Making The Unimaginable Happen
Thoughts and outtakes from our Grey Swan Guild’s end-of-the-year General Assembly — a gathering to determine where we are heading, with your help.
1,000 Days of Possibility
Back on March 25th, 2020, a group of disrupted dreamers got together and imagined a global collective of people that could come together on occasion to build, imagine and invent good things. At the time, we were transfixed on this thing called COVID that had just turned our lives upside-down and had become two weeks earlier a declared global pandemic by the World Health Organization. But it was so much more than a health challenge, it jumbled up and re-sorted the puzzle pieces of our very life.
We had no idea at the time what we were creating, we decided we would produce a report, we thought it might last a few months, heck we didn’t even have a name — somebody mentioned Open Forum, and it felt a little hollow. Little did we know, one thousand days later, the small community of forty of us who imagined that day, turned into a network of two thousand of us who expanded it in 2021 and now has turned into a movement of thinkers, thinkers, change agents, builders, experts, futurists and sensemakers seven-thousand people deep in 2022. We are the Grey Swan Guild.
The Worthy Milestones of 2022
Smart ambitious people sometimes tear their hair out over what could have been better, what might have happened and/or if only we had … the sense of lack can lead to progress, but when you are in it, it can feel like the cup is very half empty (see my personal post on Optimism).
Occasionally, even the most perfection-seeking among us can stand back and simmer in success. The Grey Swan Guild has succeeded where most have failed. We are in the rare majority of any kind of venture that usually fail within three years … not us. More than 90 percent of startups fail due primarily to self-destruction rather than competition. We were at risk at various points along the way too. I want to personally thank my co-founder Rob Tyrie for staying the course and a stalwart group of others who have picked up the torch and run with it. Being passionate enough to initiate is one worthy thing, AND committed enough to keep it going and growing it, well that is quite another.
We’ve had a lot to be happy about in 2022, the cup is definitely half-full, (maybe at the 3/4 line).
2023 Guild Vision — “Making The Unimaginable Happen”
One of our founding bright sparks Vicki McLeod, along with Dave Marvit and Sharon McIntyre wrote some beautiful posts back in 2020 about “making sense” of the precariously manageable, very unmanageable, and borderline unimaginable. To this day, they are some of the most frequently read stuff and they describe what we have been able to analyze and do over our first two chapters of Guild life.
We have taken the same intrepid nature of tracking, synthesizing, considering, and postulating the unimaginable and are turning it into something more active in 2023, we want to “make the unimaginable happen”.
We covered this in the reinstatement of our General Assemblies earlier this week December 21st, 2022. In our next post, we’ll cover off some of the key five motions put forward and how the votes tumbled — another example of how we are member-led.
So yes, we dream of possibility and dissect what’s next because we are members of the human race, it’s what keeps us ahead of the advancing AI machines and the criminal & morally bankrupt. And the human race and guild is filled with passion for this work. Critical thinking, strategic foresight, sensemaking, science, and futures-thinking, are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain our Guild. But applying these efforts through ventures, events, publications, networking, applied intelligence, and learning experiences, are what we stay alive for. We want to “make the unimaginable HAPPEN”. Consider some of our firsts that we will manifest, and make happen, in 2023.
The Guild’s 2023 OKRS (or metrics, or north stars or KPIS or whatever you call that thing you track change and goals with)
Using our venture parlance, we have chosen to focus on five sets of OKRS (objectives and key results) in 2023:
“Doubling the Circle” — that’s right, growth is good, when we are doing things right, we will grow and that will allow us to do more great things. We need to get bigger at all five levels to hold court with our ambition:
- at its inner core (from 2 to 4 platinum swan Guild champions)
- at the outer core (from 7 to 20 gold swans major leaders),
- the next ring out (from 350 to 600 silver swan key contributors)
- the periphery (from 7k to 15k members) and
- the outer galaxy (millions of impressions)
“Hatching Ten Cygnus Ventures” — we have teams already dedicated to these (except two):
- Compendium & Compass (knowledge & intelligence systems map/wiki)
- Cygnus Sprints (a disruptive consulting & advisory group)
- Cygnus Speaks (a representation of our members' best stage acts)
- Futuregazing for Teens (creating future agency and skills for teens)
- GSG Podcast Network (exploring new worlds and uncertainty ‘cast-wise)
- Guild Masterclasses (global-best providing great learning experience)
- Thoughts Gallery (cut through the clutter, simplifying complexity visually)
- Uncertainty book (better/bolder outcomes by navigating uncertainty)
- Weathervanes Intelligence (insight, foresight, hindsight + crosssight)
- Radar Collection (trend detection minimizing the surprise of the future)
- “Minting Eight Intelligence Reports” — Biocene Report, Future of Money, Consumer Futures, Future of MultiRealities, Post-Pandemica, 1,000 Day Radar, Regenerative Economy, DNA of Organization Next
“Hosting Eighty+ Events of Mastery” —
- Marquees (4 annually) — major multi-hour themed events
- Premieres (10) — the preview and launch of new intelligence
- Craft-Building Series (12) — honing how to be better at our crafts
- News Hours (12) — surfacing what’s relevant each month
- Ateliers (4–6) — interactive workshops on the most relevant subjects
- Town Halls (15) — think globally, gathering locally as feature cities
- Regattas (16) — new Guild member onboardings
- General Assemblies (2) — key votes, decisions, and directions
- Salons (4) — the conversation is the thing, amuse & get smarter
- Cygnus Experiments (10) — what gets generated by our ventures
“Building a Sustainable Guild Operating Model” — Repeatable Performance, Foundational Partners, Empowering Structure, Step-change Revenue patterns, Dedicated Staff & Swancoin Tokens
Too ambitious? Don’t think we can? Wanna bet….
