Co-creating our Future
Conduct Co-creating Our Future workshops with newbie and experienced young people and mature people, based on given future scenarios. The newbies and experienced ones will have to see themselves and their potential in contributing and sharing in the given future scenarios. Additional kudos will be given to those who not only find opportunities that fulfull themselves, but also create opportunities for their peers. I think we pigeonhole young people to do the jobs that exist, instead of first asking 'what can you do if you are working 100% full capacity? The outcome is to have participants visualise their full potential in working and contributing, and also emphasize that we are all connected in a larger picture and future together.
Written by Khin Tye
For the given scenario, if the participant creates employment opportunities for others, more 'kudos' will be given. New positive values such as collaboration, sharing, creative thinking in a 21st century future scenario are rewarded.
The cocreation facilitation would also generate ideas for work or job skills needed for the future scenarios.
I think this idea might succeed by making young people think beyond themselves and current limitations. A significant % of future jobs in 2020 are not even created yet, so this will be a leapfrog into future work. Young people can also see themselves as creators of work, and be positively energised by themselves creating meaning and purpose in what they do.
What?
- Future Scenario employment toolkit following the example from 'Forum for the Future' (see below)
- Co-creation workshops based on future trends using the Future Scenario and Task-based approach (see below for links to example from Forum for the Future)
Who?
Participants consisting of young people and experienced professionals.
Persona: Jade is 17 year old in Singapore. She is in the top girls school and has always been a dutiful daughter, and good student with 10 As in her last GCSE exams. Her parents, like most Chinese parents want her to be a doctor. She knows that she can do more and like the creative arts but her parents would not allow her to think otherwise.
Henry is 14 years old living in London's most exclusive neighbourhood. His father expects him to go to Oxford like him, and be a barrister. He loves studying history and law, but is he using all his talents? Henry loves air-fix.
Akin is 15 years old and live in a favela in Brazil. Just last week, two of his friends died in gang violence. He is angry that his teachers say that he won't be more than a shelf-stacker. He knows that he is a leader because he has organised his gangs, and is street-smart and observant. He does not want to die like his friends, but how can he use his street skills?
Luca is 30 years old and is an app entrepreneur in Rome. He loves his work and want to help young people realise their dream and potential. Luca used to live in a tough neighbourhood and trained to be a footballer. He was injured and found another outlet by designing a 'football' app that made him millions. He wants young people to realise their full talents. Luca did not know he had such creative technical talent if not for being laid up in the hospital from his injuries.
How?
All the people above are invited to a Co-creating the Future workshop. In the beginning of the workshop, each person is asked to list all the best qualities of themselves, what they like to do. They have to list to list the good and bad qualities that others have said of them, and reframe them in a positive way, or 'bin them - disregard the negatives'.
The participants now form a team to work on a future scenario together. They must think of themselves as a 'future self' in 2025 who is 100% positive, caring and helpful and make use of everything positive and all talents in themselves. What roles of work would they take on in the future scenario that would make use of all of themselves? What other jobs would need to be created to help with the scenario?
Future Scenario and task-based approach
The future scenario is in 2025. Technology is now freely available such as wearable technology, google glass (much cheaper), drones for delivery, biosynthesized materials, driverless cars, etc.
A new disease with no known cure has just been deteced in a remote part of Africa. People are dying and medical help by foot is slow to reach the village. There is a high likelihood of the virus spreading quickly if not stopped soon because the tribespeople are nomadic and also trade with townspeople.
In working on the scenario, Henry and Luca discover that Henry can make use his air-fix skills to help design a drone to deliver medication to the patients. Henry is now starting work as a drone developer. Luca uses his mentoring skills to help Henry with learning about technology. Jade who does not really want to be a doctor and wants to be a fashion designer wants to design overalls for the medical team using bio-synthetic material. The overalls will change colour if it becomes infected by the deadly virus. Jade is now a wearable technologist. Akin can finally make of his leadership skils and organise the medical teams and drone delivery of drugs, this time of the life-saving kind. Akin makes use of the web, cloud technology to connect and organise. Akin calls himself medical operations officer. Luca himself finds that he can now start more companies and create jobs in wearable technology, drones, biomedical technology, etc. All these are done to help with a situation that is global and affects us all because we are all connected.
Outcome
Back in 2014, the young people realise that they can think outside of themselves and be more than what family, teachers and friends tell them. By visualising and acting from the best part of themselves, they will make use of their talents and do what they love to do.
LInks for examples
See example of scenario-based approach (for the web)
Another example of Future Scenario-based approach toolkit and workshoip (courtesy of Forum for the Future for a future retail environment).
Inspiring ideas from team
UrbanRevision - see the public space as a powerful, living system that needs to support human beings at all stages of the life cycle.
ThriveLabs - uses envisioning for meaning and purpose of being
Who does this idea benefit, who are the main players and what's in it for them?
Young people in the target age group with no experience of work, and also those with some experience of work. The workshop will also include experienced professionals to form a diverse team for the scenario building. Young people will be energized by being connected to their own passion, and interests, and have meaning and purpose. Employers and oragnisations will get ideas for future work-roles and jobs that make use of skills and passions as articulated by young people themselves.How is your idea specifically increasing access to employment opportunities and pathways for young people?
The idea empowers young people to positively visualise the best part of themselves to fulfill a positive future, without a current mind-set of limitations.What early, lightweight experiment can you try out in your own community to find out if the idea will meet your expectations?
Invite a few participants with the targetted profiles and conduct the co-creation workshop using scenario-building and co-creation techniques.What skills, input or guidance are you keen to receive from the OpenIDEO community to help you build out or refine your idea further?
Research and notes on future scenarios. Scenario-builing toolkit.The idea emerged from:
- An individual
How do you envision your idea being implemented?
- Keen to prototype it, find partners and pursue implementation
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