how does it work? an illustrative template
New Orleanians discuss how long they plan to live in the climate-vulnerable city at a 3DL pilot dinner, Spring, 2024. “The dinner was constructed so thoughtfully and with intentional planning, and Andrew facilitated the discussion with great skill and a light touch. The result was a robust and enlightening discussion that I continue to seriously reflect upon.” - Warwick Sabin, President and CEO of Deep South Today
PHASE I: Lay The Groundwork (6m)
The 3DL Team collaborates with the community and climate experts to prepare an initial community climate profile, stakeholder list, and digital twin for future scenario simulation.
The 3DL Team then facilitates an ongoing series of inclusive community meals, inviting stakeholders across demography, sector, and the political, techno-economic, and cultural realms. The meals first focus on personal experiences and stories to engage head and heart and deepen community trust and cohesion. Participants review the community climate profile and engage the digital twin and future scenario simulations to learn what future outcomes are likely to result from present choices. Specially-tailored exercises help participants process grief and map personal and community agency. Participants break bread together with open reflection.
3DL offers corollary workshops to equip dinner series participants with tools to educate themselves on the emerging challenges, such as embodied systems mapping and design and exploration of how new technologies such as decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), blockchain, and web3 might help them deliberate about their shared future. 3DL partners them with experts to understand coming challenges and opportunities, and ultimately identify and initiate community leaders into the next stage.
While the dinner series continues throughout the full three year process. The first six months culminate in a summit to connect all participants up to that point, review what was learned, share next steps, and invite further involvement. The dinners and summit also serve to identify and invite 8-12 individuals to complete a local 3DL Council, representing the community’s cultural, techno-economic, and sociopolitical realms, and sectoral and demographic diversity. Uniquely, the Each Council also gives voting roles to individuals on the local 3DL Councils of 2+ sister communities, thus forming a new globally integrated decision-making infrastructure to address this globally integrated challenge. All of the Council’s work going forward is facilitated by an outside, neutral professional mediator.
In a grief exercise, participants place stones on the imagined year they, loved ones, & their community might be gone.
Phase II: Prepare the Pathway (18m)
The 3DL Council launches with a two-day facilitated retreat. While the dinner series continues, the Council convenes experts once a month for a year to educate the public in forums on (a) the community’s historical purpose and goals (“telos”); (b) how it is currently living or failing to live into that telos, and (c) its challenges and opportunities in a three-degree future. The focus is on questions and co-learning rather than solutions or preconceived agendas. The Council also conducts closed workshops with these experts to creatively explore their advice towards their eventual plan for three-degree living, the Pathway Agreement .
By the end of this workshop series, the Council appoints a larger Circle of Stakeholders to specific tasks for expanded participation. For the final six months of this phase, the Council, with the input of the Circle of Stakeholders, conducts intensive work in four 2-day sessions, between which they will engage ad hoc consultation groups, external partners, and experts to develop a Pathway Agreement working draft.
Stockholm residents share a dinner to discuss their community’s future leadership, Fall, 2023.
Phase III: The Jubilee Year (18m)
The Council publishes and broadly promulgates the Pathway Agreement working draft for community education, evaluation, and feedback. Engaging the public as broadly as possible will not only produce additional good thinking, but continue to build the political will necessary for eventual Pathway implementation. Simultaneously, the Council seeks input and investment from new external partners and networks of expertise to connect the community to new global economic opportunities. The Council produces multiple iterations of the working draft for further review and iteration. At the end of the Jubilee Year, the the Council finalizes and publishes the community’s Pathway Agreement, which includes specific plans for implementation, accountability, review, and iteration.
New Orleans residents laugh about the city’s gifts that they hope the next generation will enjoy, Winter, 2023.
Phase IV: Forge the Pathway (ongoing)
With the Pathway Agreement in hand, and a foundation of political will and legitimacy, the community begins implementation. It has now established an ongoing, globally integrated, action and decision-making infrastructure. The Council steadfastly oversees and keeps the public apprised of progress on the Pathway Agreement. It reviews, iterates, and updates the Pathway Agreement as the physical and economic circumstances evolve, including periodic celebrations and outcome evaluations, insights and learnings, and new challenges ahead that require adjusting the Pathway Agreement. The frequency and pattern of this will be decided in the Agreement, but at a minimum it would be suggested to agree to and publish an updated iteration every five years and in the wake of any catastrophe.