🛸 SciFi Consulting: worldbuilding and organizational storytelling 🎭

Who do I work with?

I conceive of human society as a superorganism and an extension of the Earth, and I believe that our organism has various organs that operate atop the Earth system in form of interconnected infrastructural systems.

My mission is to find folks working on these systems and support them in the best ways I know how, namely connecting them to each other and helping them clarify and direct their visions and energy toward their goals.

The kinds of problems that I'm interested in are not simple.

There are usually a lot of moving parts that touch on many aspects of other systems, and they're generally important aspects of some set of positive futures I'm imagining at any given time.

I'm looking to help projects focused on terraforming Earth. The planet is changing, and to make sure it will continue to support human habitation at the quality of life we'd like, there's planetary scale infrastructure and systems to be adapted, created, and put in place.

How can I help?

I speak nerd, artist, and executive and can translate effectively. I can help teams and individuals to clarify their vision and mission, shape their projects and business models, identify blind spots in marketing, and everything in between.

I have broad and deep technical and creative knowledge that allows for quick comprehension and rapid-fire reframing through many lenses. Through active listening, engaged reframing, and plenty of stories and metaphor from other contexts, we'll have a lot of fun exploring the landscape of your present and future.

Working to clarify your motivations and values to work from a place of strong purpose? I can help dig into what makes you and your team tick. I'll ask the right questions and be the mirror you need to really dial in your whys.

Working on complex, highly technical or abstract business models or products? I can help you brainstorm, reason about, and conceptualize what exactly you're trying to accomplish, how best to go about it, and how to communicate that to others clearly and concisely.

Have your eye on the long term? I employ storytelling and world-building techniques from science fiction writing to help you clarify your perspective of your past and present and illustrate possible futures you're interested in manifesting.

How have I helped others?

Charles Jing, CEO/Founder of Science Bounty System

"James Risberg is a master of communication, whose expertise and perspective is sought when discussing the minutest details or the grandest visions. As a digital marketplace selling hard science services, our business touches a lot of expert domains: software engineering, marketplace UI/UX design, REAL SCIENCE, and let's not forget the difficulty of people operations every growing company faces. I found James could offer valuable guidance on everything from product-market-fit, to marketing copy, to hiring, to firing. Personally, I think of James as an ultimate communicator and translator. When a difficult message has to be delivered, James can deliver it with grace."

Jonathan, Co-founder Team Machine

"We've had some really good discussions. I'd group them into 3 categories:

1. Real-time idea synthesis. Active listening / dialogue around TM vision; introducing deep metaphor and related works; creative, entertaining tangents that can anchor complex topics.
2. Discussion of how to relate to a broader community. Specific names and conversations in the twitterverse, int dark web, podcasts, etc; ideating form and content that would resonate with particular groups; ie, marketing of ideas.
3. Drafting docs as followup to 1,2 above. Drafts pull together ideas in a way that we can discuss further, contain difficult content."

Nick Naraghi, Co-founder Team Machine

"What was super helpful is the feedback loop of synthesis. I said this and he said it back to me in a new, interesting, more clear, "different metaphor", "different idea" kind of way. Understanding narrative, asking a bunch of questions and pulling it out of people that are the genius that you want to translate for, and actually getting it all out, and then using your understanding to like regurgitate it and say it back to someone in the way that they hear it, and they're like "oh yeah that's interesting", bringing metaphor and language into that. And then, drawing the connections to the things that you think are out there that are related.

Ted Nelson, Internet Pioneer

"James Risberg is brilliant. He is extremely clever and quick. He is extremely knowledgeable on many subjects. He speaks at length easily. He is highly idealistic, but also very strongly motivated and a finisher. I believe that he will do well in any subject he takes up."

What does the process look like?

I work best when I really understand you, and that sort of relationship requires high trust. We need the time and space to really align with your mission. Hourly and remote work just really doesn't cut it. So when we engage, you get me and my brain for a whole day. I'm yours, and I'll only be thinking about your context and how I can make the most impact for you.

1. Before We Meet

2. On-Site Engagement

For more insight into the narrative process, take a look at the Organizational Future Narrative Guide

Interested in working together? Reach out: james.risberg@gmail.com