Thoughts On Thrivability
Ownership and the Living Organization
If an organization is a living system, is it appropriate for anyone to own it? Would it be more appropriate to see it as something we bring into the world and steward, like a child? How might that work, legally and financially? These questions came up recently as I...
Postcards from Thrivability Camp: The Paradox of Transformation
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 a role traditionally played by women, leaders of any gender can...
Postcards from Thrivability Camp: Keepers of the Fire
This is part of a series of posts about a gathering in Montreal in which a diverse group of 15 people spent four days exploring different facets of thrivability. On the first morning of Camp, we sat in a spacious circle. Each in turn, we walked to the center of the...
Postcards from Thrivability Camp: Thriving is Learning
This is part of a series of posts following a gathering in Montreal, in which a diverse group of 15 people spent four days exploring different facets of thrivability. Throughout the Camp, we were almost obsessive about learning. It was extreme. We set learning goals...
Postcards from Thrivability Camp: Advancing the Story
Here’s a small but precious gem from last week’s Thrivability Camp. My co-host Belina Raffy shared some basic rules of improv, one of which was “keep the story moving.” As our group lived out this principle in a variety of playful ways, it struck me that it would make...
Postcards from Thrivability Camp: The Effects of Immersion
“What is possible when we craft organizations as a space for life?” This was the theme of last week’s four-day Thrivability Camp. Within that theme, we wanted to find out: “What happens when we mix together Living Systems Thinking, Applied Improv, the Art of...
Organizational Design: Lessons from the Field (literally!)
If we see an organization as a living ecosystem, what does this mean for organizational design? Are there different principles and practices for shaping organizational structure when we recognize it as being alive? Can it even be designed, or does the structure have...
Unwrapping the Gift Economy
It has become popular to declare that we need to move to a gift economy, in which we share more freely and value community more deeply, and in which our relationships are less often money-based and transactional. Clearly, this is an important and appealing...
The Third Canoe
It was the November gathering of the Thrivability Montreal conversation series. Close to 40 of us had gathered in Kahnawake, a Mohawk territory just outside Montreal. We had the rare privilege of being invited to a local Longhouse to learn about Indigenous...
