Visionary thinking: can it be cultivated?

As a young Acadian female born and raised in a small rural community of New Brunswick, I get that I was exposed to certain realities based on my upbringing and background. For instance, I did not go to school surrounded by diverse ethnic backgrounds, nor did I learn about indigenous people other than basic historical facts. Fortunately for me though, I was the type of person from a very young age that was curious about the world around me (I have driven my parents mad on road trips with my incessant questions that ranged from "why is the moon following us?" to "is the cow happy?" which solicited the introduction of the "silence game" lol). This curiosity led me to live in Moncton at the age of 15 (just to explore another city), experience Costa Rica at 16 for almost a year and participate in a Canada World Youth (Sudbury-India exchange) at 19 years old. My big life goal that my grade 12 yearbook would have said -had I not missed the deadline- was how I was going to have traveled the world by age 27! (In 80 days seemed too agressive and beyond my means at the time ). 

This quick introduction to my first 20 years on Earth demonstrate that I was inquisitive, opened to other cultures and even idealistic in my viewpoints. This way of being is not something that was entrusted upon me by my parents or by academic institutions. Truth be told, I was considered as "marginal" by my peers and small community for most of my life. Therefore the question must be asked: where DID it come from? I am on this quest to find the answers as I am daring my province (NB) and region (Atlantic Canada) to envision what could be in 100 years from now. Can visionary-thinking be cultivated?  I am one of the people who believe it can be and that belief is the reason why I am so passionate about this critical skill.

As further context to you the reader, it should be known that I have started this "100 years vision" talk over 2 years ago after attending 4Front Conference in Halifax and hearing Dominic Barton (Global Managing Director at McKinsey) speak of the rapid changing landscape in Asia. The monumental shifts that were presented to me back then, coupled with my own observations of the world, had a profound impact as Barton talked about the importance of being visionary. I thus started to research places in the world that exemplified the type of visionary-thinking I was seeking. India and China came to the forefront as nations that had developed long-term plans for their societies.  More locally, I started to see municipalities such as Moncton instill visionary plans over a longer period of time (40 years). More recently, I have come across North Vancouver's 100 year sustainability vision, which as they put it "looks at likely scenarios, challenges and opportunities in the coming decades, allowing the City to develop more forward-thinking policy planning and to be a better, stronger advocate for regional, provincial and federal sustainability legislation."  This type of plan (which resembles a broad SWOT analysis) is exactly the kind of exercise that every sector should adopt to not only build for the future, but to plan for the continuous changes that are occurring. 

Last March, I had the opportunity to attend a session in Toronto that had a much similar goal as the North Vancouver's vision. Simply put, we were asked as representatives from across Canada and sectors to envision Canada in 2040. Rather than holding a brainstorming or open-dialogue exercise that would have frankly got us nowhere, the whole session was constructed of small exercises that led us to the ultimate goal.  I have also experienced a similar framework by being part of an initiative through the Department of Justice called the Delphi exercise and found it very useful. Both exercises enabled the participants to focus not only on emerging trends and potential scenarios but to discuss their inter-connectivity.

That is the key word my friends. Connecting the dots with the goal of envisioning the potential scenarios that could emerge. The world around us is changing very rapidly and this has such an impact on us all.  I often hear people state that they want to focus their efforts on a local cause and seem to forget the fact that we are all inter-connected at a global scale.  This is not to say that I am not a proponent of supporting local initiatives ( I have led and created a number of grass-roots initiatives myself) but one should always bear in mind that the concept of local has a different meaning in today's world. 

On a final note post ramble, I do hope and embrace the belief that our region can be more visionary.Granted, much work has been done in Atlantic Canada with respect to its entrepreneurial ecosystem and  getting recognition worldwide as a result. It would be great to also see more renewable energies being developed or policies such as the "negative income tax" adopted.  In short, it would be simply cool to be perceived as a place (whether it is NB or Atlantic Canada) that abounds with visionary thinking and creativity rather than being dubbed the "have-not province" or the "drive-through province", terms that I have unfortunately heard too often in recent years. 

I leave you with this thought: What do you hope to have and see for your children and grandchildren who will live in Atlantic Canada in 100 years?