This and the following posts this morning are a little deeper than I intended when I started out to write them. They are important to understanding how and what I am developing for our benefit, so I hope you can find the time to read them and think about them for at least ten minutes. We'll both win if you do!
Here is a few additional important concepts of systems thinking.
For information to grow, there has to be an exchange of information.
Here is one of my favourite examples.
Systems 'thinking' (we can also very usefully think of it as "systems being"!) is incredibly robust because this is what life has been doing for somewhere on the order of 3 billion years. I think we can both agree that is a lot of research and development!
This exchange of information is dynamic. That is, it flows both ways. In living systems, the more we study how living systems 'work' and how they exchange information, the more we learn, and the better we can then in turn manage our living systems. For ecological systems--the very living systems that makes our human life possible!!--this is very good news indeed, as we'll hopefully better able to manage our inter actions and dependency on our ecological environmental systems.
My other favourite example I have already touched upon is the blogosphere along with other social media environments like forums, wikipedia, and online communities (Howard Rheingold's "Brainstorms" was a stellar example of such) where knowledge is freely shared, and those actively participating improve their own knowledge and social awareness. Very dynamic, and excellent examples of win-win relationships.
The "whole" (a tribe, or organization, or whatever the free association is) gains exponentially by the participation and exchange of the parts (people and their knowledge).
To repeat. People and organizations that harness the dynamic systems and knowledge available to them will have the competitive advantage now and in the future over those that do not. It is that simple. I as the unconventional consultant can not stress this point enough.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Tribal Economics 103
I have been told many times I should write a book, or books even. On average, I am told around once a month.
The thing is, I already know I am better off giving away and sharing with you and others what I know. I am much better sharing it with you, and building a tribe around it rather than packaging and selling it as a book. By making it a commodity of financial exchange, I taint the knowledge I have just that little bit. (I believe in capitalism as well, just to keep this in perspective!) I know there is much more value in the trust and reputation I gain by sharing it with you.
If you are by some shocking account unfamiliar with the blogosphere, let me share something with you. There is a staggering array of knowledge freely shared by high profile economists, sociologists, anthropologists, physicists, and so on. There is also essentially 95% useless or trivial information. Systems thinking and by extension of the systems I am developing for my organizations are a way of separating the signal (pertinent knowledge and wisdom) from the noise (trivia, propoganda, etc).
These people can freely share their knowledge because they are also secure in knowing that they can add additional value in order to create a living around their acquired knowledge.
There is a tremendous amount of knowledge out there. Being open minded to exploring new innovative ways to make that knowledge and wisdom useful for you or your organization is up to you. AND up to me.
Put up your hand if you are starting to 'get' it!
The thing is, I already know I am better off giving away and sharing with you and others what I know. I am much better sharing it with you, and building a tribe around it rather than packaging and selling it as a book. By making it a commodity of financial exchange, I taint the knowledge I have just that little bit. (I believe in capitalism as well, just to keep this in perspective!) I know there is much more value in the trust and reputation I gain by sharing it with you.
If you are by some shocking account unfamiliar with the blogosphere, let me share something with you. There is a staggering array of knowledge freely shared by high profile economists, sociologists, anthropologists, physicists, and so on. There is also essentially 95% useless or trivial information. Systems thinking and by extension of the systems I am developing for my organizations are a way of separating the signal (pertinent knowledge and wisdom) from the noise (trivia, propoganda, etc).
These people can freely share their knowledge because they are also secure in knowing that they can add additional value in order to create a living around their acquired knowledge.
There is a tremendous amount of knowledge out there. Being open minded to exploring new innovative ways to make that knowledge and wisdom useful for you or your organization is up to you. AND up to me.
Put up your hand if you are starting to 'get' it!
Systems Thinking Dynamics 101
Readers who have taken the steps to read this blog regularly are to be congratulated, you are on your way to being transformed, by being exposed to newer ideas and concepts, expanding your own mind, developing newer and broader perspectives and learning new ways to think and grow.
Bravo!!
You've read me write a lot about how systems thinking is important to you and organization's enhanced ability to adapt to current and future environments. In this post I'd like to give you a better idea how it works.
Systems thinking is grounded in the study of systems. Just to state the obvious. Less obvious is there are different kinds of systems and systems thinking. There are mechanical systems, for example. Their are social systems, like the organization you either work for, or manage, or are in charge of, and their are living systems.
