Can Dice Help Us Imagine the Futures of Social Enterprise?
Notes from WFS2015 in San Francisco
The World Future Society annual conference, WorldFuture 2015: Making the Future, highlights a new brand of futurism that joins proven methods with impactful action, with a program focused on creating alliances to drive innovation between the public, private and technology sectors. Held at the Union Square Hilton Hotel in downtown San Francisco, the conference attracted 1,000 participants from around the world.
We were thrilled to represent both verynice and Models of Impact at the conference with our session, “The Future of Pro-Bono”, where all three of verynice’s Global Leads (Bora, Jake, and Matt) shared a stage. In fact, this was the conference where we first announced Models of Impact was spinning out as its own consultancy wing of verynice.
In addition to discussing pro-bono, social enterprise, and the future of work, we hosted a rapid-fire workshop in order to engage participants in the practice of business model design as a methodology for scenario development. The workshop, specifically designed for the World Future Society based on their conference goals and agenda, is a version of the go-to workshop experience we use in client engagements and community workshops at Models of Impact. Here’s how it went down:
To play, we brought our trusted d20 (20-sided die), and a set of d6 (6-sided die). Prior to the event, we curated a list of 20 models of impact that we felt would be relevant for the audience to explore as well as a list of 6 emerging technologies that the conference focused on, and another list of 6 “global challenges” that have a global scale. Each of the 20 models corresponded to one of the sides on our d20. Likewise, each of the 6 emerging technologies and global challenges corresponded to one of the sides of the d6.
As a group, we rolled the d20 twice, in order to generate 2 models of impact. Next, we rolled both of the d6 at the same time, with one determining the global challenge we were tackling, and the other determining the emerging technology we would use to attempt to solve that challenge.
An example of something we rolled as a group:
Models of Impact: % Inventory + Jobs for Developing Countries. Emerging Technology: Internet of Things. Global Challenge: Space.
This set of serendipitous/generative design constraints prompted participants to invent new social enterprise that could take all of the factors the dice presented to them into account. After conceptualizing their enterprise either individually, or in groups of two, participants were prompted to write a tweet-length “elevator pitch” that introduced their new concept for a future social enterprise. The following tweet was generated using this framework:
At Models of Impact, we believe that game-based learning methodologies are the best fit for discussing the power and potential of business models. By randomizing the model selection, and juxtaposing them to various areas of interest to a community/organization, we are able to quickly and effectively understand the “edges” of an opportunity.
Further, we have found that a methodology like this is especially a great fit for futurists as it provides a unique opportunity to leverage and refine skills in scenario development and storytelling. Dice are just one way to expand the mind, and to make business models more accessible. We’re excited to continue developing new methodologies and experiment with additional forms for engagement and business design — this is just the beginning.
