My impression is that most funders are already doing the above (we are too).
That’s interesting, James, and an update for me—if you happen to have any top sources at hand that point to how different funders are thinking, that would be really useful.
I don’t think the above is that promising as I think there is not a predetermined set of milestones that lead to victory..
I 100% agree that there’s no predetermined set of milestones, and that any long-term strategising we do needs to be robust to an ever-changing world. To clarify, my suggestion to fund researchers is not intended to suggest those researchers should direct the movement from the top-down, as that majorly risks locking us in to suboptimal paths—but that they can surface possibilities that the rest of us might be missing, and provide information to help the rest of the ecosystem make better decisions. The value isn’t in creating a rigid roadmap, but in helping the movement have a clearer shared understanding of what we’re building toward and what capacities we might need—and in updating that understanding as the world changes. This is my understanding of the value provided by think tanks in other movements, and strategy personnel in large corporations who engage in vision-setting, scenario-planning and the like.
More broadly, what I’m pointing towards is what I think of as the movement’s ‘strategy function’ - the capacity to step back, look at the whole system, and help different actors coordinate toward shared goals. I’m curious whether you think the movement currently has sufficient capacity in this area, even if you think dedicated researchers aren’t the right form for it?
I also think that when this has been attempted, basically nothing useful was generated so it was actually quite a poor use of movement resources.
In this realm I’m only really aware of Animal Think Tank’s long-term strategy project and some work at Rethink Priorities that never quite took off. Do you have others in mind? From my own awareness, (a) we’ve dedicated very little movement resource to this kind of work; and (b) I would really hesitate to rule out an entire area of work just because a couple of projects have not delivered, as there are all sorts of reasons that can happen.
That’s interesting, James, and an update for me—if you happen to have any top sources at hand that point to how different funders are thinking, that would be really useful.
I 100% agree that there’s no predetermined set of milestones, and that any long-term strategising we do needs to be robust to an ever-changing world. To clarify, my suggestion to fund researchers is not intended to suggest those researchers should direct the movement from the top-down, as that majorly risks locking us in to suboptimal paths—but that they can surface possibilities that the rest of us might be missing, and provide information to help the rest of the ecosystem make better decisions. The value isn’t in creating a rigid roadmap, but in helping the movement have a clearer shared understanding of what we’re building toward and what capacities we might need—and in updating that understanding as the world changes. This is my understanding of the value provided by think tanks in other movements, and strategy personnel in large corporations who engage in vision-setting, scenario-planning and the like.
More broadly, what I’m pointing towards is what I think of as the movement’s ‘strategy function’ - the capacity to step back, look at the whole system, and help different actors coordinate toward shared goals. I’m curious whether you think the movement currently has sufficient capacity in this area, even if you think dedicated researchers aren’t the right form for it?
In this realm I’m only really aware of Animal Think Tank’s long-term strategy project and some work at Rethink Priorities that never quite took off. Do you have others in mind? From my own awareness, (a) we’ve dedicated very little movement resource to this kind of work; and (b) I would really hesitate to rule out an entire area of work just because a couple of projects have not delivered, as there are all sorts of reasons that can happen.