My particular brand of systems thinking is grounded in my study of living systems with applications to social systems. Like you. Your community. Your work. Your organization.
(While I am indebted to many books and writings of systems thinkers, I am especially indebted to Peter Senge and his book, The Fifth Discipline.)
Systems thinking is a broader, more holistic way of looking at and thinking of how all the various components and sub-systems of a system interact and produce. (understandably, we will put aside for now what it is systems can produce!)
Our tribal ancestors would have assuredly used systems thinking in their adaptive approaches to the environment in which they lived. Which is to say, it is a natural way within us to think. We know this because there are still many peoples who live now as our ancestors did tens of thousands of years ago.
The difference now between our tribal ways of life and our modern economic way of life is the level of complexity.
Modern systems thinking has to deal with a degree of complexity unimaginable to our tribal brethren.Modern economic life involves mechanical systems, technological systems, social systems, economic systems, belief systems, living systems, trading systems and ecological systems. All have interactions and inter dependencies with one another.
For now, I want to focus more on systems thinking at the more basic level where it means something to you or your organization.
Anybody can incorporate systems thinking into their perspectives and ways of thinking of themselves and the world they live in.
By way of example, I will share with you how I developed my own systems thinking process.
Firstly, I was highly motivated to do so. Whether my mind had a natural propensity to think in terms of interactive systems is hard to say (a chicken or egg problem!), but I can say some time around 15 years ago I started to develop systems thinking as a way to look at how the world worked.
To grow my knowledge, the more I learned the more I shared and in turn the more I learned. That dynamic process enabled me to develop a pretty robust systems thinking point of view.
It is a process that can be applied to anything.
Now here I can introduce two important concepts of systems thinking.
--All systems are reliant on the acquisition and transmission of information.
--All systems develop dynamic feedback loops as course corrective mechanisms.
Simple, right?
For me to learn about systems thinking, I tried to continually acquire and transmit information on systems that I read about, observed, inter acted with, etc.
I learned to develop both positive and negative feedback loops as corrective mechanisms for my acquired information. This process leads to the classic pattern of--data-information-knowledge-wisdom.
(Bonus note!! Our brains/minds take in data all the time, of which approximately only 95% we are 'aware' of. Your conscious is the minds way of turning data into functional information and knowledge for you to operate in your living environment)
The fundamental key here is developing both positive and negative feedback loops and finding a harmonic balance between the two. If there is only ever ONE thing you learn about systems thinking, this is it.
Negative and positive feedback loops (negative="oops, that's wrong! positive="yay, that's right!") are how all living systems adjust to the data and information they take in to produce the knowledge it needs to adapt and survive in its environment.
Wisdom is your way of adding additional value to the knowledge you have systematically acquired. Whether I am adding wisdom here is up to you to decide! (Hint. Systems thinking is the best way to assess whether or not I have added value!)
While there are a lot of things that derail our natural systems thinking minds (Bonus note!! Civilization itself has been part of the process of systematically derailing your own systems thinking mind!) here are a few:
--a mind boggling (literally!!) degree of complexity in modern life.
--ego short circuits the positive and negative feedback loops ("I am the pinnacle of expertise!"Or conversely; "I am too stupid to get this!)
--hoarding and developing silos and walls around your knowledge for personal power or gain ("Only I have access, and you will pay dearly to access it!").
All three are detrimental to your personal development and the ability of organizations to adapt and grow.
Winning people and winning organizations will learn to over come all three.
Bravo!!
You've read me write a lot about how systems thinking is important to you and organization's enhanced ability to adapt to current and future environments. In this post I'd like to give you a better idea how it works.
Systems thinking is grounded in the study of systems. Just to state the obvious. Less obvious is there are different kinds of systems and systems thinking. There are mechanical systems, for example. Their are social systems, like the organization you either work for, or manage, or are in charge of, and their are living systems.
My particular brand of systems thinking is grounded in my study of living systems with applications to social systems. Like you. Your community. Your work. Your organization.
(While I am indebted to many books and writings of systems thinkers, I am especially indebted to Peter Senge and his book, The Fifth Discipline.)
Systems thinking is a broader, more holistic way of looking at and thinking of how all the various components and sub-systems of a system interact and produce. (understandably, we will put aside for now what it is systems can produce!)
