Invite people to consider events and possibilities from the
vantage point of either the past or the future, in order to
change assumptions about what is possible in the present. People
have a tendency to believe that however things are now is how
they will always be, and perhaps how they have always been. Many
of their assumptions maintain the status quo, blocking
possibilities of doing things differently. For example, there is
a phrase among Quakers when faced with a stick-in-the-mud
member: "There won't be a change on that until there's been a
few good Quaker funerals." This belief itself can prevent change
from taking place. People may respond by aiming deliberately low
for what they see as achievable instead of what they really
want, by questioning the value of collaboration, or being
generally pessimistic. Time Shifting is one way of opening up
new possibilities. Occasionally Time Shifting may also be
helpful in confronting unwarranted optimism, e.g. "If we build
it they will come." By envisioning the fu