An Organization to Carry Us into the Future

The Reinhabit Cooperative the Living Systems Institute is promoting is designed to be an organization that can carry our community into the future.  We are not concerned with existing business, government and religious organizations.  We humans can belong to more than one organization.  The problem that Reinhabit Cooperative seeks to address is the needs of all those individuals who are not being adequately served by those existing organizations.

In the world we want in the future every individual human will be able to obtain the things they need to thrive.  The things humans need to thrive are food, shelter, learning, health belonging and purpose.  Reinhabit Cooperative will produce those things for all those participating in it.

There are three sets of ideas we want to incorporate into the cooperative in order to address these needs.

The first set is the ideas about managing a common pool resource following the work of Elinor Ostrom.   We call the common pool resource available to a community biological potential.  Biological potential is all the participation that could be contributing to the well being of the community but is not.  Biological potential includes the potential contributions of the people who are unable to find a job paying a living wage.

The second set of ideas is those that Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey call deliberately developmental organizations.  This set changes the employer/employee relationship in ways that foster the development of employee.  By giving employees the incentive to be constantly improving themselves, both developing skills and maturing, the organization becomes more effective at accomplishing its goals.

The third set of ideas is those Frederic Laloux calls "teal organizations'.  These are organizations that honor the humanity of the people doing the work by allowing them the authority to do the work in the right way.  These are also known as horizontal organizations and the process is described as "pushing decision making to the edges."

The goal of managing a commons is to get the best use out of a resource in a sustainable and regenerative way.  The goal of a deliberately developmental organization is a structure that allows every individual to pursue their full potential.  The goal of a teal organization is a structure in which each participant can take responsibility for their contribution to the society.  We want to incorporate all three of these goals into Reinhabit Cooperative.

 

 

  


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

20 Years Unlearning to Garden

Image
     I have been gardening a long time now.  I don't remember the first time I put a seed in the ground and came back later to see a glorious plant.  I must have been very young.  So it is sixty plus years now.  First I learned every thing I could about traditional gardening and then organic gardening and now, at 71, I am finally beginning to understand how wrong I have been all these years.  I think I must be a slow learner.        Just as an example, the common wisdom in gardening is that we cannot plant our warm season seeds until the ground is warm.  That wisdom tells us that the seeds will rot if planted too early.  Yet, I have picked batches of pole beans from plants that volunteered in my garden.  The seeds were scattered after some beans dried on the vine and they spent the winter out there.  I have a friend who counsels patience in all things because, when the conditions are right the seeds will gro...
Read more

A Four Subsystem Model

Image
As we learn to understand how the world works we can begin to have hope for a better future.  Consider that there are four main subsystems to the world that we experience.  Each of these subsystems operates through a specific function.  We are created by these subsystems and by our actions we create them.  The future of the world is determined by the choices we make.  Here is how it works.  As individual organisms we receive stimulus from the world around us and respond.  We seek to be fed, safe and loved.  This is true for every living organism.  It is true for every bacteria, every fungi, every plant and every animal. Some of the stimuli we receive comes from the energy of the sun and the materials of the earth.  This is true for every living organism.  We all need the warmth of the sun, certain minerals and the wind and the water. Some of the stimuli we receive comes from the pattern of living things in which we find oursel...
Read more

A Crowd Sourced Narrative

This blog is about creating an inclusive pattern of interactions.  This is opposed to the pattern of interactions in which we find ourselves.  The pattern in which we find ourselves requires money to participate for the most part. The narrative describing how to create an inclusive pattern has not yet been written.  We will develop the new pattern as individuals become aware of the alternative and begin exploring that within their own communities.  It is only through this participation by people in communities around the world that we can write this narrative so we need your help. Begin with the Face Book Group " How the Cook and the Gardener Saved the World " where we will discuss what will go into the narrative . . .
Read more