Our tribal ancestors would have assuredly used systems thinking in their adaptive approaches to the environment in which they lived. Which is to say, it is a natural way within us to think. We know this because there are still many peoples who live now as our ancestors did tens of thousands of years ago.
The difference now between our tribal ways of life and our modern economic way of life is the level of complexity.
Modern systems thinking has to deal with a degree of complexity unimaginable to our tribal brethren.Modern economic life involves mechanical systems, technological systems, social systems, economic systems, belief systems, living systems, trading systems and ecological systems. All have interactions and inter dependencies with one another.
For now, I want to focus more on systems thinking at the more basic level where it means something to you or your organization.
Anybody can incorporate systems thinking into their perspectives and ways of thinking of themselves and the world they live in.
By way of example, I will share with you how I developed my own systems thinking process.
Firstly, I was highly motivated to do so. Whether my mind had a natural propensity to think in terms of interactive systems is hard to say (a chicken or egg problem!), but I can say some time around 15 years ago I started to develop systems thinking as a way to look at how the world worked.
To grow my knowledge, the more I learned the more I shared and in turn the more I learned. That dynamic process enabled me to develop a pretty robust systems thinking point of view.
It is a process that can be applied to anything.
Now here I can introduce two important concepts of systems thinking.
--All systems are reliant on the acquisition and transmission of information.
--All systems develop dynamic feedback loops as course corrective mechanisms.
Simple, right?
For me to learn about systems thinking, I tried to continually acquire and transmit information on systems that I read about, observed, inter acted with, etc.
I learned to develop both positive and negative feedback loops as corrective mechanisms for my acquired information. This process leads to the classic pattern of--data-information-knowledge-wisdom.
(Bonus note!! Our brains/minds take in data all the time, of which approximately only 95% we are 'aware' of. Your conscious is the minds way of turning data into functional information and knowledge for you to operate in your living environment)
The fundamental key here is developing both positive and negative feedback loops and finding a harmonic balance between the two. If there is only ever ONE thing you learn about systems thinking, this is it.
Negative and positive feedback loops (negative="oops, that's wrong! positive="yay, that's right!") are how all living systems adjust to the data and information they take in to produce the knowledge it needs to adapt and survive in its environment.
Wisdom is your way of adding additional value to the knowledge you have systematically acquired. Whether I am adding wisdom here is up to you to decide! (Hint. Systems thinking is the best way to assess whether or not I have added value!)
While there are a lot of things that derail our natural systems thinking minds (Bonus note!! Civilization itself has been part of the process of systematically derailing your own systems thinking mind!) here are a few:
--a mind boggling (literally!!) degree of complexity in modern life.
--ego short circuits the positive and negative feedback loops ("I am the pinnacle of expertise!"Or conversely; "I am too stupid to get this!)
--hoarding and developing silos and walls around your knowledge for personal power or gain ("Only I have access, and you will pay dearly to access it!").
All three are detrimental to your personal development and the ability of organizations to adapt and grow.
Winning people and winning organizations will learn to over come all three.
Tribe Economics 102
As readers of this blog will come to know, I continually try to tie the bigger picture to the little picture (your picture, perhaps!), and vice versa.
The unconventional consultant is passionate in getting people to want to develop a fuller, more rounded understanding in how our actions (or in-actions!) can make a difference in how humanity can respond to the enormous challenges we face in the coming years.
It is virtually impossible to keep up with the many issues that we as people, we as organizations face now, and in the coming years. For one, there is a lot of disinformation, politicized information, information with hidden agendas, or even hoarded information.
When developing the concepts that go into the Transforming People Organization, and the Transforming Organizations organization, I wanted to develop systems and organizational culture for addressing these issues.
That is, I wanted to create a process for developing knowledge and wisdom around shared information, with a level of trust and reputation around that information, knowledge and wisdom that is difficult to find via traditional means.
We as individuals, we as people within organizations have an enormous amounts of under used wealth of information and knowledge. By creating the trusted networks between our tribes, our organizations, we can develop very dynamic systems for not only keeping us better informed of the issues we face, but much more importantly, creating the innovations and actions for addressing those issues.
It is the act of giving and sharing information and knowledge that enabled humans to populate vast regions of the earth with six billion people. As people, as organizations, we will need our ever increasing creativity and capacity to innovate to manage the possible addition of another three billion people within the next forty years. It is imperative that we do so.
