Governance and Production at Scale

How do we coordinate together for a more thrivable world?

In this session, we will be covering the following core concepts and practices:

• Action Spectrum

• Polarity Management

• Direction V Destination

• Dynamic Alignment

• Triangle of Values

• Polycentricity

• Cookie Model

• Process Hierarchy

Narrative Shift

Per our usual explorations, drive by Donella Meadows stack of interventions in a system… and given how narratives drive possibilities…

We have been in a world where the driving narrative is about…

• Control management

  • Top down control, clear boundaries,

  • Internalize resources, externalize negatives

Control is evil! Banish the devils of detailed planning. Long Live Life!

The new narrative focuses on how organic and responsive life is. Thus:

• Emergence

  • Guidelines for steering

  • Structures that enable autonomy of subsets

  • Coordination of distributed autonomous agents

Action Spectrum

Developed from conversations with Herman, listed at the end of the Thrivability Breakthroughs book.

• Control

  • tends to be mechanical rather than living system (unless force)

  • lower risk, higher predictability

• Guide

  • Allows for agency of players, choicefulness, consent

• Nurture

  • planting seeds of possibility, network effects

  • higher risk for impact and harder to attribute causality

Inquiry

Where have you noticed the control narrative? What words shows up around control as metaphors?

What narratives do you notice in the guide/nurture realms?

How does that relate to collective intelligence, for example?