The Age of Thrivability

"Thrivability is a worldview, a global movement, and an active practice. Guided by what we know about living systems, it is a continual and purposeful drive to create the fertile conditions for life to thrive at the levels of the individual, the organization, the community and the biosphere. Profoundly practical, it is distinguished by a deep understanding of how life works – and by intentional participation in that pattern. The thrivability movement recognizes that only by aligning with life in the spirit of learning, compassion, contribution and play can we find the motivation and the means to collaborate and innovate at the levels required.

The goal of enabling life to thrive is appealing for obvious reasons. But we may be less accustomed to the idea at an organizational or community level. This first requires us to recognize organizations and communities as living systems, sharing a core set of characteristics with rainforests, ant colonies and our own bodies. This then draws our attention to the intrinsic capacity of all thriving living systems to support collaboration and innovation, to develop new, emergent capabilities, to regenerate themselves continuously, to heal themselves and adapt to change, to demonstrate collective intelligence, and to integrate with their environment advantageously. These are exceedingly desirable qualities that, by definition, are latent in every organization and community, waiting only for the proper fertile conditions to be in place.

At any level, then, thrivability is not a static end goal or an absolute, ideal state. Instead, it is an ongoing assessment and adjustment based on emerging insights, evolving internal conditions and shifting context. It is a continuously unfolding inquiry: “What conditions are needed in this moment, within these circumstances, to support life’s ability to thrive as fully as possible at every level?” And it is a purposeful set of responsive actions.

Thus, thrivability calls for perspectives and practices that support wise stewardship of self and system. It includes disciplines of individual and collective sensing and learning. It demands intentional crafting of structures and systems. It necessarily takes a holistic view – which in organizations means linking purpose with passion, brand with culture, and worker with customer and community. It asks us to hospice death and decay as necessary aspects of life. And it invites practical play into most every interaction, since play is how we collaborate and learn best, and the joy that results is one indication that we are thriving.

Together, all of these form a practice, in the sense of a martial arts practice or a spiritual practice. They are what some call the path of the “heart warrior.” Thrivability requires the fierce commitment and discipline of the warrior, brought forth in loving service of life.

In all, then, thrivability is even more than an inquiry and a practice. It is a quest. A hero’s journey. A choose-your-own-adventure story. The challenges we face in our organizations and in the world call for nothing less. And our own hearts crave nothing more.

This is not a journey that can be undertaken alone. It requires a community of practice. A band of brothers- and sisters-in-arms.

So, who’s in?"

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The Age of Thrivability

"What if we viewed producing and selling stuff as a means to learning? What if the goal of our work is actually to play and learn together, and producing and selling stuff is simply the game and playground equipment at hand? ...

It’s a radical idea – absurd, even, according to today’s business logic – until we consider that we and our organizations are not machines to be oiled, but dynamic living systems to be nurtured. And what makes a living system thrive is not more stuff. It’s not “busi-ness” and activity for its own sake. It’s connecting, sensing, responding and learning....

This isn’t to say that your organization’s practical mission – to produce and sell stuff – isn’t important; it’s to expand that mission and to put it in perspective. It’s to recognize that our organizations are living extensions of the people within them. They’re dynamic human communities. And it’s reasonable and important to expect them to serve a wide range of our human needs, including learning."

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The Age of Thrivability

"The same human patterning instinct that has brought us to this precipice is also capable of turning us around and onto a path of sustainable flourishing. We have the capacity to build an alternative worldview around a sense of connectedness within the web of life—a sense shared by indigenous cultures around the world from the earliest times.

I’ve seen this idea disparaged as a New Agey, kumbaya-style mentality even by otherwise progressive thinkers. However, modern scientific findings validate the underlying connectedness of all living beings. Insights from complexity theory and systems biology show that the connections between things are frequently more important than the things themselves. Life itself is now understood as a self-organizing, self-regenerating complex that extends like a fractal at ever-increasing scale, from a single cell to the global system of life on Earth."

patternsofmeaning.com/2018/03/22/culture-shift-redirecting-humanitys-path-to-a-flourishing-future... ... See MoreSee Less

The Age of Thrivability

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 hoarding, what if we designed for healing?

The root of the word is “to make whole.” Healing as ever-greater wholeness, through care and generosity.

Healing our hearts and bodies. Healing our relationships with each other and with the Earth’s countless other species. Healing the soils and the waters. Healing our communities.

If we tune in, we all know intuitively where healing is needed and where we can contribute. We are wired to care, unless our belief system tells us we should not.

What would feel healing and nourishing to you today?

What if the next conversation you have with someone contributes to just a little healing? What would that look like? It might be as simple as a smile or a thoughtful question. Or it might be more profound.

What if our every purchase were guided by the opportunity to contribute to healing? What would you buy? How would you buy it? Maybe you would recognize that (as I wrote) “it takes a village to raise an entrepreneur,” and so you would buy something locally.

What if each meeting were designed as an experience of healing? It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.

What if each company dedicated itself to offering healing to people and planet, in its own special way? Patagonia, Interface and others are leading the way. Regenerative farmers, too.

What if elected officials saw themselves most of all as healers, creating more wholeness for citizens and communities through connection, participation and maybe even play? The UK offers a pioneering example, not at a national level but in its local community efforts.

From hoarding an ever-expanding quantity of stuff to cultivating an ever-deepening quality of healing. From fear of never having enough to delight and curiosity in discovering what more is possible.

Let’s design for *that.*

[originally published at michelleholliday.com/from-an-economy-of-hoarding-to-an-ecology-of-healing/] ... See MoreSee Less