Finding new ways to connect with people, new ways to build solid, trusting relationships with people finding new ways of sharing our knowledge and expertise will be a critical component of both understanding the challenges we face, and addressing the challenges we face.
The internet and new forms of social media give us unprecedented opportunity to connect, share and build relationships.
Those that can create win-win dynamic relationships, where those that give and those that receive both win, will have an enormous advantage in the long run.
The unconventional consultant is passionate in getting people to want to develop a fuller, more rounded understanding in how our actions (or in-actions!) can make a difference in how humanity can respond to the enormous challenges we face in the coming years.
It is virtually impossible to keep up with the many issues that we as people, we as organizations face now, and in the coming years. For one, there is a lot of disinformation, politicized information, information with hidden agendas, or even hoarded information.
When developing the concepts that go into the Transforming People Organization, and the Transforming Organizations organization, I wanted to develop systems and organizational culture for addressing these issues.
That is, I wanted to create a process for developing knowledge and wisdom around shared information, with a level of trust and reputation around that information, knowledge and wisdom that is difficult to find via traditional means.
We as individuals, we as people within organizations have an enormous amounts of under used wealth of information and knowledge. By creating the trusted networks between our tribes, our organizations, we can develop very dynamic systems for not only keeping us better informed of the issues we face, but much more importantly, creating the innovations and actions for addressing those issues.
It is the act of giving and sharing information and knowledge that enabled humans to populate vast regions of the earth with six billion people. As people, as organizations, we will need our ever increasing creativity and capacity to innovate to manage the possible addition of another three billion people within the next forty years. It is imperative that we do so.
Finding new ways to connect with people, new ways to build solid, trusting relationships with people finding new ways of sharing our knowledge and expertise will be a critical component of both understanding the challenges we face, and addressing the challenges we face.
The internet and new forms of social media give us unprecedented opportunity to connect, share and build relationships.
Those that can create win-win dynamic relationships, where those that give and those that receive both win, will have an enormous advantage in the long run.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Tribe Economics 101
"...ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
John F. Kennedy
Yesterday I was asked, "How does this work? What do I get out of this?"
Awesome! Feedback!
I will try to answer as clearly as I can with as few words as possible.
The shortest answer possible is you get what you give to your tribe. Or this tribe. Or any tribe that is worth your association. And the more you give in, the more you get out. That is how Tribe Economics expands in shared value for the entire tribe. Hundreds of people giving more than they get. That dynamic builds value very quickly.
What do you get? Trust and Reputation.
Trust and reputation around whatever it is you choose to give freely to the tribe. That could be your knowledge or expertise on any number of things. It could be your ideas. It could be your plan for trying something new in your life. The possibilities are many.
What you get, what you develop, is a trust and reputation around whatever it is you're willing to give within an ever expanding network of people and organizations that also share and develop trust and reputation around what they are willing to give.
When you belong to a tribe--and better yet!!--a network of such tribes, you are creating and developing the social bonds, the social glue that allowed our ancient ancestors to survive often incredibly harsh conditions for hundreds of thousands of years.
Developed and shared trust and reputation were the cornerstones of success, winning, and thriving under any economic conditions of the past, and will be in the future.
These are the cornerstones for the core values of Transforming Organizations and Transforming people. (Think of these as tribes of tribes!)
This will be the theme of the week.
John F. Kennedy
Yesterday I was asked, "How does this work? What do I get out of this?"
Awesome! Feedback!
I will try to answer as clearly as I can with as few words as possible.
The shortest answer possible is you get what you give to your tribe. Or this tribe. Or any tribe that is worth your association. And the more you give in, the more you get out. That is how Tribe Economics expands in shared value for the entire tribe. Hundreds of people giving more than they get. That dynamic builds value very quickly.
What do you get? Trust and Reputation.
Trust and reputation around whatever it is you choose to give freely to the tribe. That could be your knowledge or expertise on any number of things. It could be your ideas. It could be your plan for trying something new in your life. The possibilities are many.
What you get, what you develop, is a trust and reputation around whatever it is you're willing to give within an ever expanding network of people and organizations that also share and develop trust and reputation around what they are willing to give.
When you belong to a tribe--and better yet!!--a network of such tribes, you are creating and developing the social bonds, the social glue that allowed our ancient ancestors to survive often incredibly harsh conditions for hundreds of thousands of years.
