What’s a Rethink?

Why?

Sometimes things need a rethink. Sometimes even big things need a rethink. We all get stuck in our ways. They work well enough for now and life is too busy to change them. Maybe next weekend. Well, this happens with societies too. Big assumptions can be rethought. 

Who?

The Mira Organization is going to rethink some of today’s largest issues. We’re going to go deep into a subject with experts and designers and tell the story of the process and our findings. The aim is to find new ways of thinking that make our current issues afterthoughts and let us move forward into a brighter future for all.

What?

A Rethink is a deep exploration into a piece of our society that has become problematic. We can rethink waste, or K-12 education, or citizen government interaction, or parenting. We take something at a high level and spend a year exploring with experts and designers and those most closely experiencing the issues. The goal is to find a new way to think about it. We can spend billions of dollars trying to make people feel guilty and more mindful of their garbage but what if we just put waste in a different frame? As we continue to deplete our natural resources our dumps will soon become goldmines for valuable resources. Or we could change the fundamental idea that the consumer should be responsible for the waste from a product. Why should they? They know nothing about the materials inside. Shouldn’t the responsibility lie with the manufacturer. What does that world look like?

These are the kinds of questions that need to be asked. We want to explore reframes and new futures and then present them in a form that real people can understand. The future isn’t built by great thinkers in ivory towers. It’s built by all of us. So, as we explore, we’ll be telling the story of our exploration. We’ll post progress reports and blogs and interviews. We want everyone to feel they can be a part of the process. 

The final product of a Rethink will be the Rethink Report. This report can take many forms. The most basic will be a simple written document. Think of the Rethink as the creation of a new natural resource for the mind. If we do our job we will have created a new bit of farmland that others can start growing their crops on. Reading a Rethink Report should make your mind crackle with possibility and opportunity. If done well, it should inspire new ideas in a new direction and cause some to drop what they’re doing and forge off in a new direction to build our future.