The Power of Communities. Extract. Episode #14: Take-ways

So I want to be mindful of the time, and I want to thank everyone for this insightful conversation since we're coming at the end of the hour. But we're gonna end this discussion the same way that it began, with what I called again a tour de table. One of the premises of this podcast is there's too much talking and not enough doing. So this, the key is really to take, to understand in a practical manner, and then to implement that in our own lives. So why don't we pass the mic and share what you've heard today, if there's anything, what you've heard today that inspired you to do something differently than the way you did it prior to this conversation, or anything that you feel that was left unsaid. And she's back, and she should be here in a second, or any last thoughts that you'd like to share. And I'm gonna start by sharing my own takeaways so you can have a moment to collect your thoughts. Hi, Jenae!

Deny.

So this conversation was really fascinating because when I was 15 years old— no, 16 years old— I did my first internship, and I had this vision of a big board where there were tasks and subtasks of various projects, and anyone can pick anything they wanted to do. And not only to meet other people, but to discover whether you had the skill or not. And of course, there was some, some system, kind of an elaborate a federated system of I want to do this, but I don't know how to do it. Who can mentor me and still learn? So it was a mix of learning and doing what you wanted to do. Interestingly, 30 years, 40 years later, I found myself in this marketing agency that is currently an LLC, which we're converting into a co-op. So we're building from the ground up this vision of a company where anyone can come participate in a group of 2 or 3 and do the work that any typical marketing agency would do. And so we're in that midst of where actually we just put together a team of 3, 4 people. Actually, we've opened up and say, we need to talk about not only the legal structure, but also the accounting. And the model is 20% goes to the agency, the 80% is being redistributed to the woman. And then it's on their own agreement if they're working on 50/50 or 80/20, whatever the way they're engaging because they're bringing their own skills into the work. But we want to go beyond that, and the value that the agency, not just the 20%, but 10% of those 20% will be distributed to, will be invested in the financial stocks or funds and will pay for healthcare. And we're trying to find a way, what if someone comes and just works 6 months and then leaves or get a full-time job but still want to be part of the community? So how do you account for the person still giving back and being part of the community? And it's a Fascinating work. And so what I'm hearing is there are some accounting mechanisms that could support what we're trying to do. I love the fact of what Michelle, you were saying that it actually starts with an open collaboration, is driven by the desires and by shared values. So the work that we've done previously is amazing because that was the first discussion. You know, what do we believe in? How do we conduct ourselves among us? What kind of work do we want to do? What I'm still unsure is how to, as I started this initiative, I don't want to be the leader. I definitely don't want to tell people what to do. And so I'm trying to find, you know, this place where I do what I like to do. I start project, I work with client, I would open up, but I'm still in this, I'm in the improv. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know where I'm going. I don't know who will come and join me. And it's really unfolding. In front of my eyes. It's been 3 to 6 months, now we're 11, and, you know, who am I to know what other people want to do? So I'm always trying to be careful if I'm starting something that I want to do, and then I'm just trying to see who wants to come. So I think this push and pull, I've always wondered, is this— should I do more pulling, more pushing? And actually, I shouldn't do anything. But just being mindful of my own desires, starting my own initiative, and if there's other people who want to go on the walk with me, then that's fantastic. But it's definitely territories that I'm— unknown territories, and it feels at times, you know, it's unsettling. I don't— again, I don't know where I'm going, so I think going back to being able to deal with my own emotion of uncertainty and unknown and fear and being aware of that loud voice in my head that just is trying to control because that's my education, that's my, that's how I became a leader is by telling, being good at telling people what to do. But that's not the type of leadership that I want to experiment, experience anymore. So thank you so much. Can I, Janai, we lost you for a moment and now we're in that last phase of sharing our final thoughts.

