Deepening Three Horizons
This embodied reworking of the Three Horizons framework adds a three dimensional element that allows people to see beyond the ‘boundaries’ of the framework, recognising cycles of time as alive and continous.
What we put forward here is less ‘tool’ and more ‘framework’ for deepening collective conversations about the layers of past, present, transitions and futures within present systems. It is a framework for opening and deepening reflective practices as we act out collective imagination processes.
We think a vertical lens of the Three Horizons can give us a view that allows for deeper explorations of moments in time - a viewpoint that is much more about digging into the multiple layers and teasing out the threads between them.
Tool: Framework
Duration: ~ 30-120 mins
Contributor: Ingrid Burkett from the Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation in Queensland, Australia. She is a social designer, designing processes, products and knowledge that deepen social impact and facilitate social innovation.
On This Page
Deepening Three Horizons
Lineage
Explanation and Context
Layered (Re) imaginings of Systems using Three Horizons
The Layered Three Horizons Framework
About the Practitioners
Lineage
This tool is inspired by the Three Horizons framework developed by Bill Sharpe and the IFF. We highly recommend that you explore the resources collated here before diving in, if you are not already familiar.
In the process of exploring this framework, we played with an embodied version of it. We’ve found that experimenting with three dimensional versions of the Three Horizons has shifted ours and others’ understanding. We ‘took it off the page’ forming the horizons using different coloured ropes in which people moved around. We loved how people started to tell stories as they moved through the framework. They picked up the ropes and told of their experiences of the ‘horizons’ moving. For example, during Covid lockdowns people felt Horizon Three became more visible, angles shifted and the intersections between H1 and H3 moved closer because of necessity. Others spoke of the ‘snapping back’ that happened when lockdowns finished and the status quo of H1 reasserted itself.
People also felt that seeing beyond the ‘boundaries’ of the framework is important so that the cycles of time are recognized as both alive and continuous. As conversations got deeper there were also harder stories - about how unidimensional horizons can become, how difficult it can be to present different versions of the present let alone any futures, about whether transitions and futures would be any different for those who are already excluded from participating in positive presents.
Through these experiences we have found ourselves increasingly drawn to exploring how frameworks can stimulate deeper conversations, and how we can change our perspectives, grow different stories and new possibilities for action. We see an opportunity to shift perspectives around frameworks - away from the uses we see where they are put forward as static representations of a particular perspective on reality; and towards a 'making' orientation that uses them as a canvas that helps us collectively challenge, play with, and embody different versions of the present and of possible futures. Our hypothesis is that this approach can support the deepening of collective conversations about the layers of past, present, transitions and futures within present systems. So, one idea that emerged was that this framework could be seen from both a horizontal lens (across the horizons), and a vertical lens. Bill Sharpe articulates this when he says “each horizon in effect is developing a different quality already existing in the present, and which might come to become more prominent depending on how people choose to act - to maintain the familiar or pioneer the new”. It is this lens that we find ourselves exploring more and more as we grow collective imagination practices with our communities of partners.
Explanation and Context
We often find people have a view of imagination that takes it out into the distant future - it’s described as speculative, utopian, conceptual… and really not very practical.
In workshops we have found a tension between people focusing on the present in terms of ‘what’s not working’, and then flipping towards an imaginary future, one that can feel far away, with some describing it as being in the realms of fantasy.
We think the most interesting opportunity to concentrate our collective imaginations is on what we could do, how we could be, what we could try in the present. We are keen to explore the collective imagination of the now as an ongoing set of practices to support action.
Layered (Re) imaginings of Systems using Three Horizons
What we put forward here is less ‘tool’ and more ‘framework’ for deepening collective conversations about the layers of past, present, transitions and futures within present systems.
It is a framework for opening and deepening reflective practices as we act out collective imagination processes. For example, conversations about futures of ‘the’ economy are often presented as singular - but there are many economies across human history, and also many economies in the present that can be (and sometimes are) amplified or invested with more attention as models for transitions and futures.
We think a vertical lens of the Three Horizons can give us a view that allows for deeper explorations of moments in time - a viewpoint that is much more about digging into the multiple layers and teasing out the threads between them.
Vertical View (Layers): Looking at the Layers of Systems - Presents, Transitions and Futures) and imaginging collectively what making, generating 'better' means. Horizontal View (Horizons): The Horizons view, focuses on declining, transition and desireable future and their interconnections to what we do and imagine now
Focusing in on the layers within present systems provides much deeper contextual nuance through which to unpack complexities, whilst also showing where these are already offering opportunities to plant seeds for Transition Systems and/or lay foundations for Future Systems. These views may be overlapping but could be represented like this:
Three layered diagrams, with coloured horizon lines crossing between them. Three Layered Perspectives. First diagram: Past/Present Layers / Infinite Past Systems / Present Systems. Second diagram: Transitional Layers / Transition Systems. Third diagram: Layers of Diverse Futures / Future Systems / Infinite Future Systems
If we focus in on the first of these layered landscapes, then, we start to see the interactions between the horizons (H1-H3) and the layers (L1-L3).
