Climate change and a pandemic demonstrate that for most individuals, organisations and governments, it is the tensions that emerge between authoritarian regulatory control and small group independent self-organization, and between simple and complex choices in collective decision making, that present the most difficulties for a shared future. The hoped for outcomes do not always follow the choices made, highlighting the unpredictability of such complex crises. Consequently, drawing on macromarketing, marketing systems and human social evolution, we consider how to avoid failure or collapse, enhance quality of life for all, foster insights into community flexibility and resilience, whilst continually shaping over time and space our social, economic, political and environmental systems.