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
The Deep Why
It doesn't seem to come naturally for people to take the time to connect deeply with WHY. Despite Simon Sinek's best efforts, there's still a strong urge to jump to WHAT. But there's so much reward (clarity, engagement, energy, moral authority, creativity...) to be...
read more
The Generosity of Seeing and Receiving
In my work over the past several months, I've been accompanying a beautiful social experiment - a non-profit called daana. It's been a joy, with many valuable lessons for our times. "Daana" is Sanskrit for "the practice of generosity," which the Buddha taught was...
read more
Living Down to Expectations
I was in a discussion recently about how to craft the invitation to an upcoming conference. Up to now, much of the vision for the event has centered on the need for a systemic approach - for helping the complex web of stakeholders to see themselves as a single...
read more
"I find that so many of us are feeling called to make the 'sacred journey Home' in our connection with the Earth and each other. And in making that journey, we are coming home to ourselves." https://t.co/bkJZ69Fvbq
Join me for a free webinar Jan 28 on aligning with life to move into an Age of Thrivability. If we don't set out sights on thriving, we'll never get there.
https://t.co/yXRLseaNGU
The aversion 2 spending time on “why” is often related to the need 2 shift from “hero” 2 “host.” The leader so often believes that he (yes, it’s usually a he in these cases) has 2 b the hero w/all the answers – the “what.” And it becomes self-fulfilling. https://t.co/335UTTciMj
"We realize that life is the true bottom line and that contributing to life's richness is our ultimate reason for coming together in organization. And that changes everything."
https://t.co/oigUbUpqby
"Whether we trash the living planet and ruin people's lives should not be a matter of consumer choice." - George Monbiot
When we acknowledge our organizations as living systems, "we realize that life is the true bottom line and that contributing to life’s richness is our ultimate reason for coming together in organization. And that changes everything."
michelleholliday.com/organization-living-system-now/
So your organization is a living system…now what? | Michelle Holliday
michelleholliday.com
Earlier this week, a new collaborator asked me for a few guiding principles that go along with thinking of an organization as a living system. "Just give me a few sentences that I can share with my co...Seneca Nations Chief Oren Lyons telling a story about a meeting he had with a group of CEOs…
I said, “As you’re coming down the final stretch, you are racing towards the finish, and there is the stone wall. And you’re not pulling your horse, you’re not stopping. Your’e in fact accelerating.”
I said, “That’s the way I see the use of what you call resources. You’re using them faster than they’re reproducing. And you’re headed towards that disaster, and none of you are pulling your horse.”...
And one of the gentlemen, we’re all men [in the room], maybe 50 to 60, 65, and he said, “You know, I understand what you’re saying. But to answer your question, no, we can’t pull our horse as you say.”
“Because, ” he said, “we must show a profit, as a CEO I must show a profit. If I don’t show a profit I’m fired. Simple as that, I’m out of a job. I have to show a profit.”...
I said, “When do you cease to be a CEO and become a grandfather?”
There was a lot of silence there, because that was a moral question. If you don’t have a moral question in your governing process, you don’t have a process that’s gonna survive. That’s the governing law, the moral question. You must have a moral society or you won’t have any…
[Thank you to Christopher Chase for sharing this]
creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/when-do-you-cease-to-be-a-ceo-and-become-a-grand...
“When do you cease to be a CEO and become a grandfather?”
creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com
“If you don’t have a moral question in your governing process, you don’t have a process that’s gonna survive. That’s the governing law, the moral question. You must ha…"It doesn’t seem to come naturally for people to take the time to connect deeply with WHY. Despite Simon Sinek‘s best efforts, there’s still a strong urge to jump to WHAT. But there’s so much reward (clarity, engagement, energy, moral authority, creativity…) to be found in the WHY."
michelleholliday.com/the-deep-why/
The Deep Why | Michelle Holliday
michelleholliday.com
It doesn't seem to come naturally for people to take the time to connect deeply with WHY. Despite Simon Sinek's best efforts, there's still a strong urge to jump to WHAT. But there's so much reward (c...