Interactions between Horizons H1-H3 and Layers L1-L3
H1 What is showing cracks? Is not fit-for-purpose?
L1 Transitioning in Present
H2 What can we do / see / make that offers different ways of doing and being in to better futures?
L2 Seeds of Action and Learning
H3 What exists already or could be planted that could seed better futures?
L3 Reimagining Foundations
Using this layered perspective to support collective imagination conversations or workshops could be scaffolded with:
exploring perspectives of what constitutes the ‘matter’ of the layer; or
opening up questions that lie at the heart of each layer; or
examining the tensions that are inherent in imagining the present through each layer.
Below we outline one way each of these scaffolds could be shaped up to support deeper collective imagination explorations.
The Layered Three Horizons Framework
-
Perspectives
This layer is both the most visible and contested (at least, on the surface). It is where the cracks in structures intersect with potentials for transitioning to 'better' systems. There are different perspectives on the nature and potential of different forms of shifts needed to addresss past and present wrongs, and to build on nascent opportunities in order to shape something better.
Questions
What has led us to the present moment and what can we draw on from our histories in order to grow potential, recofnise the value of decay, and challenge the staus quo?
What do we need to acknowledge, discuss, learn from if we are to really engage in potential in the present moment?
What could each one of us do next to grow potential, or foster decay, or challenge status quo?
What can we 'compost' within the present that could serve the transition?
Tensions
Potential <-> Decay <-> Status Quo
-
Perspectives
This is the layer that requires the deepest levels of interaction if we are to move from 'getting stuck in problems' towards ;acting AND learning our way forward to something different'. It requires opening up curiosity, energy, reflection and small steps toward action in the form of probing, testing, trying towards seeds that could inform something better.
Questions
What are the learning conditions that we need to nurture in order for potentials for transformation are really to be seeded?
How do we really grow participation in the present that will support transition and transformation?
How do we challenge and shift power without reinforcing exclusion?
What infrastructure will support different actions and learning rhythms to support transition?
What are the infrastructures that could support multitudes of experiments around 'better' right now?
Tensions
Participation <-> Transition <-> Power <-> Transformation
-
Perspectives
This is the layer where the seeds of learning have potential to become part of the foundations for 'better' - now moving from testing mode in to deep engagement with the heart of the matters, such as exploring intersections between cultures, values and normative practices.
Questions
How do we support the development of value systems that reflect diversity, equity and regeneration in the present moment?
How do we structure deep listening and action to planetary feedback loops in the current moment?
What are we doing to recognise / acknowledge collective reimagining ocurring in the present (No matter how small)?
Tensions
Codes <-> Structures <-> Values <-> Institutions <-> Feedback
For each layer, use the sections above to explore:
Perspectives
Exploring starting points or perspectives on each layer that could help frame a conversation or a working session
Questions to Consider as a Start
Some questions or provocations that could help start or deepen conversations
Framing Tensions
Shaping some of the intersecting theme or key tensions that could be encountered in exploring the layers
About the Practitioners
Ingrid Burkett
Ingrid is a systems innovator, a maker, an artist of the invisible. She draws experience from fields as diverse as economics, community development and design and combines them in a focus on systems innovation. Ingrid has a passion for making visible and innovating the ‘boring’ – underlying civic and institutional capabilities and infrastructures to enable society to co-create positive futures.
Joanne McNeill
Jo is a ‘betweener’, happiest when working in liminal spaces to support diverse input to ‘visibilising’ and ‘making’ new thinking and practices. Still a novice, she has attempted to practice this over a quarter century and in diverse contexts, including within and across the public sector, for-purpose- enterprise, for-profit businesses, and through action research. She has a particular interest in how existing structures can be (re)made to support transitions towards more equitable futures.
Gael Surgenor
Gael is a social innovator, intrapreneur, leader and connector. She is passionate about community led and innovative solutions to our most complex challenges. She is also a sector connector and her has spanned local and central government and the community and social enterprise sectors.
Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation
An engagement centre working with partners to learn about the process of innovating for complex systems change to create the next best steps for more distributive and regenerative futures. They are learning about shifts in systems with a focus on place-based work, civic imagination, systemic finance, and institutional innovation.
