The Explorer's Wheel™

In the Chinese and Japanese languages the word for crisis (C. weiji, J. kiki 危機) is written with the combined characters for danger and opportunity. The unfolding tragedy of Fukushima presents not only Japan but also the rest of the world with a unique historical chance to embark on a bold new approach to innovation. Its driving force must be a spirit of free, fearless, and compassionate inquiry and exploration.

I write as an attorney and alliance mediator. My client is the volatile situation at Fukushima. The following is a Blueprint for Collective Action. 

Summary

If we could know the future, would we act any differently?

Today we have untapped and largely unrecognized capabilities that can help us to foresee. We have new and powerful computers. There are new potentials in social media, in particular the transformational power of guided “smart” narratives. But do we truly want to see? That is the question. What might be the consequences if our relationship to the future were to shift?

In April 2009, a killer 6.3 earthquake struck the historic town of L’Aquila in central Italy leaving 65,000 citizens homeless, damaging over 11,000 buildings, and killing 309 people.   On October 22, 2012 an Italian court held six seismologists and one public official who were members of a National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Major Risks criminally negligent for failing to warn the public. The court sentenced each of them to six years in prison and a fine totaling nine million euros (almost $ 12 million) to be paid in compensation to the survivors.