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‘The End of Ownership’ is the theme, but first let me wind back the clock to just before Christmas.

On 11 December 2015, I flew to Amsterdam for a session at THNK with some 20 people co-evolving a new system change platform.

Arriving at Schiphol, I went outside to catch a taxi to THNK, to find that maybe half of the taxis were now Teslas.  The odds worked out, I didn’t get a Mercedes, and my driver was a tall, distinguished man with a bow tie. As we sped into the city, and with no clues from me as to my interests, apart from my compliments on his Tesla, he began to give me an enthusiastic run-down on the sustainability agenda.

In full flow, he mentioned that he had recently seen an astonishing TV documentary featuring the architect Thomas Rau. After the THNK session, I sent an email to Thomas’s wife, Sabine Oberhuber, saying that Thomas seemed to be ubiquitous – and complimenting him on his popular impact.

But I hadn’t yet seen the documentary

Then, yesterday, Sabine came to lunch in Barnes, and this morning, back in Holland, sent a link to the documentary, The End of Ownership.

We sat down this evening to watch it – and, with no exaggeration, I think it’s one of the most powerful pieces of film I have ever watched on our agenda and on how Homo sustainabilis can rise to the eternal challenges of life on Earth.

As part of our new program of work with the United Nations Global Compact, we plan to develop a portfolio of key resources for business leaders – and for tomorrow’s sustainability champions – and The End of Ownership will be in pride of place.

There are many reasons to watch the documentary, including the 100th birthday party for a light-bulb that still burns brightly.

But other key takeaways include how we need to apply the deep principles of the funfair to tomorrow’s economy, how companies like Phillips and Bosch have responded to the provocations of this extraordinary market revolutionary, and how future materials will not only have passports  but also their version of human rights.

And then there is the woman in the red dress, about 35 minutes in. That’s the sequence where the irreducibly human dimensions of the coming transformation literally well up as old realities give way to the new.

For reasons that will become clearer in 2016, the final couple of weeks of 2015 included a gathering tempo of system change sessions, with key ones in London (on 9 December, which Volans co-hosted with the Academy of Systemic Change) and Amsterdam (on 11 December, where I was part of embryonic conversations around a new system change platform).

More anon, but there’s a new spirit abroad, particularly in the wake of the apparently successful outcome of the COP21 climate summit, which several of the Amsterdam participants had taken part in. The Amsterdam session was hosted by the THNK School of Creative Leadership and Innovation, which I am really keen to get to know better.

Fascinating ride in from the airport early in the morning (had to get up around 04.20 to get there in time), with a driver in a white Tesla who looked like a university lecturer, or a taller version of Lester Brown, and who promptly have me (with no signal from me on what my interests were) a lecture on sustainability.

Among those he flagged as leading champions was Thomas Rau, who he had recently seen in a TV documentary. Once I revealed my colours, we had a very energetic discussion, and exchanged cards. Later in the day I sent a note to Thomas’s wife, Sabine, to say he seemed to be virtually ubiquitous.

I can’t remember which weird American book it was in which I read that as a major change approaches the number of apparent coincidences goes off the scale, though I think it was probably The Celestine Prophecy, but that’s what I’m experiencing at the moment.