Developed and shared trust and reputation were the cornerstones of success, winning, and thriving under any economic conditions of the past, and will be in the future.
These are the cornerstones for the core values of Transforming Organizations and Transforming people. (Think of these as tribes of tribes!)
This will be the theme of the week.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Who We Are--Organizations
I have a special affinity for organizations. For one, our ability to organize to produce a good or a service-- be that in the capitalist sense, the political sense, the ideological sense, or for labour, or even in the personal sense--I believe is one of humanity's greatest abilities, greatest 'discoveries', this ability is what also makes modern life possible.
Modern economic life would not be possible if not for our ability to organize in all sorts of manner.
Look around you. Your environment is the product of modern economic life and our ability to organize people. Your ability to survive would be dramatically diminished without it. (Unless you count returning to the days of hunting and gathering as a way forward for yourself and your tribe. A laudable strategy, just not one well suited for six billion and growing people.)
Now, as an organization, I want you to think about that. As an entity, you are responsible for the quality of life here on earth. You may only affect a radius of 10 miles around you, or maybe 100 miles, or maybe 1,000 miles, or you may affect an entire region, an entire country, an entire continent, and entire world. What ever the range of your organizations affect, with that affect comes responsibility.
To me, the unconventional consultant, that is an enormous responsibility.
As the unconventional consultant, it is my mission in life to take your organization to the next level in handling that responsibility, it is my mission in life to make your organization a leader in establishing the standard for that responsibility, it is my mission in life to enhance the economic and social well being of people by making organizations better.
Let me put this simply. The quality of life on earth is dependent on the quality of our organizations. My mission in life is to enhance the quality of those organizations.
As the unconventional consultant I have two ways of doing this.
One, is I work with your organization directly. If we build a relationship, if you buy into what I am about and what my systems are all about, I will transform your organization into one that can grow and thrive in any condition the future brings. I will develop a process and system for making your organization the very best it can be.
Two, I have the seeds and a registered domain name for starting an organization called Transforming Organizations.
What kind of organization would want to be part of such an organization? (an organization of organizations!)
Ones that get they have an enormous responsibility to not only their customers or constituents, not only to the people they employ or have work for them, but more importantly, an enormous responsibility to the economic fabric, the social fabric, the ecological environment that their organization touches.
I want involved organizations that understand for market capitalism to work, it's their responsibility. I want involved organizations that want to understand that responsibility and want to set the standard for that responsibility.
Do you understand what regulation is? I will tell you what it is. It is the outsourcing of the responsibility of standards of ethics and behaviour of the business your organization is in to some other organization.
I want organizations involved that understand that, and want to be leaders in setting the standards of ethics and behaviours that will lead the way for quality of life on this planet for now and future generations.
I want involved organizations that understand they need and want to have a different way of looking at their role in the economic and social systems that make modern and future life possible.
I want involved organizations that at least want to understand the characteristics of an organization that has systems thinking, learning, and social networking as part of their cultural make up, and that cultural make up will have an advantage over those that don't.
I want to be involved with these organizations because I know that it is organizations that will have the greatest affect on the quality of life for not just people, but life itself now and for the future.
I want to be involved with organizations that for this resonates with them, and have the initiative to at least contact me to find out more, or better yet, get what I am talking about and ask, "How do we help, what can we do to help make this grow?"
I want that kind of initiative because I know the quality of the future depends on the quality of your organization.
Modern economic life would not be possible if not for our ability to organize in all sorts of manner.
Look around you. Your environment is the product of modern economic life and our ability to organize people. Your ability to survive would be dramatically diminished without it. (Unless you count returning to the days of hunting and gathering as a way forward for yourself and your tribe. A laudable strategy, just not one well suited for six billion and growing people.)
Now, as an organization, I want you to think about that. As an entity, you are responsible for the quality of life here on earth. You may only affect a radius of 10 miles around you, or maybe 100 miles, or maybe 1,000 miles, or you may affect an entire region, an entire country, an entire continent, and entire world. What ever the range of your organizations affect, with that affect comes responsibility.
To me, the unconventional consultant, that is an enormous responsibility.
As the unconventional consultant, it is my mission in life to take your organization to the next level in handling that responsibility, it is my mission in life to make your organization a leader in establishing the standard for that responsibility, it is my mission in life to enhance the economic and social well being of people by making organizations better.
