LENGTH MATTERS:
How might we bring a long-term perspective to near-term decisions?
Consumers, organizational leaders and politicians make daily decisions that will affect our families, communities, prosperity and habitat for decades into the future. How would our culture and world be different if we made decisions in consideration of the well-being of our children’s children, rather than only looking at the next tweet, fiscal quarter or electoral cycle?
February’s DwD explored approaches to over-coming “short-termism” with a long-term view to make our resources and systems more sustainable.
- Unpack the assumptions that keep us locked into a short time frame
- See what our decisions might look like if framed in a long view
- Explore how a values shift might reframe our perspective
- Jam ideas on new incentive structures that could influence our behaviour
References:
- 2050: What if we get it right? (CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks)
- >Roger Martin on Fixing Corporate Short-termism
- Obama rejects smog regulation to avoid election year controversy
- Long Now Foundation seminars and blog
- Amazon shows advantage in planning long term
- The role of long-term thinking in Creating Shared Value
- A report on short-termism and corporate ethics
Images from the session
How do our values drive our decisions? How might that skew us towards a short-term view?
What incentive structures might shift values such that our decisions will consider a long-term view?
One Comment
Proposal for a 1000 year project for Riggisberg cemetery in Switzerland to propose long term thinking. See YouTube video “Cemeteries and how to give them a life, Simplified”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnrNP-Kmeu8