Starting a new year is an ideal time to consider new ways of thinking, acting, and being. This past week, we launched the Lexicon of Change website at the RISE World Summit. The Lexicon is an interactive website which provides terms and definitions for transformational thinking. Our vision is to capture and co-create emerging language around the UN Global Goals, including innovation, sustainable cities, gender equality, and more. The Lexicon of Change introduces words, paradigms, and concepts for building regenerative, resilient, and sustainable systems. We are co-creating an interactive dictionary of terms, definitions, and examples for a more just future.
Language transforms and inspires us to speak new visions of the future into being. The Lexicon of Change shares words and their meanings from different disciplines, cultures, and languages to allow us to imagine and collaborate around a more just and regenerative future. A wide range of leaders and practitioners have shared key terms with us, including scientists, oceanographers, designers, urban planners, entrepreneurs, economists, academics, artists, and more.
Here is an example of a Lexicon term:
positive maverick
A positive maverick isa leader changing our view of what is possible. “An unorthodox or independent-minded person who’s being, doing and thinking. A positive maverick:
- Works constructively towards positive change
- Back casts from a desired future, building bridges and foundations on the far side of the river and spanning backwards to meet the present
- Acts at the pace, scale and scope dictated by science and ethics
- Thinks and acts at systems levels, making nano/micro/meso/macro links
Robson Melo is an example of a positive maverick. Born in a Brazilian favela, he went on to create Estante Magica, a program to empower Brazilian school children to write books, which are then published by Estante Magica. A Meaningful Business 100 leader and entrepreneur, Robson is audaciously acting to create a different future in partnership with 4,000 Brazilian schools.
The Lexicon on Change is grateful to its partner organizations, including the RISE World Summit, the Idobro Foundation, R3.0, the GRC, the Technology Exchange Lab, Meaningful Business 100, Social Accountability International, and Speak for the Trees.
Please contribute the words that inspire you. Coin new words. Expand our vision.