Let me put this simply. The quality of life on earth is dependent on the quality of our organizations. My mission in life is to enhance the quality of those organizations.
As the unconventional consultant I have two ways of doing this.
One, is I work with your organization directly. If we build a relationship, if you buy into what I am about and what my systems are all about, I will transform your organization into one that can grow and thrive in any condition the future brings. I will develop a process and system for making your organization the very best it can be.
Two, I have the seeds and a registered domain name for starting an organization called Transforming Organizations.
What kind of organization would want to be part of such an organization? (an organization of organizations!)
Ones that get they have an enormous responsibility to not only their customers or constituents, not only to the people they employ or have work for them, but more importantly, an enormous responsibility to the economic fabric, the social fabric, the ecological environment that their organization touches.
I want involved organizations that understand for market capitalism to work, it's their responsibility. I want involved organizations that want to understand that responsibility and want to set the standard for that responsibility.
Do you understand what regulation is? I will tell you what it is. It is the outsourcing of the responsibility of standards of ethics and behaviour of the business your organization is in to some other organization.
I want organizations involved that understand that, and want to be leaders in setting the standards of ethics and behaviours that will lead the way for quality of life on this planet for now and future generations.
I want involved organizations that understand they need and want to have a different way of looking at their role in the economic and social systems that make modern and future life possible.
I want involved organizations that at least want to understand the characteristics of an organization that has systems thinking, learning, and social networking as part of their cultural make up, and that cultural make up will have an advantage over those that don't.
I want to be involved with these organizations because I know that it is organizations that will have the greatest affect on the quality of life for not just people, but life itself now and for the future.
I want to be involved with organizations that for this resonates with them, and have the initiative to at least contact me to find out more, or better yet, get what I am talking about and ask, "How do we help, what can we do to help make this grow?"
I want that kind of initiative because I know the quality of the future depends on the quality of your organization.
Who We Are--People
As you get older, and wiser, you realize you can choose whom you get to work with, whom you choose to build business and personal relationships with, and, whom you look for to be part of your tribe.
This morning I would like to describe more clearly who we are.
Firstly, I'd like to qualify this by saying there are very few people I do not like. I have this natural tendency to see the best in people. That is, recognize that there is within most people their better side. I also recognize that life has a way of grinding people down.
We all start off at the beginning of life--the river of life lets say!--as sharp, unique stones full of promise, full of potential, full of unique gifts to present to the world. As the rushing river of life starts to take us downstream, that process slowly or quickly, starts to round off the edges of our uniqueness. Before long, people are rounded stones, some bigger, some smaller, but all with their unique edges and shapes worn off, rounded stones like everyone else.
This is not idle philosophizing, there are biological underpinnings for this phenomenon of sameness. It is the herd mentality. It is the safety in numbers mentality, it is the do not stand out from the crowd mentality. It is the universal human comfort zone.
There are, quite naturally, pros and cons to such biological underpinnings. Those pros and cons can and do fill books, so we will not delve into them in this post.
Trying to fit in, trying to be part of the crowd, wanting to be part of the herd is in itself not a bad thing, it doesn't make you a bad person, it doesn't make you unlikable.
It does, however, eat away at your soul, eat away at your unique gifts and abilities to give to the world.
I see that untapped potential in you. That is what I see, because I know it exists.
Right now, I have the seeds for an organization called Transforming People, with a registered domain site called transformingpeople.org.
That site is for the potential in people that I know is out there.
You might already be a highly accomplished person! But guess what, you can do better!
Why? I am glad you asked!
Here is what I know. Whatever the current state of the world, whatever the current reality is, whatever you think of the current state of the world, the current reality is, what I know is we can do better. Much better.
What I also know is that not just humanity, but the earth as a system (Lets be clear here! Humans are just part of the system of life on earth.) is going to face enormous challenges that are going to test humans ability to adapt and grow, but also many other species' ability to survive.
As the one species with the cognitive ability to shape our environment in a planned and methodical way, we are the stewards, we are the leaders in shaping how well the future global environment is going to be able to support not only humanity, but also the other countless species and ecological niches that makes our lives possible and worth living.
The Transforming People Organization is for people that not only want to be part of an organization where their unique abilities, their knowledge, their passions can be recognized and given a place to grow and thrive, the Transforming People Organization is also for people who recognize the bigger challenges on the road ahead, and realize that their abilities, their knowledge, their passions can be part of the innovations, part of the social fabric, part of the economic fabric that can make the difference in how the future is shaped.
