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
From Cows to Capital to Cultivation
cap·i·tal (etymology): Borrowed from Latin capitālis (“of the head”) (in sense “head of cattle”). Use in trade and finance originated in Medieval economies when a common but expensive transaction involved trading heads of cattle. Compare chattel, which also uses “cow”...
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Context and Complexity as Fertile Ground for Thrivability
[A version of this post originally appeared in April 2018 at www.realityseeker.org. It is my responses to a series of interview questions about complexity science, living systems, and the Age of Thrivability.] How would you describe the “context” that filters into and...
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Using a Shovel to Build a Bridge: Truth and Reconciliation in Quebec Archeology
[Originally published May 31, 2013] “I thought archaeology would be simple,” said one young woman. “I mean, I’m working with the dead. What could be complicated?” The roomful of Quebec archaeologists – and even the handful of representatives from various indigenous...
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Revised following rich conversations with @BelinaRaffy, @volansjohn, @bill and others. Would love more feedback on what I feel is an important area for exploration.
https://t.co/36L80nTd8u
"It follows, of course, that the least enlargement of ideas … would cause the most striking changes of external things." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
quoted by Donella Meadows
https://t.co/nAXeZEC9OK
"Any system, biological, economic, or social, that gets so encrusted that it cannot self-evolve, a system that systematically scorns experimentation and wipes out the raw material of innovation, is doomed over the long term on this highly variable planet."
https://t.co/nAXeZEC9OK
“I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be 'happy.' I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all, to matter and to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.” - Leo C. Rosten https://t.co/La4pJcv2fu
"[John Kotter's] way of describing complex social systems as having “operating systems”, as in a lifeless machine, is also entirely inappropriate in the context of living systems. The metaphor is simply under-complex." https://t.co/OPaNqAy59w
Revised this based on feedback. Would be grateful for further comments - I believe this is an important area of exploration. Here's the link on Medium:
medium.com/@michelleholliday/from-capital-to-cultivation-b49900c49999
From Cows to Capital to Cultivation – Michelle Holliday – Medium
medium.com
cap·i·tal (etymology): Borrowed from Latin capitālis (“of the head”) (in sense “head of cattle”). Use in trade and finance originated in…"It follows, of course, that the least enlargement of ideas … would cause the most striking changes of external things." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
quoted by Donella Meadows
donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System - The Donella Meadows Project
donellameadows.org
By Donella Meadows~ Folks who do systems analysis have a great belief in “leverage points.” These are places within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem...Remember this term: "under-complex."
"[D]escribing complex social systems as having 'operating systems', as in a lifeless machine, is entirely inappropriate in the context of living systems. The metaphor is simply under-complex."
www.workpath.com/en/magazine/how-a-triad-of-organizational-structures-allows-to-absorb-complexity/
How a triad of organizational structures allows to absorb complexity
workpath.com
A new, practical theory of leadership, organizational structure and power has emerged. It is ending one of the biggest misunderstandings in organizational science. The notion that organizations can be...“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” Aldo Leopold
