Locate the self
Finds the lived moments and choices that reveal why the speaker is called to this work.
practice-based lens · v1
Public narrative on organizing
Connect a story of self, us, and now so shared values become relationship, urgent choice, hope, and collective action.
A lens never answers for you. It helps you see the question that your perspective alone might miss.
01 / attention
What this lens helps you notice.
These are the visible attention shifts projected into ask’s Question Genome.
Build an us
Looks for shared values embodied in experience rather than assuming identity or reciting abstract agreement.
Create a now
Frames an urgent challenge as a choice with credible hope and a specific invitation to act together.
02 / question moves
How it changes the next question.
The lens influences where ask looks. The question still belongs to you.
- 01Clarify the territory
Which lived choice reveals why you care about this?
Finds the lived moments and choices that reveal why the speaker is called to this work.
- 02Test the frame
What shared experience could help this group recognize an us?
Looks for shared values embodied in experience rather than assuming identity or reciting abstract agreement.
- 03Open a next move
What urgent choice can people make together now—and what makes hope credible?
Frames an urgent challenge as a choice with credible hope and a specific invitation to act together.
03 / genome projection
No mystery score.
The translation layer is inspectable: source patterns become attention territories, then question moves.
Named, linked, and open to inspection.
Locate the self · Build an us · Create a now
Three movements, each changed by the lens.
04 / boundaries
What this lens does not claim.
Trust begins where the interpretation stops pretending to be total.
- 01
This is a source-grounded interpretation, not a simulation of a person or a claim to know what they would say.
- 02
The lens changes what ask notices and tests; it does not supply an answer or override your judgment.
- 03
Sources are bounded and visible. Missing work, context, and disagreement remain part of the lens.
05 / source index
Inspect the material.
Every lens should show what shaped it, what is missing, and when it changed.
- S1Crafting Public Narrative to Enable Collective Action ↗
Harvard Kennedy School
- S2Marshall Ganz ↗
Harvard Kennedy School
bring it into ask