Conversation Week 2008

Fifteen hundred people in 39 countries participated in suggesting and selecting the following ten questions as the most important ones in the world today. These are our concerns expressed not as demands but as the questions we must all consider at every level of life to meet the challenges of our times.

Conversation Week 2008 gives us a chance to talk with friends, neighbors and strangers about one or more of these questions – and discover answers that can re-direct our lives and work, while knowing that sincere people on the other side of the planet are doing the same.

Your Conversation Week question is more a conversation starter than a conversation topic. Don’t feel obliged to answer the question. Rather, use it to stimulate your circle to go where their sincere interest lies. As you speak from the heart, listen with respect and follow the thread of meaning, you’ll have one of the best conversations of the year.

Below the question are two assists. First, in parentheses after the question is a brief summary of the topic you can use, if you want, for your publicity. Second, after each question are several additional questions, if needed, to provide you and your guests a variety of doorways into the topic. Rest assured, you’ll find hundreds more facets to these questions.

1. How can we best prepare our children for the future? (Our Children, Our Future)
What knowledge, skills and values and will our children need to flourish in their lifetimes? Do you know an especially gifted parent, caregiver or educator? What can we learn from them? Who are the children in your life and how are you preparing them?

2. What does sustainability look like to you? How do we get there? (Making Sustainability Real)
How can humanity both continue to provide lives of dignity for its billions while concurrently living within the resource-means of the planet? What does sustainability look like in different cultural contexts? What are your most hopeful images of sustainability? What changes can we make, and what must our leaders make?

3. How do humans need to adapt to survive the changes predicted for this century? (Survival in the 21st Century)
Humans survive because we are so good at adapting to changing circumstances. What changes are you predicting? What changes do you hope for? Will the adaptations be technological, social, spiritual, economic – or all of the above? What are the best adaptations you’ve heard of? Where do you see good adaptations happening in your community?

4. How do we shift from “Me” to “We” on both the local and global levels? (From “me” to “we”)
Where do you see a need to shift from “me” to “we”? What can a “we” approach give us that a “me” approach doesn’t, and vice versa? What needs to change to have people used to “me” engaged in “we” solutions? In your family and community, where have you seen collaboration work wonders when competition and confrontation failed? How can 6.6 billion people work together?

5. How can you, as Gandhi said, be the change that you want to see in the world? (Being the change)
Does fighting for peace or making war on terror make sense - or do our goals and means have to match? How have you tried to “be the change” in your work and life? Who inspires you by “walking their talk”? What gaps do you notice between your “walk” and “talk” and what steps can you take towards “being the change”?

6. What kind of economic structures can best support a shift to sustainable living? (A healthy economy)
What’s the economy for, anyway? How does “the economy” make it hard to make choices for sustainability – a healthy balance between material, social and ecological needs? Where have you seen economic structures that actually contribute to greater sustainability? In a sustainable economy, how would you and your community meet your needs for the basics and also for those things that make life worth living?

7. How should we re-invent the political process so that people feel that they have a voice? (Having a political voice)
When have you felt that your voice mattered in a political process? What contributed to that? Where do you want your voice to matter that it doesn’t, and how has that impacted your political participation? What re-inventions in the political process would inspire you to participate more than you do now? What one change would matter most?

8. What kind of leadership does the world need now? (Who leads now?)
What does leadership mean to you? When has a leader moved, inspired or motivated you and what did you do in response? Is there a new kind of leadership emerging in response to new challenges? What gives this new leadership the power to lead? Are there different kinds of leadership for different times?

9. How can we balance our personal needs with the most pressing needs of our community and the larger world? (Personal Balance in Demanding Times)
How are you doing this balancing act? What would help you balance better? Who do you know who seems to balance well – and what do they know? How does your life touch the life of the larger world and what would allow you to feed your soul and relationships while making a difference “out there”? How can you feel satisfied you’ve given enough – to yourself, your family and your community? If our world is really looking down the barrel of an environmental catastrophe, how do I live my life right now?

10. What can we do to reduce or eliminate violence in the world? (Ending violence everywhere)
What incites people to violence and how can those conditions change? When have you experienced a potentially violent situation transform into a more peaceful resolution and what can we learn from that? Where is violence happening in your community and what would you like to see in its stead? What will it take to not just end violence and war, but wage peace?

The eleventh question: What is the most important question in world today – to you?
For Conversation Week 2007 this was the winning question. We add it here to give you a chance to survey the people at your Conversation Week table as we have surveyed the world to suggest and select the ten questions above. What questions do you and your community need to be asking right now? What’s not being talked about that, were it explored, would free us up to have the world we want?