Shirley and Jim sat down with Grace to share with her what they hoped to do with what they had learned.
“When we began this project, both Jim and I had hoped that it would lead to one or more journal articles.” Shirley continued: “You know that’s how we are measured as academics. But as this project continued, we got inspired by the why questions.”
Jim added: “Journal articles are typically read by less than 5 people. We asked ourselves why do we want to waste our time on something so meaningless?”
“So, what did you decide?” asked Grace.
Shirley answered: “With your permission, we would like to turn the Genesis Project into a serial novel. Of course, we will protect your company’s privacy, but this is such a wonderful story to tell.”
“Then we would like to use the novel to stimulate other Genesis Projects”, said Jim. “Of course, every project will unfold differently. And that’s the beauty of this grand venture. As scientists, we are taught the value of repeatable experiments. But repeatable means duplication of what others have done. What’s the value in that? We want to see how to stimulate innovation and creativity in different ways.”
Shirley continued: “We foresee other serial novels evolving from these new situations. While these new projects are unfolding, we want to create a website where people can submit their own transformative experiences from why questions. We thoroughly enjoyed the interviews with your team, and we hope we can do more.”
“But we also want to explore the ripples”, added Jim. “Each of the people we interviewed impacted others. For example, we would love to know if other companies have begun to contribute their waste material to the found art movement. Or did the middle school teacher we interviewed inspire others to follow her lead? Those ripple effect stories should be fascinating.”
“I’m really enthusiastic about what you are planning to do, but aren’t you putting your academic career at risk?”
Both Jim and Shirley responded in virtually the same way. “We’ve found our why.”
* * *
“Find purpose. The means will follow.” – Mahatma Gandhi