Hello Leader,

Creating new futures for people and organizations is the central propulsion of my work. Here is an excerpt from my book Create New Futures, where I described the beginning of my American odyssey to start a new life for my family.

Before I get to this somewhat crazy story, I am offering you an opportunity to join me as I expand my work to a worldwide audience. As part of the Portals of Perception endeavor to launch global cross-generational conversations, a team of next generation leaders and I will co-host a FREE event we call Co-creating Humanity’s Future.

---

A Portals Virtual Event

Our next Portals of Perception virtual event is on Saturday November 13, 12:00pm - 2:00pm EST: Co-Creating Humanity's Future.

This event will be hosted by Aviv Shahar, an author, coach, and global consultant who helps executive leadership teams create breakthroughs that produce transformational futures for their organizations.

Inquiries we will explore:

• How will we evolve our consciousness and perception? Where and how will we help the desired future emerge?

• With civilization in crisis, who are the new renaissance leadersthat can integrate the philosophical with the poetic and the practical? How can each one of us become such a leader in our own lives?

• What inspirational future do we envision for ourselves and for our grandchildren?

In this event we will practice “horizons thinking”
and imagine our own, and humanity's, futures

Our panel of guests:

• Ofer Dotan - I am excited to explore together what emerges when we apply ourselves toward a common aspiration, to foster more humane collaborations, through which we can discover and express our potentialities.
• Ariel Levari - I believe truth is not a destination, but an ongoing journey that requires being in conversation with the world and the people around us. I'm looking forward to seeing what threads of truth begin to unspool through our conversations, and how we can trace them into a more beautiful future.
• Fionn Wright - The world is on fire, sick and who knows what is next? We are in an era of exponentially complex turbulent change that represents an opportunity. The time is now. You are the solution. Each one of us has a role to play. Let’s unify in our diversity and birth a more beautiful world.
• Forrest Wilson - Old systems and stories are breaking down all over planet Earth as we open up and make room for the new world that wants to emerge with and through us. Humanity is being invited to take a breath, pause in possibility, and dream a new world into being, together.

Be a part of this interactive exploration. Participation is free.

---

What New Future Will You Help Co-create?

It is 1993, a hot July afternoon, when I arrive at JFK with my wife, our six-year-old son, and seven suitcases. Between my wife and I we carry $12,000. Nothing is secured or certain: not a job, not a salary. Any rational analysis of our situation would reveal immediately that it is craziness of the highest degree. Sure, we can rent a house and buy food for a few months. All I have is an improbable dream to create a new life for my family, to win our freedom and to realize my vision for our future.

My hopes are to learn from a great teacher, and to use my skills and gifts to make it in America. There is no ticket back. There is no plan B. There is no support system. I must find a way quickly to create this new life out of very little. But before I can persuade my wife that things will work out, that we are going to be okay, that we will succeed, I must find a cab to take us from JFK to LaGuardia to catch our connection to Palm Beach. I am standing on the road waving frantically, but no taxi driver who sees all our luggage will pick us up.

I finally persuade a good-hearted taxi driver of Indian descent: “We’ll push three suitcases onto the back seat and lie on them and I’ll pay you double.” God bless his heart; we are on our way. Our American odyssey begins.

What New Future Will You Help Co-create?

The above question about the future is one that leaders of organizations large and small ought to reflect on. In our roles as parents, teachers, mentors and people who strive to shape our own personal futures, we too must ask and answer this question.

What do I mean by a “new future?” What is the work that creates new futures?

We work to create a future in we which we may be able to:

• improve the world we live in.
• solve intractable problems.
• develop new possibilities.
• build creative products, services, and solutions.
• expand business and open new markets.
• resolve conflicts and foster agreements and understanding.
• reconcile and live in peace.
• generate prosperity and expand freedom.
• heal and foster wellbeing and joy.
• nurture talent and build leadership.
• experience sustained fulfillment and happiness.

This list describes a future desired by those who want to improve life for themselves and the people they love. We all grapple with problems and challenges, and we search for new possibilities and fulfilling experiences that produce personal success and joy.

In business we work to create new products, solutions, and services, to open new markets, to expand opportunities and to build wealth and wellbeing.

How will we shape and create a possibility-filled future?

Through conversation.

By connecting unrelated conversations and by creating new conversations, we free people’s imaginations and unleash their talents to realize their desired future. Through conversation we solve problems, develop new ideas and options, and foster leadership that liberates creativity, freedom, and growth.

In my consulting work, my mission is to encourage my clients to take on the leadership work of creating new futures by bringing novel conversations to life.

Through the Portals project I have expanded this mission to catalyze a global movement: a cross-generational network that invites us to imagine and create the world we desire for our grandchildren.

Care to join me?

Sincerely,

© Aviv Shahar