Next Agenda
A New Way to Help Solve Big Problems Fast
The world is going through extraordinary changes right now and traditional methods of problem-solving simply can’t keep up. We face unprecedented challenges like climate change, the most serious and complex threat ever, and a fundamental restructuring of the global economy that is transforming how everything from governments to companies need to work.
Fortunately, people with the talents and knowledge to step up and deal with these challenges are out there. Equally fortunate, a next generation of powerful tools and technologies are just now becoming available that will allow large numbers of people to work together with much more sophistication and complexity online. Next Agenda takes these next generation tools, connects up those innovative people, and sets out to help solve some of the biggest, most complex challenges of our time.
How do we do it? We start by gathering the right mix of experts and innovators both in face-to-face gatherings as well as online. We created a new process that structurally links these previously separate online and offline worlds. Some things are best done face-to-face - like emotionally connecting, gaining trust for difficult conversations, or carrying out negotiations or compromise. Some things are best done online - like scaling up hundreds or thousands of people to work productively over long periods of time. Solving complex challenges requires both.
We link the two worlds through an innovative use of video. We put teams of talented video journalists covering the physical gatherings and capturing the ideas of all those assembled with high-quality yet inexpensive video. Then the whole experience gets retold through video stories in a variety of web-friendly ways.
We built a new online platform that raises online collaboration to a new level by leveraging the power of Google Wave. Wave represents a step-change in how large numbers of people can work productively in more nuanced ways than ever before. Next Agenda has built our problem-solving platform on this Google Wave foundation. We’ve been given access to this new tool far in advance of the public release expected in the summer.
Next Agenda uses this offline/online process, this next generation collaborative platform to help solve public challenges of great concern to us all. Our first one tackles a key component in solving climate change: How can America get all its electricity from clean energy as fast as possible? America and the world need to figure out how to rapidly shift from carbon-based energies like coal and oil not someday, or eventually, but now. No one really knows how to fully do it. We’re doing our part to catalyze an effort to figure out how.
Next Agenda is a new breed of startup company that takes on both common public challenges as well as private ones. An effective new way to help solve big, complex problems can also be applied to problems that private organizations face. Next Agenda can apply our process or parts of the process to tailored projects for individual companies or organizations.
The transformation the world is going through is creating challenges at many levels. The lines between public and private are blurring. The more problem-solving, the better – for all of us. So our company is ready to help figure out the next agendas in clean energy, but also in transportation or food production. We’re available to help enable others to take on the next agendas for companies big and small.
Our mission is to help America and the world meet the many pressing challenges of the 21st century. We’re confident that the solutions are out there, that we all together have the capacity to solve them with time. This website is one place were people of like mind, with a can-do spirit, can come together and get going on the hard work ahead. I hope you explore this website and get a deeper sense of what we do, and find ways to get involved. Be part of the solution. Thanks.
Peter Leyden
Founder and CEO
