along

3. • Sixty minutes per hour
• Twenty-four hours per
day
• Seven days per week
• 365 days a year…
• Civilization never stops
• It is the culmination of all
our activities

4. • How did this come to
pass?
• What does this
civilization look like?

5. • The keyboard was
designed to slow down
typists so the mechanical
keys would not jam
• We live with that legacy
now even though
keyboards are no longer
mechanical
• This is typical of our civil
inheritance

6. • Houses are still being
built with 2x4s, boards
and tar shingled roofs
even though we have
many better ways to build
them
• Modern social sciences
are based on 18th century
physics and 19th century
biology

7. • Management practices
are based on military
traditions going back
over a thousand
years, even though the
management revolution
supposedly took place
forty years ago

8. • Most of the things that
make up our civilization
are historical accidents
• If we had it to do over
again, we’d do things
differently – and better
• But the past is sticky
• Everything we think
about is somehow linked
to old ideas

9. • Is religion still relevant?
• Are some religions better
than others?
• Do you put your choice of
religion on hold while
you figure out which ones
are best?
• Are religions evolving to
better reflect human
needs and interests?

10. • Built-in corrective
mechanisms keep
civilization relatively on
track
• What track?
• Where to?
• What are the boundaries?

11. • We have a free market
system to encourage
enterprise and innovation
and relatively equitable
distribution of goods and
services
• Improvements are
financially rewarded
• Waste is discouraged
• Competition is based on
consumer choices

12. • Marketing has become a
high science
• Based on
psychology, demographic
s, scientific-type
surveys, and media
technology
• Consumers choose
between products and
vendors
• Not so much between a
product and, say, quiet
time

13. • Governments are to keep
the free market fair and
opportunities equitable
• They try to create a fair
and honest playing field
to ensure citizens’ needs
are met
• You vote your favourite
leaders

14. • Governments need their
checks and balances
▫ Lobbyists
▫ Advocates
▫ Civil disobedience
▫ Petitions and letter
campaigns
▫ Plebiscites and referenda

15. • As citizens we have
responsibilities
• Educate ourselvs on
electoral
candidates, issues, policie
s
• Stay informed as stories
evolve
• Vote! And vote wisely
• When a vote isn’t
enough, speak up

16. • Scientists explore and
discover new things
about nature, the
universe and ourselves
• Applied scientists
conduct research and
develop new
technologies, materials
and products

17. • Management scientists
increase efficiency and
effectiveness of
processes, methods, prog
rams and projects

18. • We have hard working
people who get things
done
• They make, assemble and
ship the goods
• They deliver services

19. • Managers make tough
decisions that keep our
work organized and
moving ahead
• Ensuring tasks and skills
are appropriately
matched and people are
well trained and
rewarded

20. • Leaders paint a picture of
our common future
against the gray fog of the
future and point the
direction forward
• They motivate us to work
toward a better place

21. • As consumers we all
benefit from the fruits of
our collective labour and
wisdom
• We share in yesterday’s
utopia
• And dream about
tomorrow’s…

25. • Will Civilization 2.0 be a
webby world managed by
a synthesis of artificial
and collective
intelligence?

26. • Will Civilization 2.0 be a
bio-mimicry world, based
on a modern
understanding of man’s
inherent place in nature?

27. • Will Civilization 2.0 be
auto-
regulating, providing an
appropriate range of
efficient responses to
nature’s demands?

28. • The pace of change is
accelerating with no relief
in sight
• Terrorist actions, rogue
states, failed states and
the global economic
recession have not
deterred the march of
progress

29. • One thing that is
emerging with greater
clarity is that
organizations are needed
more than ever
• Collaboration, not the
old-fashioned
charismatic leader, will
be needed to find our way

30. • Only organizations can
provide the number of
experts and mix of skills
needed to come to a
reasonable
understanding of the
complex modern world
• And not just any
organization, at that

31. • Only an organization that
is highly organized
around the central
purpose of matching the
complexity of the global
civilization will be able to
read the trends, foresee
changes and plot a course
for survival

32. • Only an organization that
sees itself as a collective
intelligence emerging
from the interaction of
the diverse intelligences
of its members…
• Only this organization
will be able to
survive, bringing its
members along in a
protective envelop

33. • Individuals and their
organizations must now
form collective
intelligence to match the
diversity in their own
continuously unfolding
civilization