Big welcome @culturepilgrim 
Practically i’d recommend walking them through one example that “we prepared earlier” to orient folks.
I also think encouraging them to pick a single issue/area e.g. AI risk, climate crisis etc and then work through that to the root causes would be good. This helps focus people and avoids them getting lost horizontally in the polycrisis (i.e. how different crises interact with each other) and instead focus vertically and get to root causes – which tends to help with insight and action.
What we sometimes term “going from the cracks in the walls to the rot in the foundations” (using metaphor from the paper).
Below are a few examples we create back at the start that could inspire you.
To summarize:
- Focus on vertical analysis (going meta) rather than horizontal. You can share metaphor of cracks in wall.
- Show a worked through example for a specific issue to start with. e.g. pick climate crisis or AI risk or whatever.
- Then ask people to pick an issue and work on this.
- “Reflect for a moment on what big issues you see coming up”
- Collect suggestions from room and get a distilled list
- “I want you to pick a topic from this list. Then try and produce an analysis like the above”
- Then you can do 1-2-4 all i.e. share with another, then with 4 then with everyone
We’ve worked on this a bit for the Second Renaissance Explorer course Second Renaissance (something we’d like to teach others to lead btw)
Here are some “cracks in the wall”
Climate crisis (and ecological crisis more broadly)
What: obvious i think! Dangerous climate change and ecological degradation are accelerating. We continue to pump c02 into the atmosphere at a growing rate despite half a century of knowledge of the issue. Major vested interests actively oppose intervention and obscure the facts etc.
Superficial analysis: we just need more green energy … let’s get more solar.
Foundational issue: focus on endless material growth is core to capitalism and all major modern societies. Behind that materialism. tech obsession. Left brain delusions of control and simplified thinking (e.g. difficulty to grasp ecological dynamics and complexity etc).
"Wellbeing gap (or decline)
Despite great material wealth (in “west”) people not that happy and in many sectors wellbeing seems to be declining e.g. greater levels of suicide, depression.
Superficial analysis: a) dismiss issue (people actually are getting happier b) we just need more stuff c) (slightly deeper) we need to spend more on psychotherapy etc.
Foundational issue: (hyper versions of …) materialism, individualism, secularism. Materialism: a dead end in terms of long-term growth in wellbeing. Hyper Individualism = atomization and loneliness. Secuarlism = no spirituality and no access to waking up which is best opportunity for profound wellbeing (see A Scientific Approach to Awakening and Fundamental Wellbeing: The Work of Dr. Jeffrey Martin)
Polarization especially politically
Superficial “it’s just social media” etc.
Fundamentally: clash of world-historical cultural values systems as part of major paradigmatic transition from modernity to what comes after it (or in some cases still just from pre-modernity to modernity)
Concretely: (using Integral/spiral color metaphors) amber is clashing with orange/green. Orange is clashing with green. And teal is only just getting on the scene. See this book review for a more detailed analysis inspired by the Trump election Ken Wilber's Trump and a Post-Truth World - Review and Notes
Taking analogy of last great transition of medieval to modern: you had the great clash of catholicism with protestantism (major wars e.g. french wars of religion, 30 years war, spanish war in the low countries; massacres during all of these etc etc). You had the english civil war, the french revolution, the american revolution. These weren’t easy transitions - there were bitter disagreements and extreme polarization.
Growing inequality
What: inequality seems to growing systematically across a broad range of countries over the last half century.
Superficially just need a bit more redistribution.
Fundamentally related to the nature of the information economy and digital capitalism (or even capitalism in general!) - see https://openrevolution.net/book/ and e.g. Can digital businesses thrive and have a mindful culture?
Runaway tech
What: current AI development. clear risks but little ability to do much about it - in fact race to bottom (race to accelerate) seem to be getting worse.
Superficial analysis: need a bit more regulation.
Foundational analysis: we are tech obsessed (left-brain dominated, materialist), lack patience and ability to coordinate collective action problems (individualism etc).
Wellbeing / mental health crisis
What: ongoing rise in suicide and depression in the materially wealthier countries.
…
Meaning crisis
This a more ontological one - and hence more debatable.
What: loss of purpose, anomie, growth of nihilism.
Superficial analysis: always been this way … or inevitable result of seeing our true nature (selfish genes, purposeless atoms) and (lack of) true purpose.
Foundation analysis: cancer of modernity that removed the magic from the world (mistakenly and erroneously).