Future Shaping: A Call for Conscious Leadership

John Renesch | Journal of future studies, Vol. 19 (2) Dec 2014

“Future shaping” is a phrase I’ve been using to describe how we all contribute to the
future, even if only standing by while others say and do things we don’t like. You cannot be a living human being without having some influence on the future. Some people may have a huge influence on what our collective future will look like while others may make a less noticeable contribution. But we all have some influence – good and bad – on how the future turns out. This means, in the larger sense, that we are all “future shapers” –people who play a role in how the world will be tomorrow, next year and in coming generations.

Since we are all complicit in this causal process, and cannot avoid it even if we try, why don’t we give some conscious thought to what we want rather than passively sitting around while a random or even “accidental future” reveals itself?

Why don’t we stop pretending that what we are doing has no impact on the future? Why don’t we accept responsibility for moving the world closer to the way we would like it rather than living our lives of “quiet desperation” – resigned to the inevitable, wallowing in our powerlessness to do anything about it?

https://jfsdigital.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/19-2-Essay3-Renesch.pdf