What you just said, because it's so valuable, and that you said it is not about pull and push. For me, I look at my emotions, I look at my intentions, and who am I to tell other people what to do? This is a perfect statement of highly feminine energy leadership, which is rising and hopefully we will see more of it in the world, that being okay with the unknown and although it doesn't feel good because we are not trained to be that way, staying in that feeling and also embracing that feeling. And I don't call it push-pull or push, I call it allowance, allowing what wants to emerge. Because now new stories want to emerge. Now not reaction to what is wrong, but a new world story wants to emerge. Now life wants to emerge. Now we are not limited to accounting sheets, to old business models. Now we are not— we cannot fit into educational models anymore. That's why community like nature, is the closest resemblance that we can experience what it means to be a human without a taught agenda of the collapsing systems. So it's a great way to reimagine who we are, what is our role, how we can contribute. Just the feeling of I am not alone in feeling this anxiety, in being scared of this pandemic, in feeling that I don't know what's gonna happen to me tomorrow. I think we have been experiencing a very fast rehearsal of the new world for the last 4 months all around the world together. It is a great opportunity for us to now think together from an empty canvas. Like, it's really hard to do it. It's easy to say, hard to do it. Can we drop all the— even it needs us to drop our terminology of pull, push, leadership, management, blah, blah, you know. So I always go back to children and I imagine myself explaining my question, my ambiguity to them to get their opinion. I have two daughters, very smart. They are my guides actually. They lead me in innovation. So when I am rehearsing, rephrasing my question, my ambiguity to them, I notice how much I am controlling my own thought system. So this new leadership that is emerging, that is feminine, allowing of life to emerge, I think that is a very important starting point also for new organizations to embrace the individuality, my individual taste. If I like music, I might contribute to my organization by my musical talent or taste. Thanks to everything that now we can design conscious business models, now we have technology, now we can get the opinion of so many people, now we can connect the dots, now we can make agreements, now we can do everything that we want. Actually, there is nothing that stops us but us and our learned thought structures. I know it might sound a little bit too optimistic, it does to many people, but what do we have to lose if we just give it a chance? But I want to come back to let's consider the education system to be reinvented when we are questioning the relationship and the importance of communities for organizations, because educational organizations, who decides for them, who facilitates for them, need to be reinvented together with the community involvement. And to me, that is the most urgent and important topic of all.

Yeah, that's a very good point. Yeah, so thank you for all those beautiful words. Why don't we begin or end this, the Tour de table. So Rachel, would you like to leave us with final thoughts or anything anything that you've heard that sparked some attention of desire to implement?

A lot of what Michelle brought up, I'm gonna go explore because I'm thinking about that structural accounting models and how can I— like, that's where my head is right now. The other piece of my head is where Jenai is, which is— and maybe this is— I don't think it's US-specific, but that's where I am right now. Our entire culture is driven by anxiety and fear and violence and competitiveness against each other, like, and it's not— it's killing us, whether it's killing us quickly if we're Black, or it's killing us slowly if we're white and we're not articulating that. But community is the way we find joy, and we all be our— we're each unique, and our systems are not set up to honor that. And so we need a completely different emotional way of being while we work that is more joyful, that's calmer, that is not saturated in cortisol, if you want to get kind of physical about it. Because ultimately to me, and it has to do with the education system as well, we're saturated in competing with each other. How do we pull away from that? Because by pulling away from that, I think that's where we're going to find our future.

Love it. A new way of being emotional in the way we work. That's very powerful. Thank you so much, Rachel. Michel?

Yes. Well, first of all, I think that maybe Richard said it, or maybe I heard it before from Unspiral, but the idea that the tools are secondary. I think this is a very important idea. So you start from your values and your, you know, your social code, and then you only then do you look for solutions that fit. I think that's very important. Otherwise we're into, you know, it's called techno-solutionism, that, you know, some tech will— so I'm with Richard's remark on that. I put two things in the chat box, one for you Virginie Glaenzer, I have a category in the wiki called post-corporate and this is for things like Inspiral and other organizations that really do things differently. I'd like to give you one example to think about, this is the Ethos Foundation in the UK and they create two kinds of shares for their members, one for the people who are actively engaged in market work, so, you know, make the organization survive financially, but then they have another share for the people who contribute in other ways that are not directly related to the market but create this common value. And every 5 years they split the value of the commercial shares in two, and that funds the other shares. So it's a real recognition of the non-market contributions. So I think, you know, maybe that's not the solution for you, but something of that nature I think might be interesting to look at. And I have in this section different examples. So I just want to say this, you know, there is a lot of people for the last 10, 15 years who've been innovating and experimentation and In my wiki, I've been following this for 15 years, so if anything that you need, I think it's always worthwhile checking the wiki.p2pfoundation.net database because we have about 20,000 experiments and concepts and people and organizations that, you know, have been creating these seed forms. So it's a bit like a library for people involved in change. You know, there are others, but it's a pretty good one. And so that's my contribution, you know, the work that I do.