We start by first understanding that where we stand today is not good enough. We start by understanding we can do better. We start by accepting the leadership role within yourself in wanting to respond to the challenges the future will bring. We start by understanding that responding to the future challenges we will need to change the way we think of ourselves and our role in the game of life, but also how we think of the world.
We also start by understanding that we are creating an amazing journey together. We are going to create lifestyles that are rich in meaning, rich in personal connections, rich in finding greater joy and sense of purpose than we previously thought possible.
Here is what I also know. An organization of people like us will thrive, will have a sense of security and purpose in their lives no matter what the future brings.
What I also know is you are out there.
The people I want to grow with, build long lasting relationships with, that I want to start and build an organization like Transforming People with, will resonate with what I am writing, what I am trying to say.
They will also have the initiative to ask, "How do I get involved? How do I help make this grow?"
That is who we are.
This morning I would like to describe more clearly who we are.
Firstly, I'd like to qualify this by saying there are very few people I do not like. I have this natural tendency to see the best in people. That is, recognize that there is within most people their better side. I also recognize that life has a way of grinding people down.
We all start off at the beginning of life--the river of life lets say!--as sharp, unique stones full of promise, full of potential, full of unique gifts to present to the world. As the rushing river of life starts to take us downstream, that process slowly or quickly, starts to round off the edges of our uniqueness. Before long, people are rounded stones, some bigger, some smaller, but all with their unique edges and shapes worn off, rounded stones like everyone else.
This is not idle philosophizing, there are biological underpinnings for this phenomenon of sameness. It is the herd mentality. It is the safety in numbers mentality, it is the do not stand out from the crowd mentality. It is the universal human comfort zone.
There are, quite naturally, pros and cons to such biological underpinnings. Those pros and cons can and do fill books, so we will not delve into them in this post.
Trying to fit in, trying to be part of the crowd, wanting to be part of the herd is in itself not a bad thing, it doesn't make you a bad person, it doesn't make you unlikable.
It does, however, eat away at your soul, eat away at your unique gifts and abilities to give to the world.
I see that untapped potential in you. That is what I see, because I know it exists.
Right now, I have the seeds for an organization called Transforming People, with a registered domain site called transformingpeople.org.
That site is for the potential in people that I know is out there.
You might already be a highly accomplished person! But guess what, you can do better!
Why? I am glad you asked!
Here is what I know. Whatever the current state of the world, whatever the current reality is, whatever you think of the current state of the world, the current reality is, what I know is we can do better. Much better.
What I also know is that not just humanity, but the earth as a system (Lets be clear here! Humans are just part of the system of life on earth.) is going to face enormous challenges that are going to test humans ability to adapt and grow, but also many other species' ability to survive.
As the one species with the cognitive ability to shape our environment in a planned and methodical way, we are the stewards, we are the leaders in shaping how well the future global environment is going to be able to support not only humanity, but also the other countless species and ecological niches that makes our lives possible and worth living.
The Transforming People Organization is for people that not only want to be part of an organization where their unique abilities, their knowledge, their passions can be recognized and given a place to grow and thrive, the Transforming People Organization is also for people who recognize the bigger challenges on the road ahead, and realize that their abilities, their knowledge, their passions can be part of the innovations, part of the social fabric, part of the economic fabric that can make the difference in how the future is shaped.
We start by first understanding that where we stand today is not good enough. We start by understanding we can do better. We start by accepting the leadership role within yourself in wanting to respond to the challenges the future will bring. We start by understanding that responding to the future challenges we will need to change the way we think of ourselves and our role in the game of life, but also how we think of the world.
We also start by understanding that we are creating an amazing journey together. We are going to create lifestyles that are rich in meaning, rich in personal connections, rich in finding greater joy and sense of purpose than we previously thought possible.
Here is what I also know. An organization of people like us will thrive, will have a sense of security and purpose in their lives no matter what the future brings.
What I also know is you are out there.
The people I want to grow with, build long lasting relationships with, that I want to start and build an organization like Transforming People with, will resonate with what I am writing, what I am trying to say.
They will also have the initiative to ask, "How do I get involved? How do I help make this grow?"
That is who we are.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)