Many things changed in 2009. In the wake of the turbulence in the financial markets, the one thing that has emerged with any certainty, is the reality of climate change and its potential to change our lives.  On the eve of the historic Climate Conference in Copenhagen, we will explore the opportunities offered by responding proactively to the challenges ahead.

We’re designing a vision of a sustainable society that we’re going to take to the COP15. It’s time to take the lead and create positive vision of a sustainable, equitable and ecologically sound future - Ecotopia. We are holding a Cineforum, on 4th December 2009, an innovative conference approach to help you to identify and shape your own part in creating the paradigm-shifting strategies and solutions to designing and building Ecotopia. Combining powerful documentary films, insights from avant-garde thought leaders, cross-disciplinary workshops and carefully selected delegates, this is the seminal London event contributing to COP 15 and enabling you to architect the future.

Why are we doing this? We’re doing this to because I’ve had enough of living in the paradigm of tribalism. I feel this acutely every day. I run a knowledge creation and dissemination business and work between all sectors; this week I’ve met with a corporate communications director, a government official, young people from East London, a broadcaster, a banker, a web innovator and a leading figure in the fight against violent extremism.  

There are two positions we all share: firstly a lament for the increasing crises that trouble the world: the economic downturn, climate change, the clash of civilisations, chronic poverty and conflict. Secondly we share the notion that our specific obstacles and opportunities, our own narratives, are not shared by the others. Perhaps that should read, Others.

Fundamentally, the global crises are all related; they belong in the same paradigm and that is the same paradigm of the second shared position, the paradigm of tribalism. Tribalism breeds insularity and the refusal to recognise the worth in things that are not created by us; not recognising opportunities for expansion, but seeing only threats; not recognising that our narratives are all part of the some context. It is these separate tribal narratives that impede our progress towards a cohesive and sustainable world.

We are all guilty. Sustainability consultants have a different narrative to marketing directors. Ministers follow a narrative at odds with the Twitterati. Company CEOs are within a narrative that is out of synch with the grassroots activist. And each of us thinks we are right.

But here’s a trend: while governments and civil society become less and less tribal and begin to engage with other narratives, businesses are becoming more and more tribal. Like scientists, governments now understand feedback loops – with global security issues, governments have learnt so much. They recognise that what must be challenged is ideology formation, the ideology of tribalism. Violent and destructive ideologies are a part of our own character, the character of humanity – wherever we were born and whomever we were born to. This is our issue and we need to deal with it – we are dealing with it. Similarly, governments bailed out the banks, recognising that they are part of the same character that is human civilisation.

By comparison, businesses have been retreating into themselves. In some studies, charitable donations have decreased by 52% just in the last year[1][1], and only 26% of business leaders cite climate change as a concern[2][2] compared to 40% in 2007. The great US corporations have been withdrawing their staff even from Europe. Facing competition from unfamiliars such as web 2.0 advertising, new energies and the new breed of frugal consumers, they recede inside the comfort of their own caves. Perhaps they are waiting for governments to bring these new tribal packs into line.

But governments can’t take all the responsibility. To begin with, they don’t have the capacity. Time and again history shows us that it is business that leads the way. I once thought I’d found my tribe, the tribe of social entrepreneurs. But they rejected me, because I wanted to make money. Thus I realised why this was an arbitrary delineation. Businesses inherently lead social change. It’s true they create desire and demand, but they reflect the zeitgeist in that creation.

The separation of society and business is a modern phenomenon. Trade has enhanced the standard of living of peoples across the world more so than governments. Trade drove imperialism, the terrible birth pains of a fabulous globalisation. And now, we are working together to break out of this tendency to separate our commercial narratives from our social and moral ones; the success of the Clean Development Mechanism[3][3] shows us this. The CDM was designed by policy-makers to fit the needs of business. We should learn from this – this is a good direction.

Businesses are also the success story of entrepreneurship, of individuality, of the search for risk and reward. Just as Wangari Maathai[4][4] has returned to the roots of her trees to create peace in East Africa, let us now return to the roots of big business to create a paradigm shift in our damaged world. Governments can only do so much to encourage entrepreneurship, innovation and investment in technology – isn’t this supposed to be the strength of business? Just as government has already realised, business needs to now trust that different industries and sectors, these false tribes, are aspects of one personality, of one character: the character of humanity.

I asked a risk manager I met earlier this week to define reputation. He said it was an assessment of character. To me, this was poignant and I thought, how will the character of our generation be assessed by future generations? As businesses know, reputation is an investable asset and it’s time that we invested in that asset.

So when we recognise that we are not divergent tribes, we can get on to working together to design the new product that is glaringly in demand: a new paradigm that doesn’t harm human wellbeing and progress or damage the planet. As one tribe, we can see that governments are the designers, businesses are the technical staff (from the biggest businesses to the smallest ones like me) and citizens are the investors. Whether as taxpayers or customers. This is harsh, but let’s face this, accept this and get to work.

We can’t overthrow a paradigm, but we can shift it, and we can shift how we use its tools – our toolkit is wide and flexible, whether technology, subsidies, trade, education, taxation – there are many many more, but that is not the subject of this post. The subject of this post is that we must borrow tools from each other. And enable the creation of new tools – how many tools have we not thought of yet because we are stifling thinking? We must enable innovators, be they in business, technology or society – they have the solutions for all of us, for the tribe of humanity. And while our population in industrial nations dwindles, we must recognise that people in developing countries are the investors of the future. We can only do this when we finally see ourselves as one tribe.

I want to stop having the same conversations. I want to get away from the past and I want to begin designing and building the future. And I need guidance.

A friend of mine who loves dogs recently read to me from The Philosopher and the Wolf[5][5]. Mark Rowlands, the eponymous philosopher (not the wolf), insightfully puts it that humans are the only animals that follow unstable leaders. Dogs and other animals sniff out unbalanced individuals and reject them – we put them into positions of power.

Part of the paradigm shift we need is a change in the way we think of leadership. Mark Rowlands is not wrong about power. Firstly, we need to move away from these very notions of power; this is the sort of masculine thinking that led us to believing we were masters of the Earth. We should be embracing influence and engagement and looking for leadership, ingenuity and innovation from amongst the ranks of human talent. The situation is too urgent to wait for a leader or defer to a few individuals, especially when we have still to prove that we’re good at choosing the best leaders – we must all become leaders, it is critical that we catalyse an entire generation to take initiative.

We face a common threat. A threat we created. Using the same attitudes that created that threat to neutralise it, is counter-intuitive. Fair Knowledge, along with Tomorrow’s Company and the Presidential Climate Action Project, is finding a new way. While separate tribal narratives are an impediment to human progress, and in the face of a threat that will spare not a single one of us, we need to transcend our separate tribal narratives and create a unifying story, a single narrative. On the 4th December 2009, we are bringing together corporates, innovators, policymakers, scientists, communicators and green gurus, in a Cineforum event to help us create this singular vision of a future that we are calling Ecotopia. You are welcome to join us and be part of our global Supertribe.

Jobeda Ali
www.cineforum.co.uk