IF has recently trained youth leadership teams in using IF’s small group discussion method for Youth Creativity Summits in New York and D.C. Loree Goffigon is the organizer of these summits. Here we would like to share with you her wonderful description of these...
As a follow up to the Youth Creativity IF Discussion Training at the Joan Mitchell Foundation in NYC, IF Fellow Ieva Notturno and IF Vice President Jeff Prudhomme led two days of training for youth interested in participating in a similar Youth Creativity Summit in...
Our Interactivity Foundation project discussions focus on developing contrasting conceptual policy possibilities as different ways that our society might approach an area of emerging social and political concern. At first blush this sounds a bit too technical for...
New participants in an Interactivity Foundation discussion project often wonder how to act when taking part in the discussion. Often when people hear that we’ll be engaged in thoughtful civic discussion, they think of this in terms of “debate” or “argument.” With...
I have almost completed recruiting panelists for my new project on Human Migration. All of the panelists I have recruited are enthusiastic about the project. But I am still looking for one or two more. I have been asked to explain many aspects of IF and its...
When IF project panels are beginning the transition to generating public policy ideas, I’ve found it helpful to have the panelists explore different metaphors for thinking about the policy area. Metaphors can capture a distinct vision of what the policy area, or...
“This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.” Admiral Josh Painter in Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for the Red October. “The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.” Artist, author, teacher...
I’ve often wondered what an IF facilitator might do in a Sanctuary Project to encourage a discussion panel to generate some truly creative policy possibilities. There are times when a discussion panel might struggle with moving off the line. They might sketch out...
Once you have a basic understanding of the policy possibility---what it says and what it doesn’t---the next step is to understand why someone might actually propose it. In order to do this, you will typically need to go beyond the description of the policy...
Near the end of the rock documentary The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights, the White Stripe’s frontman, Jack White, talks about the importance of obstacles and tensions for his creative process (here’s an unofficial clip; the video quality is not...