Vision Becoming Possible

Peter Metsopoulos, founding consultant at Arcadia Strategy Group focuses on envisioning how the organizational and strategic pieces of programs fit together so that the world can be a better, more equitable, and more understandable place. He believes in equity, education, and empathy as the solutions to pretty much every problem.

Over the course of a career that has spanned broadcast design and special effects production, independent film and global distribution, classroom teaching, and nonprofit program development, Peter has also served as the co-founder of a charter middle school in Baltimore City, a presenter at national and local conferences, and a board member for youth-focused social enterprises and executive director of the Center for Theory of Change.

With all of that, the best thing he's done is raise three wise and kind young adults.

Read more from the exceptional Peter in our Q+A below, and be sure to check out his spotlight feature in our most recent issue of En Root!

This month's theme is all about envisioning the world we want to build. Tell us how this theme has played a role in your personal or professional life.

When I began my project management career, it became blindingly clear that without a specific and measurable end goal, the journey would be haphazard. That's a problem when you are working in film or broadcast design, where you need to emerge with a finished project / product--so that was one revelation, which has echoed through my Theory of Change work. Mapping, as I've mentioned in other conversations, means that vision becomes possible.

At OutGrowth, we believe in designing the space and time to reimagine the path forward. How do you think that a commitment to building a better world can help us to see our futures differently?

As a second part to the first question--and an answer to this one--I'd lean on how much becoming a parent changed my world. It's so important as a parent to be an adaptive leader, an adaptive project manager, if you will; your child is not a project, and is certainly not a product. And yet, here you are managing a process--toward what? Well, here's where the vision needs to be both conceptual and tactical, about the child and the world. I wanted my children to see the possibilities for joy in the world, the possibilities for justice in the world. In order to do that, I had to design time and space to imagine that world and the conversations that would allow them to grasp it on their own terms. Have I been successful? I don't know--I do know that I have been thoughtful and purposeful, and I look back on that (though it's ongoing even as they are in their 20s) with a sense that I did the best I could--and that that process has led me to understand what I see as my own future more clearly.

What is one hard lesson you learned in this past year that contributed to your growth?

That being a small-business owner is at least as hard as I had imagined--and that I need to keep learning, keep finding the authentic core of the work I do, if I'm going to keep growing both my capabilities, my understanding, and my ability to make change through Arcadia.

What is one competency or skill you hope to develop in 2025?

Keeping my bicycle well-tuned.

What inspires you?

Quiet moments of calm and joy--as a species, we are capable of so much love and understanding; creating a world where more of that is possible because we each have the basic necessities is the worthiest of goals in my eyes.

What is one resource you'd recommend to those looking to carve out the time for growth in the next year?

Slow Down - The Degrowth Manifesto by Kōhei Saitō

What's next? What are you excited about in the coming year?

The emergence of new leaders who can frame a vision of what our country can and should be in 10 years. We desperately need to move away from "returning" to anything we frame as "normal" or previously "great" and look forward to what we're capable of building.