Welcome!
I’m glad you’re here.
We have
important
work to do.
What if we actually aimed for thriving?
Too often, we accept busyness and productivity as their own reward. Or we’re afraid to be bold, so we aim for something less than thriving.
As a result, we’re falling dangerously short of thriving in our communities, in our organizations and in our own lives.
So, what if we recognized the characteristics of thriving living systems in our organizations and communities?
And what if that were somehow simple and useful, opening up new insights and suggesting new ways forward?
What if our most powerful role is to act as stewards of life’s processes, actively cultivating the fertile conditions for life to thrive?
And what if this helped us achieve all of our other objectives more effectively?
This is the most important work of our times.
This is the practice of thrivability.
Here’s how I can help.
Whether you’re an organizational leader, a community planner or just someone looking for answers, here are some ways I can help.
Thrivability
Maven
Sharing deep expertise on what it takes for life to thrive in our organizations, our communities and our own experience
Perceptive
Guide
Hosting meaningful conversations to navigate complexity collectively, creatively and joyfully
Creative
Strategist
Offering a comprehensive framework for designing and stewarding effective change
Visionary
Author
Mapping the opportunity in The Age of Thrivability: Vital Perspectives and Practices for a Better World
Captivating
Speaker
Delivering thought-provoking keynotes, workshops and webinars, with warmth and interactivity
“We need to see ourselves more fully as active stewards of life’s unfolding process and as part of a larger living world.”
– The Age of Thrivability
Changing The Game of Life
The most important thing we can do right now, individually and collectively, is to change the game we’re playing. “The game we play” is another way of thinking about the story or worldview we’re living out. Adopting a new game (or worldview) changes the conversations...
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From an Economy of Hoarding to an Ecology of Healing
Our economic belief system is designed around hoarding - accumulating ever more stuff, in constant fear of not having enough and especially of not having as much as our peers. And look where that’s gotten us: to the edge of extinction, among other ills. In place of...
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Evolving Growth
"Don't grow if it will make you sick." This is what the “mother” had told them. My client was a small, dynamic company that produced kombucha, a natural fermented drink believed to have significant health benefits. The group had asked me to help them figure out how to...
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"What if there had also been Founding Mothers in the nation’s creation story? Might that story also have featured the stereotypically feminine response of nurturing & cultivating those ideals w/in family & community, in harmony with nature?"
https://t.co/Rp4K8J2oqS
Deeply grateful for these kind words from @jenandersson1 about my book. "With the growing existential threats faced by humankind, books like The Age of Thrivability paint a picture of what’s possible."
https://t.co/EOPoDRNdZq
I love this ... and I believe we need to go further than "human first" to embrace "life first." All life. There is so much useful guidance, and so much greater inspiration there. With a focus only on humans, we won't get where we need to go. @corp_rebels https://t.co/EnxEvGefZ6 https://t.co/MmTCRgwTci
“When you live in accordance with your faith & bring your stories & traditions to the tapestry of this City & country, you are not only exercising a right but also bearing a gift.” I listened to an interview w/ @PeteButtigieg & was deeply impressed. He's exploring running 4 prez. https://t.co/R880Aod7o3
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? (Dec 2016)
Just as communism fell in Russia, capitalism and Western-style democracy are not immune to the same fate. In fact, the US election, the global rise of nationalism and the worldwide persistence of poverty, social unrest and environmental degradation are all signals that capitalism may be about to hit a wall.
The difference is that the communists had capitalism to turn to. But what do _we_ turn to next?
To answer that question, we have to understand the worldviews that underlie communism and capitalism and that render both unsustainable.
In simplified terms, communism values the collective more than the individual, whereas capitalism values the individual over the collective. As practiced, each in their own way, the two systems see the world and its institutions as machines to be managed and engineered. With these limited lenses, neither has been able to create the conditions for widespread personal and societal thrivability.
What’s needed instead is a worldview – an overarching narrative – that is elegantly able to integrate individual and collective needs. Only a narrative grounded in the self-organizing, self-integrating processes of life meets that requirement. After all, nature never settles for the false dichotomy of part versus whole.
The good news is: paradigm pioneers around the world are blazing an enticing trail, with innovative approaches like social entrepreneurship and impact investing. Grounded in the language and logic of living systems, these new options invite each of us to find our greatest personal reward by making our best contributions to the collective good. The early results are extremely promising.
The bad news is: the individualist, mechanistic worldview won’t hand over sole control without a fight. Donald Trump is the most extreme product of this worldview and its duly appointed spokesperson. Indeed, the entire US election process can be understood as the individualist worldview having a massive temper tantrum.
So, how do we put this unruly brat of a worldview (and a president-elect) to bed?
Certainly, we must resist and block the unreasonable demands and abuses of the tantrum.
Equally, though, we need to tell the emerging story, recognizing the values of individualism and also weaving them into a more complete view. We have to imagine together a society in which individuals can be honored even as they honor all life.
If we look beyond the dogma of communism and capitalism, beyond the dichotomy of individual versus collective, or of republican versus democrat, we can see that the expanded story is all around us, in everything that is alive and in the most vibrant parts of our communities. “You don’t start with the corporation and ask how to redesign it,” advised author Marjorie Kelly in a recent essay. “You start with life, with human life and the life of the planet, and ask, how do we generate the conditions for life’s flourishing?” The same is true of our societies and their governing structures.
“To change something,” said Buckminster Fuller, “build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.” That is our most urgent task.
michelleholliday.com/where-do-we-go-from-here/
Where Do We Go From Here? | Michelle Holliday
michelleholliday.com
Just as communism fell in Russia, capitalism and Western-style democracy are not immune to the same fate. In fact, the US election, the global rise of nationalism and the worldwide persistence of pove...Deeply grateful for these kind words about The Age of Thrivability. She writes the words I hoped someone would feel in reading the book.
"It’s always exciting when any book opens your mind to new perspectives and learning. It’s even more true when it’s a subject you know well, and yet you find your eyebrows rising with a new way of thinking that delights you. A great insight is one which has you shouting 'yes! — _that’s_ what I’ve been feeling and sensing but haven’t been able to articulate!'"
medium.com/activate-the-future/the-age-of-thrivability-activating-the-good-life-922c3b710246?fbcl...
The Age of Thrivability: activating the good life
medium.com
I don’t often write book reviews but Michelle Holliday’s The Age of Thrivability ticks so many boxes for a must-read book that I feel…“When you live in accordance with your faith, and bring your stories and traditions to the tapestry of this City and country, you are not only exercising a right but also bearing a gift.” Pete Buttigieg
This is the kind of compassionate, wise leadership the world needs.
"Love what is, even as you create the conditions for it to change. This is one of the many paradoxes of stewarding living organizations. And as my friend Tolu Ilesanmi says, 'It takes a different kind of thinking.'"
michelleholliday.com/postcards-thrivability-camp-paradox-transformation/
Postcards from Thrivability Camp: The Paradox of Transformation | Michelle Holliday
michelleholliday.com
Last week, I wrote about a story I shared at the opening of Thrivability Camp. According to the story, leaders can be seen as "keepers of the fire," a powerful symbol of transformation. Though this is...
