The key to birthing this is human scale. This document outlines a plan and business model for creating the Culture Design Research Center using a simple format and vetted model. The model is “old school” meaning a teacher creates a school of thought by attracting excellent students. It is the students who bring prominence and prestige to the school through their accomplishments.

1. Culture Design Research Center
Strategic Plan and Business Model for 2018 Launch
Prepared by Joe Brewer
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Summary Statement
The key to birthing this is human scale. This document outlines a plan and business model
for creating the Culture Design Research Center using a simple format and vetted model.
The model is “old school” meaning a teacher creates a school of thought by attracting
excellent students. It is the students who bring prominence and prestige to the school
through their accomplishments.
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The Culture Design Research Center is a training facility for culture designers to learn
their craft and practice building viable projects that can be launched into the world.
Just as Socrates had two students who developed his work in generational
succession—firstly it was Plato his top student who later trained Aristotle. We know
both names, and the School of Thought known as “greek philosophy” because of
this mentorship model.
It is my intention to create the School of Culture Design in the same manner. The
model is simple:
✦ Provide a deep immersive training process for two months with
each batch of students;
✦ Keep the number of students at the human scale of 15 in each
cohort who go through the immersive training process;
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2. ✦ Make it affordable for passionate students to step forth and
become leaders in the field of culture design;
✦ Iterate in four batches per year to train 60 culture designers per year.
✦ Do this for ten years and watch as the 600 culture designers
become mentors and leaders in their own right, multiplying their
numbers through students of their own.
The price point needs to be low so that those who are truly committed can attend. I
have done the following calculations to make this very easy to implement. If each
student pays $500 (times 15 students), it will generate $7500 in compensation for
me as their teacher in each two-month immersion. Running the process four times
will generate $30,000 in income for me. Double the price to $1000 and my
compensation becomes $60,000.
Of course, there are additional costs for the student that will depend on what kind
of venue we select—location is extremely important for this to work. If students
need $1000 for housing and then pay for their own meals, it will cost them
somewhere in the range of $2000-3000 for the immersion experience. They will
also need to cover travel expenses and dedicate two months of their lives to this
training.
The objective here is to make the Culture Design Research Center a highly coveted
training ground for those seeking to create transformational change in the world or
to know how to support community resilience in their home towns through the
turbulence of the next fifty years.
As part of their education, I will offer movement and body-based exercises to build
their emotional capacities for change tolerance. This work will be done in the early
morning and during an afternoon session to keep them connected to their bodies.
Each day will also have 2-4 hours of intellectual training combined with group
work to learn the knowledge and skills necessary to become a culture designer.
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3. By the end of the two-month period, each cohort will develop a project linking
back to their own community—engaging remotely via the web with their
collaborators as part of their training. Those who do not have a location chosen
will team up with another student who does so that they can gain practical
experience with real-world change management.
If I can find a location that works to initiate this plan, I will need to recruit the first
two batches of students for Jan/Feb and April/May of 2018. The schedule will be
two months on, one month off, to give time for reflection and improvement
between training cycles. This will be how evolutionary learning processes will get
incorporated into the curriculum design. Iteration and feedback, collective learning
as the social system grows with an enlargement of alumni who have completed
their training.
All that I need to begin are (1) a location whose logistics can serve for housing and
affordable living for my family; (2) commitment from the first two cohorts of
students; and (3) a basic induction process for enrollment. This feels doable in the
next three months. If I choose to enact this vision I will strive to begin in early 2018
so that I can keep to the aggressive timeline I honestly believe is needed for
humanity to prepare for collapse and renewal with anticipated changes to the
planetary system.
Onward, fellow humans.
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