Feeling Into Further Futures Together
It begins with a stark and unambiguous assertion: Foresight and Futures Thinking needs an intervention. Founder, Field Catalyst, and Ecosystem Coordinator Michelle Shevin states that much of the futures thinking seen in institutions like intelligence agencies and multinational corporations “starts with a lie”. She argues for de-centering traditional practices where “Warning signs become sites for new business development” and “Urgent issues are recast as terrain for potential industrial complexes”. Instead, she calls for recognizing the centrality of relationship and love to “dramatically expand our sense of the possible,” “moving together toward different models and new stories”. This conversation transitions from foresight-as-extrapolation to “imagining what the future could feel like if we were in it together”.
“Imagine what the future could feel like if we were in it together.”
Drawing from her work, Michelle articulates that building a livable future doesn’t require a rigid plan. What is needed is a vision of a future in which we can collectively thrive and experience collective liberation. This vision, she contends, is significantly missing from dominant narratives.
Key insights from this discussion, moving from “foresight-as-extrapolation to imagining what the future could feel like if we were in it together”, include:
- Reframing the future as a psychological space where uncertainty is a source of strategic motive to dream collectively.
- The call to center ourselves in the power we have, individually and collectively, as intentional “co-travelers”.
- Building a better future involves perceiving what wants to emerge through working relationally together.
- The belief that another world is possible, but we have to believe it.
- The importance of “feeling into” future possibilities, valuing embodied knowledge and intuition.
Michelle Shevin is the Principal and Founder of the Future Preservation Society. Her work is born from the clarity that progress might sometimes mean “getting out of the way of the capacity for right relationship”. She believes the revolutionary change needed is potentiated by how we take care of each other. Michelle seeks to integrate diverse perspectives and tools like music, movement, and ecology into collectively making sense of our past, present, and future.
This conversation is essential for anyone seeking to navigate transformational times with integrity and a genuine desire to build a future where all interconnected life can thrive. It invites us to embrace Relational Thriving and Recentering the Sacred as we feel into further futures together.
Watch the full interview to gain transformative insights and be rallied for a world that needs us to believe it is possible!
