“Synthesis” has been on my mind lately. More precisely, I am hearing it come up across many of the conversations I am having – be they of a cultural, political, organizational, economic, or social nature. It seems the world over is entering a period of synthesis. It is a synthesis bridging Focus with Act. There is a strong and widespread sense of intent. “Now!” is the time, I hear or read over and over again, to transcend, to reassemble the parts into fundamentally new forms.

When headed into synthesis, what are the some of the ideas, processes and tools that can help us design our way through it successfully? How can we recognize when a system is ready for synthesis? How can we facilitate it?