Over the last 200 years, the Industrial Age has made a billion people super rich but left the other 5 billion and our planet much poorer.
With a global GDP per capita of US$ 10,000 we have the potential to create a sustainable world where 100% of the population lives comfortably and in harmony with our environment. However, this would require a fundamental shift in our mindsets – the “constructs” that drive our attitudes and actions.
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Go to TopThe entire C-Book revolves around reframing and reinventing fundamental constructs that our lives revolve around. Given below are the 7 constructs with an indicative (and by no means comprehensive) set of questions that we need to address:
Success: Do we need to move beyond material measures of success – wealth, market cap, GDP etc. to more holistic measures of success in the new age?
Learning: Do we need more integrative, just-in-time and lifetime approaches to learning going forward?
Work: Will the new age call for ‘whole’ jobs rather than specialized silos? Will the nature of the employment relationship change?
Consumption: Is boosting consumption the answer to economic progress? Do we need a different approach to consumption, leisure and entertainment?
Wellness: Do approaches to healthcare need to be more holistic, treating the entire human being, and more open to alternative systems of healing in the coming age?
Governance: Do we need to rethink governance at all levels – individuals, corporations and social organizations, countries and the world - to able to steer us forward?
Globalization: Do we need more localized patterns of life and consumption to make the world more sustainable? Does the internet actually support a life oriented around the local community and telecommuting to the rest of the world?
This site is set up as a C-Book (Collaborative Book) to create a community – people like you – who can share their ideas and experiences on what beliefs and assumptions – "Constructs" – need to change to usher in the new age. The C-Book will be created in three phases – each phase lasting several months.
Phase 1: Research & Insights will engage the entire community in exploring and discovering answers to fundamental questions that shape our attitudes and actions today. We will collectively generate insights on how they need to be reshaped / reinvented for the new age. We will actively seek and share real life examples of people and institutions that have put these insights into practice.
There are three primary vehicles we will use: a) your responses to my own weekly posts; b) your answers to questions that we as a community will raise; and, c) contributions from thought leaders and practitioners who exemplify new ways of being. More vehicles may emerge as we go along.
Phase 2: Developing the chapters will start when the structure of the final C-Book emerges and we have enough content and insights to develop the chapters. I will post the draft of every chapter on the site for community feedback and refinement. The entire C-Book will be created using this process.
Phase 3: Publishing the C-Book should be a relatively painless process after this. Since, the editors for the book will be, closely involved with this whole process, the final edit and publish should happen quickly and smoothly.
While publishing the C-Book is the tangible outcome, I see this entire process as one of engaging the best and brightest minds to address the fundamental issues of the world today.
The problems facing humanity are too large and too complex to be left in the hands of the few. Each one of us has to take personal responsibility for the world we leave behind for our future generations. The New Constructs is an opportunity for us to connect, collaborate and co-create the world we intend to rebuild for posterity.
- Success
- Learning
- Work
- Consumption
- Wellness
- Governance
- Globalization