The 2023 Guild Participation Register
Attached is what we presented to a front row of our 350 Guild leaders and contributors earlier this week — our top 5% of people that make things hum (it’s our version of the 90–9–1 community rule, contrary to popular thinking communities are never democratic they are meritocratic — driven by people who do more, think more, write more, lead more and perform more).
In the spirit of transparency, we offer the full deck as presented to key members here for anybody who would like to be involved.
In an additional bout of transparency, we have just introduced a signup sheet 2023 Guild Participation Register, we have more than 1,000+ opportunities to participate in a leading or guest role within the safety and confines of our Guild this coming year. Take this opportunity to become involved, to participate, and to co-create. Register here — Swans are wanted — the pigeons can loiter elsewhere.
- Events & Experiences — we have 125+ leadership roles and 240+ guest roles to become involved in a variety of eight different events (rows A-to-H on the Participation Register)
- Cygnus Ventures & Experiments — we have 160+ leadership roles and 690+ guest roles to play in our ventures (rows I-S on the Participation register)
- Core Leadership Roles (run across all activities) — we have 12 leadership roles and 28 director/manager roles in overall functions (rows T-@ on the Participation Register)
We humbly and honourably invite your energy, intellect, and support, let’s build something great together.
The Seven Steps of Grey Swan Guild-dom Participation
Most people can step in and play leading roles right away in the Guild, but we understand some people would love a primer on what we are all about, who is behind everything and what makes us tick.
If you are completely new to us, Guilds, Grey Swans, this post, or anything else foreign or unfamiliar here (it’s common), let’s wayfind you through seven key steps to some epiphanies:
Step 1 — Visit our Guild Website and Social Media — we are located at greyswanguild.org and are present on all key social media platforms although given our audience LinkedIn is our most active — both our parent Grey Swan Guild LinkedIn page, Cygnus Sprints consultant page, social impact Futuregazing for Teens page, Weathervanes research & intelligence page and Radar Collection trend report and futures publication page.
Step 2 — Read our Medium Pages/Stumble by our YouTube — some of our best long-form articles are located here and our video events & summaries are here as well.
Step 3 — Attend our Events & Experiences or join our Monthly Regatta Onboardings — we are just populating our 2023 calendar but sneak a peek here at what will be 80+ events deep in 2023.
Step 4 — Respond to a Weathervane — we are asking far and wide what is the legacy, ongoing impact, and future trajectory of the last three years in COVID. We change it up every three months, please chime in your Post-Pandemica thoughts and be part of our Premiere events where we disclose the results.
Step 5 — Join as a Deeper Member — obviously we will find you on Linkedin or at our events but to truly give us a glimpse of your interests and background, fill out our official member form here (or located under our parent website menu gold bar).
Step 6 — Become a Global Sensemaker — if you want to go deeper and are a keen researcher, sensemaker, futurist, foresighter or anybody that likes to go much deeper on topics, become part of now over 350 members deep Global League of Sensemakers.
Step 7 — Jump into the Deep End and declare Your Interest in Joining Efforts on our 2023 Guild Participation Register — this is where interest turns into effort and reward across 27 different possible roles, events, and ventures or simply contact us directly.
Author: Sean Moffitt, Grey Swan Guild Co-Founder and Managing Director, Futureproofing / Cygnus Sprints — striving to leave things better than when I found them.
Grey Swan Guild — The Post-Modern Guild
Making Sense of the World’s Biggest Challenges and Next Grey Swans — through content, experiences, intelligence, learning, community and ventures 🦢. Come see what we are all about: https://www.greyswanguild.org/
