Future Focus Stories - Learning as Possibility

by Jennifer DeDominicis, Organizational Strategy Advisor

Core to the Future Focus Program’s ethos is supporting learning to facilitate a shift or change that organizations hope to undertake. When you apply, there’s an entire section of the application about learning and outcomes. But here’s the rub – learning, especially learning as it relates to change, doesn’t necessarily happen in straight or predictably sequential lines. In this way, learning towards a desired outcome inside our operational work can feel uncertain or risky.

In times of scarcity, when there always seems to be more to do with fewer resources, many organizations resist taking on risk and uncertainty. They haven’t been able to, or have been discouraged from, expressly trying things out without understanding the full scope of what may emerge. But in complexity, real change doesn’t come from following a prescribed plan. As with creative practice, change begins with setting the table, or creating the conditions for emergence. Central to this step is making space for learning.

"Change begins with setting the table, or creating the conditions for emergence."

Jennifer DeDominicis, Organizational Strategy Advisor

Author and organizational thinker Margaret Wheatley likens this to making a chocolate chip cookie: "Nothing in the ingredients of a chocolate chip cookie predicts its taste. No matter how much you analyze the ingredients, you can never predict the cookie. Chocolate chip cookies are an emergent phenomenon. The taste appears when the ingredients mix together. That taste is different and new—not in the parts that created it."

A real-world example of harnessing emergence comes from Calgary-based EMMEDIA. Last year, they undertook a Future Focus Exploration to understand the future space needs of their media arts community, to inform a new space strategy responsive to emerging practices, technological shifts, and community priorities.

“One of the key things I learned– and every artistic project teaches us this, so I don't know why I forgot it– is that the project is always different than the way you envision it in the grant. So of course, things are going to change along the way,” says Sharon Kahanoff, Artistic Director at EMMEDIA.

"The goal isn't to eliminate uncertainty.”

Jennifer DeDominicis, Organizational Strategy Advisor

Within the Future Focus program, there are three phases: Investigation, Exploration, and Implementation. When I meet with arts leaders curious about applying, one of the things I try to share is that the granting phases for Future Focus are not inherently sequential. Many groups come with an ambition to begin with an Exploration and gather enough information to develop a plan or solution so that they can apply for Implementation funding. However, often during the exploration stage, additional and unexpected information emerges that points the way towards different questions for consideration. Sometimes, this reveals the need to take a new approach and gather other information in order to develop a more effective strategy for the work ahead.

By the end of their first exploration, EMMEDIA embraced a choice that many organizations resist: accepting that there was more to learn before moving forward. "When we wrote our grant, we thought we would come out with all the information and vision we needed to move on to an implementation grant," Kahanoff admits. "If wishing made it so. While we came out knowing what our community wanted, there were so many ways we could approach their desires, and, too, there was so much vision that we needed to prioritize and examine just how ambitious we were prepared to be."

For organizations considering similar questions, EMMEDIA's experience offers practical insight: the goal isn't to eliminate uncertainty inside possible Future Focus projects, but to build capacity through learning to design effective strategies to navigate your challenge. Real change happens in creating space for new possibilities.

Curious about how to get started? Let’s connect and see what comes next…

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