We need to move from competitive ideation, trying to push our individual ideas, to collective ideation, collaborative ideation. It isnât about having the number one best idea, but having ideas that come from, and work for, more people.
When we speak of systemic change, we need to be fractal. Fractalsâa way to speak of the patterns we seeâmove from the micro to macro level. The same spirals on sea shells can be found in the shape of galaxies. We must create patterns that cycle upwards. We are microsystems.
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Though expensive and usually belated, reorganizations are widely regarded as the only way to realign an organization with its environment. As a report by the Boston Consulting Group put it, âRapid change requires companies to reorganize faster than ever before.â Good luck with that!
Whatâs needed are radically new organizational models that downplay formal structure. In a world of relentless change, trade-offs need to be made as close to the front lines as possible. Boundaries must be malleable. Resources, rather than being hoarded, must flow unhindered toward promising opportunities. Interunit coordination must be the product of nimble, self-organizing communities and market-like transactions rather than blanket policies or cumbersome councils. In short, we need organizations that, like the biosphere, the internet, or a vibrant city, are more emergent than engineered.
We had to begin to practice deep, authentic collaboration. This meant a shift in how we move financial and human resourcesâthere are enough people out there to support the movement(s) we need, but currently, organizations are pitted against each other to access money (less and less money), rather than creating and investing together to maximize a diversity of resources from money, to people, to spaces, to skills. Because we are not investing in a shared network of resources, it is easy to let structural and ideological particularities create deep splits throughout the non-profit sphere, rendering much of our work useless.
In movement work, I have been facilitating groups to shift from a culture of strategic planning to one of strategic intentionsâwhat are our intentions, informed by our vision?
What do we need to be and do to bring our vision to pass? How do we bring those intentions to life throughout every change, in every aspect of our work?
This often results in groups centering work that doesnât depend on factors outside of their control (such as funders, or elections, which come and go and should be well used but not directive or debilitating). The clearer you are as a group about where youâre going, the more you can relax into collaborative innovation around how to get there. You can relax into
decentralization, and you want to.
If the vision is only clear to one person, that person ends up trying to drive everyone towards their vision, or at minimum control how everyone gets to the vision. That makes sense,
and itâs so exhausting. Decentralized work requires more trust building on the front end, but ultimately it is easier, more fluid.
There are way too many people in critique mode who belong to no formation, who spend their lives writing volunteer think pieces in 140 character bursts of Internet. It makes me feel defensive of the messy chaotic beauty of transformation. Uprisings and resistance and mass movement require a tolerance of messiness, a tolerance of many, many paths being walked on at once.
We heal ourselves, and we heal in relationship, and from that place, simultaneously, we create more space for healed communities, healed movements, healed worlds. What I offer here are the core ways I have tapped into my own power and wholeness, and ways I have supported others to tap into their own wholeness and transformation. And fractal strategy suggests wholeness in our organizers yields wholeness in our
future.
I am a fan of being creative and self-directive with practices. What are the practices you need to line your life up with your values and beliefs?