How to make sense of the world right now

As problem-solvers for planet and people, how can we make-sense of the world right now?

Despair is not an option, friends. We don’t have time for that.

In a post-truth, dis- and mis-information world where the phrase ‘common sense’ has been co-opted by evil-doers to promote inequalities, our pale blue dot needs us to ignite our luminescence in the darkness.

How to do that?

We need to come back to signals of change happening around us right now. Signals are evidence of futures in the present. So, we all need to…

·?????? See signals and make-sense of them.

·?????? Create new signals as innovators and entrepreneurs.

·?????? Be signals by sharing, talking and exploring with our communities.

Scanning for signals is a fundamental in foresight.

When you collect signals together and explore them, that’s when you can see trends emerging.

That’s how you get to reclaim your agency as a problem-solver.

With this evidence of possible futures in the present, you get to explore, challenge toxic narratives and take different decisions today.

And that, is hope in a heartbeat.

Try This At Home

I collected real, vivid signals of change and made a trend card for you to use to do some positive day-dreaming and activate hope for yourself and others.

Read it and then ask yourself:

How might this trend change what I eat?

How might this change my relationship with where I live over the next 10 years?

How might this change how my organization/start-up/business works by 2030?

Build Your Skills

Want to learn how to inspire hope? Join the Finding Hope In Signals Masterclass starting 26th February @ 15h.

Over 5 weeks x 1 hour sessions, through proven foresight processes, you’ll experience why and how finding signals, making sense of and sharing signals, is so powerful in activating hope in your communities. Discover more and sign up today: https://www.flowinaction.org/signals-masterclass

If you’d like a tailored course for your teams or wider group of stakeholders, then email [email protected] to talk through your needs and book your workshop. You’ll increase their wellbeing, their resilience and create a culture of innovation that unfolds flourishing futures.

Futuring With Mountains Session on Thursday 6th February @ 15h CET

Love mountains? Passionate about regenerative solutions? Have water play a role in any part of your value chain?

Register for this free regenerative futures session. Be part of a community. Be ‘of’ the mountain ‘off’ the mountain. Develop foresight as your essential green skill. Create better solutions.

Celebrating Bold Explorations: Strategic Planning for Eco-Social Futures

Last week, I was thrilled to run a very rapid futures thinking exercise to support strategy planning at the Global Action Research Network for a New Eco-Social Contract (GRAN-ESC) Annual General Meeting.

Using Causal Layered Analysis, we explored what alternative futures where eco-social contracts were in place might look like, to inform new ways forward as a network, what to prioritize as themes to explore and to reignite

GRAN-ESC is an initiative created by UNRISD and the Green Economy Coalition. You can join the network here: Join Us | Eco-Social Network

Get in touch if you need to support to do strategic planning with your teams to create a new pathway forward. Email [email protected]

Soul-Healing Reading: The Hesitant Feminist’s Guide to the Future

If ever there was a publication that was needed at this moment, then this is it.

I found it instrumental in my own healing journey last year and in finding hope and the courage to step into the arena once more as a problem-solver for planet and people.

It’s for all genders to read, where Prof. Ivana Milojevic reminds us that patriarchy has no gender, it’s a system that hurts women and men.

Here’s the link to download the monograph from the Journal of Futures Studies: The Hesitant Feminist's Guide to the Future * Journal of Futures Studies

OK. Well that turned into quite a big newsletter :) Thanks for reading.

Stay safe and well.

Elaine

? 2025. Elaine France.