Imagine seeing a top sheik from Dubai, wrapped in traditional Arab clothing, exclaim “Yes We Can” in front of the 800 experts gathered during the Summit of the Global Agenda that just took place in Dubai, co-organized by the World Economic Forum and the Government of Dubai. This same sheik added that “we build the future with our own hands”.

You can read more about the main points of the Global Agenda Councils conversation here: Discussion Highlights. Below go some of my own still-jetlagged reflections.

The financial crisis has made obvious the obvious: that we live in a truly new and global world.

And that business as usual will lead to global disaster – we need new approaches to collectively adapt to and thrive in this new environment. The answer is not to go back to any old paradigm, which simply will not work in a new reality, but to imagine and build a better new way of doing things.

Some of the attendants urged us to “reboot” the system. I don’t think that a “reboot” is enough – we need to upgrade to a new operating system. We can call it Planet Earth 2.0.Based on the group discussion we had on Sunday morning, let me propose some of the architectural principles that should underlie any emerging Planet Earth 2.0 operating system. And let me present those principles using a “Yes We Can” value-based approach:

Yes
- From Business As Usual to Imagination-led Action.
- From Analysis to Synthesis.
- From Talk to Walk.

We
- From Financial Hegemony to Human and Natural Capital.
- From Us vs. them to Win-win Diversity.
- From Regulation/ Deregulation to Mindful Architecture.
- From Top-down Authority to Shared Responsibility.

Can
- From Selfish Genes to Committed to Improving the state of the world.
- From Accounting Rules to Values and Standards.
- From Being Stuck to Learn and Evolve.

Given that each of us are in fact part of that new operating system, we could start by pledging to live by principles like those. How can we refine them?

Needless to say, this new operating system upgrade would benefit from a new emphasis on cognitive health and performance, such as the one discussed in the proposal for a Global Consortium for Neurocognitive Fitness Innovation.

In short, no more Business as Usual. We need more Imagination, and Action. By each of us.