Futures Reclaimed: Imagine - Build- Transform
What if the future isn't something we wait for — but something we practice into being?
Right now, imagining alternatives can feel almost impossible. The weight of the present is heavy and unrelenting: the continuing horrors in Gaza, rising authoritarianism, deepening inequality and the steady erosion of public services here in the UK. Many of us are holding grief, anger, and exhaustion focusing on what's right in front of us. In that context, long-term thinking and expansive creativity can be hard to call in as our nervous systems are in survival mode. And yet, it’s precisely in moments like this that imagination becomes a critical muscle — one we cannot afford to lose.
This month, we’re exploring imagination as a tool for transformation — not as an escape from reality, but a re-commitment to shaping it. As people building progressive organisations and championing better societies for more kinds of people, imagination is one of the most powerful tools for getting us somewhere new. We believe we need to think bigger and bolder for these times and we're exploring what happens when we give ourselves permission to think long term.
When we think about the next 3-5 years, we tend to get stuck in the rules and constraints of today and our ideas stay in the realm of exhaustion and overwhelm, but when we think about decades long timelines, the work of systems change has more possibility, spaciousness and importantly, creativity.
Making time to look up, to think long term, to dream and vision feel ever more important. Our culture's focus on fear and creating urgency around everything makes it feel like it's a luxury to stand back and reconnect to why we're here, what we're here to do, what legacy we want to create or to ask important questions about what we need to do next.
From imagination activism to Afrofuturism, we’re sharing resources to stretch your thinking, spark your creativity, and reconnect with the “space of the possible.” Because imagining otherwise isn’t about being naïve. It’s about refusing to accept that the way things are is the only way they can be.
SOMETHING TO JOIN
Masculinity, Power & Moving Beyond Patriarchy
As organisations grapple with these turbulent times, there’s an urgent need to reimagine the leadership cultures we’ve inherited — many of which are still shaped by patriarchal norms of control, competition, and extraction. But moving beyond patriarchy isn’t just about dismantling what's broken — it’s about imagining and practising new forms of leadership rooted in justice, care, and connection.
In this Community Conversation, Letesia will be joined by Jindy Mann — leadership coach, men’s work facilitator, and founder of Leader Brother Son — to explore what this new vision of power and leadership might look like. We’ll look at how patriarchal systems shape our institutions and leadership behaviours, regardless of gender — and what becomes possible when we centre relational, inclusive, and future-facing approaches instead.
This is a space for anyone who wants to think beyond binaries, challenge inherited roles, and imagine otherwise. Together, we’ll reflect on how transforming masculinity and dismantling patriarchy are part of the longer-term work of systems change — and how we might begin, wherever we are.
Date: Thursday, 10th April 2025
Time: 12pm - 1:15pm GMT
Location: Zoom
SOMETHING TO WATCH
Imagination Activism to Create Systemic Shifts
In this thought-provoking talk from the Inner Development Goals Summit 2023, systems thinker and founder of Moral Imaginations Phoebe Tickell makes a powerful case for imagination as a critical — and often neglected — force in systems change. She argues that our current crises are, at their root, crises of imagination: we've forgotten how to think beyond the short term, beyond extractive paradigms, and beyond the metaphorical “fish tank” — the narrow, contained worldviews that keep us trapped in failing systems.
Tickell introduces the idea of “moral imagining” — a practice of stretching our moral concern across time and space, to include future generations, the more-than-human world, and those far outside our immediate circles. She invites us to reclaim long-term thinking not as a luxury, but as a moral responsibility — and offers ways to embed imagination activism into leadership, organisations, and movements.
SOMETHING TO READ
Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements
This anthology asks a powerful question: what if change-makers used speculative fiction as a tool for liberation? Octavia’s Brood brings together visionary short stories by organisers, activists, and cultural workers who blend science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism to explore worlds shaped by justice, care, and collective imagination.
Named in honour of Afrofuturist author Octavia Butler, the collection carries forward her legacy — and that of Afrofuturism more broadly — by using storytelling to challenge dominant narratives and expand the space of the possible. These stories aren’t escapism; they are blueprints for transformation, rooted in real-world struggles around race, gender, class, environment, and resistance.
If you're interested in the intersections of systems change, imagination, and social justice, this is an inspiring, genre-bending read that will leave you asking: what future am I helping to shape?
SOMETHING TO DO
Long Time Tools – The Long Time Project
Looking to stretch your perspective beyond the short-term? This practical set of tools from the Long Time Project is designed to help individuals, teams, and organisations think long-term — across generations, systems, and time horizons. From timeline mapping to roleplay exercises like “Becoming a Good Ancestor,” these tools are grounded in the belief that long-term thinking isn’t just strategic — it’s moral, imaginative, and necessary.
Whether you're a systems-change practitioner, consultant, or organisational leader, these activities will help you embed deeper time-awareness into your work and decision-making.
Download their free toolkit here.