Fantastic. I'll share that not only to the team at Acorn Oak, but also on the blog post that we're going to be writing about this discussion. So thank you so much. And I just learned a new word, techno-solutionism. One of those isms that I love. Thank you so much, Michelle, for your inputs.

Rich?

I'm glad, Michelle, you remind us of the wiki, because it is a really extraordinary, amazing resource, and I just want to honour what you've been doing there over all this time. It's really amazing, and a big inspiration to me getting started, and hopefully we're contributing something useful to it as well with our experimentation. What sits with me reflecting on this conversation is this idea of, there's a thread through here about conditioning and culture and children, education, childhood conditioning, these sorts of things. And so there's a part of my brain which goes, ah yes, all we need to do is go to the next generation and raise them right. But then of course the problem is, well, who is going to do the raising? We don't have some kind of pure, ready, you know, we're in this constant process of trying to help the next generation be better than the last one, perhaps. And the phrase actually, a very simple one, but that Rachel said this, I can't remember if you said pushing or jumping off the anthill, but this concept of like that there is a kind of, it is a kind of leadership that you can play within a community where we are helping each other to grow in a way. It's kind of like being a teacher or kind of like being a parent, this thing of Helping people see what are the obstacles to them more fully realizing their own agency and their own autonomy and giving them that encouragement in that moment and this affirmation like, "Yes, you're safe, you can do it." So I think that's the phrase that's going to stick with me. Thanks very much everyone for spending this time with me. I feel calm and grateful to be spending time with you all.

That's wonderful. Thank you so much, Richard, for those last thoughts. I think you kind of summarized very well some of the major themes that we discussed. And then finally, Jenai, which is a beautiful name, I don't know why I'm not getting it right, Jenai, do you want to leave us with your final thoughts or anything that you feel that wasn't said? It's all yours.

Yeah, I want to add to Rich, we are all children first. Time is not linear and the child within us is still alive. If we can initiate The word I think you want, you were mentioning, can be initiation. Initiating humanity through some challenges with the community support is missing in the modern life. And we create troubles that don't exist. We are in, in, in search of a meaning. So, if we can initiate the purpose, and witness each other's transformation today with openness, with a childlike curiosity, love and intelligence, that is poss— that's a possibility. Not everybody is gonna jump into that, but my biggest takeaway from this whole conversation, many, but the biggest one is we are actually holding the space for each other And my biggest intention out of this event is I want to be more aware and more attentive of the beauty of what is going on around me. I am invited to this event, I learned a lot, but at the same time I witnessed your journeys, Rachel, you receiving those accounting sheets reading that and holding that in your heart, all that slavery sheets, and going through what you are going through, witnessing that with your communities in United States on behalf of all of us. I really admire that, I really respect that, and you are doing the work there. Michelle, I always admire you with more than 20,000 examples and knowing that some, some of those are really like corrupted and unfair structures, and you witnessing that and holding that in your safe space and communicated transcending them is so valuable. Thank you. And Rich, it was a great pleasure meeting you. I really admire especially young men being so open, honest, vulnerable, and witty in a sense. So it was great. And Virginie Glaenzer, I really, really adore your Maybe you don't call it that way, but woman leadership in this unknown ocean of possibilities and sailing and inviting others to your ship. To me, what comes out as a word, as a value of this event is respect. And I think when we respect what is going on, we see the magnificence of the transformation already. I want to thank to all of you. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Janai. So I'd like to end by asking viewers and listeners to like this video or subscribe to our podcast if they think that this is of interest to them, or any other channels which is distributed on. And then also tell us in the comments what is the real power of communities for you. So again, thank you very much, everyone.

Thank you.