Transformation Without Resistance
Beyond Smart Cities
This video demystifies city transformation. It explains how we can deal with natural human resistance, while advancing smart and intelligent cities.
Have you ever dreamed about a world that effortlessly brings you:
to a place where you want to be?
to a job that you want to do?
to a community that you would like to belong to?
to a day that would fulfill you beyond your imagination?
I am sure you have! I imagine a world that fundamentally balances:
nature and technology
growth and sustainability
production and recycling
work and satisfaction
relationships and ego
time and awareness
and many other critical aspects of life!
The balance is what we have been losing on our journey of evolution.
Essential Questions
We have created outstanding innovations and scattered them right around us. So now, we have left ourselves to be the last in this never-ending race for the illusory happiness and fulfilment outside. Obviously, the time has come to finally look back to ourselves – to our humanity – and ask these three essential question:
Why now more than ever we need to refocus our energy and dedication on our own humane evolution?
How to regain the balance between the word that we create and our natural deep-rooted humanity?
And finally, what shall each of us change in the way how we live and perceive this reality?
I am fascinated to see how my good friends and former teammates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the MIT Media Lab, City Science group that is led by an inspiring architect and city visionary, Kent Larson, have addressed the challenge.
Cities WITHOUT
What a brilliant perspective! Very timely one and urgently needed right now to ignite profound transformations in all the essential urban context.
Mobility WITHOUT Cars
Energy WITHOUT Carbon
Medicine WITHOUT Doctors
Learning WITHOUT Schools
Food WITHOUT Soil
Economies WITHOUT Currency
Access WITHOUT Ownership
What’s next?
The next is to empower every individual, community, society, business, organization, city, region, country, continent, planet, and galaxy, if needed, to achieve this fundamental change in shifting the evolutionary perspective. How?
Transformation WITHOUT Resistance
We all know that almost every change comes with a natural resistance to it. Of course, we don’t resist to activities and things that bring us joy and happiness. But far too often we neglect the importance of taking a good care for our basic ingredients of life on this planet.
WITHOUT – is a natural call for action.
A pointer to our collective mind that highlights an unnoticed truth, which is – that besides producing of more and crowding our lives, we have to look for what has to be removed. Just like in a garden. We have to remove weeds, so that the rest would grow the way we wanted. Now, it is time to remove all the weeds from how we think about and act in our cities. As we start doing that, what does appear first? Yes, you are right, the resistance to change! So, here we go again, if we really want to move ahead on this new trajectory without any trouble, we need what?
Transformation WITHOUT Resistance
And here comes the great news, there is created and available science-driven Transforming Framework that includes 8 applicable tools for every individual, community, organization, business, and city to apply already today. It has been used to facilitate various transformations in diverse contexts already on five continents, engaging large audiences and making sustainable changes in their lives.
For example, we decreased the resistance for bicycle commuters in Greater Boston Area by introducing a Biking Tourney, involving 239 employees from 14 companies, including Google, MIT, Volpe, iRobot, Boston Children’s Hospital and others, who in 6 weeks together rode almost 30 000 miles, attention – only to work and back, no holiday rides or other deviations!
We also reduced the resistance that the users of Higi kiosks had across the United States. The kiosks are located in supermarkets and pharmacies and they allow people to measure their health related vitals, which is great and presumably good for everyone. However, the challenge was to convince the anonymous users that it would be better to keep their measurements recorded, so that they would see their progress. After deploying our transformation, the resistance went down and conversion rates went up by 20 to 32%.
Magic?
No, just a proper way to demystify transformation and put it into practice.
Cities, are you ready? We are!
Transformation WITHOUT Resistance
And now coming back to where we started: Have you ever imagined a city that seemingly effortlessly brings everything that’s best for you and everyone around?
See you soon in that city!
