1. Wolfgang Lenz
wolfgang@wolfganglenz.de
CEC’21

2. You are designing the CEC
of the „Facebook
Generation“

3. For which environment?

4. The 21st century will be a
„fuzzy“ century

5. fuzzy:

6. “not clear, distinct, or precise;
blurred”

7. The end of the bi-polar world has
not brought about a multi-polar
world, but a multi-actor world.

8. „Polar“ still suggested some
kind of focus, of order

9. „Multi-actor“ suggests

10. fuzzyness

11. The world is flat –

12. What happens in one place
can have repercussions in
other, also far away places

13. Think: The Danish
Mohammed cartoons

14. The churches are flat, too

15. In Finland, after a TV talk
show, tens of thousands left
the church with a mouse click
within a few weeks

16. A world of
near-constant disruption

17. Right-wing populism:
„transformation fatigue“

18. The „Big Shift“

19. The „NOW“ world.

20. Speed

21. The Internet as „accelerator“

22. Think: Tunesia and Egypt

23. The „VUCA“ world

24. Volatility
Uncertainty
Complexity
Ambiguity

25. The „complexity-vulnerability
dilemma“

26. The more complex systems
get, the easier it is to bring
about substantial damage by
a small number of people.

27. Think: 9/11

28. The more complex systems
get, the more difficult it is and
the more people it takes to
bring about intentional
positive change.

29. Think: Climate change

30. The bottom line: Vulnerability
increases with complexity

31. Little chance for getting back
into calm waters anytime soon

32. How to deal with this world?

33. Two schools of thought:

34. A. Centralize & control

35. Problem: Costly and
increasingly impossible

36. B. Embrace complexity &
tolerate ambiguity

37. Problem:
Requires a new mindset

38. „Super-empowered individuals“
Thomas Friedman (2000)

39. The „greedy“ ones:
George Soros vs. the £

40. (Update: Not so greedy
anymore)

41. The „angry“ ones:
Osama Bin Laden

42. (No update so far)

43. Today, we are all „potentially
super-empowered“ people

44. Think: WikiLeaks

45. Think:
Facebook, Twitter & Tahrir
Square

46. Nasser and Sadat meet
Mubarak in heaven

47. They ask him:

48. „Bullets or poison?“

49. His answer:

50. „Facebook!“

51. By consequence:
We depend on the
moral/ethical) compliance of
everybody. We can‘t afford to
leave anybody behind

52. „Complexity and compliance“
is a key issue

53. Tectonic changes in the
media landscape

54. „We are the people formerly
known as the audience.“

55. From knowledge stocks to
knowledge flows

56. Innovation often occurs at the
periphery

57. Bring the edge to the core

58. 3 Ts:
Talent
Technology
Tolerance

59. Talent scarcity, talent
attraction will be an issue –
also for the churches - in the
near future

60. … so what about the churches?

61. The „return of religion“ revisited:
A secularist backlash looming?

62. The churches can touch the
biggest number of people
(after the media, that is) and
are still seen as experts in
moral/ethical standards

63. IF

64. IF

65. If they don‘t gamble away
their credibility

66. What people expect is

67. „brand truth“

68. What‘s on the package
must be in the package

69. One of the key elements of
success of the churches over
time was that they were at times
out of sync with societal change.

70. One of the key elements of
failure of the churches over time
was that they were at times out
of sync with societal change.

71. Problem:
How to decide, how to discern?

72. Contradicting expectations

73. Sameness
Otherness

74. Foremost, EU institutions
expect „sameness“

75. But: Too much „sameness“
makes you obsolete in the
end

76. People expect „otherness“

77. „Sameness“ and „otherness“
need to be reflected in the
structures of CEC‘21

78. Complicated identity:
In the world, but not of the world

79. What does that mean for
CEC‘21?

80. Advice I:
Start with the end

81. Advice II:
Not only think about a transition
period but also about a
transition team

82. Advice III:
Design the communication
process
Act as „living letters“ in 2012

83. Start with the end:
What are output categories for
CEC‘21?

84. Diplomacy
Lobby
Advocacy
Synergy
Solidarity
Networking
Think Tank
Orientation
Reconciliation

85. Impact

86. Diagram I: Impact-speed-
sameness-otherness-control

88. No-brainers:
From Commissions to more
flexible structures
From Geneva to Brussels

89. Diagram II: office structure

91. Communication is key

92. The challenge is not how to
protect privileged knowledge

93. But rather how to gain and
keep access to relevant flows
of knowledge

94. Think of „the cloud of
witnesses“ as

95. „a cloud of bloggers“

96. … and what about the
structures?

97. Robert Bellah: „The church
should be the church.“

98. Diagram III: membership &
decision making

101. Don‘t forget „the Gonzales
question“: What is the role of
CEC‘21 as a global player in the
global context?

102. Further reading:
John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, Lang Davison:
The Power of Pull
How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion
Basic Books
New York
2010

104. Wolfgang Lenz
wolfgang@wolfganglenz.de