“Berries are abundant in their season. Some berries are so ripe, there's no point in putting them in your basket; they must be eaten on the spot. And the more ripe berries you pick, the more buds will ripen tomorrow.” - Saul Eisen, “Picking Blackberries And Pulling Weeds: Some Metaphorical Rules Of Thumb For Consultants”
Last Friday, I picked the first strawberry of the season. It was big, red and perfectly ripe. Often, when picking berries, I think of Saul Eisen. Saul is a lion in the field of Organization Development, and in the above quoted poetic essay, he speaks to the importance of readiness when it comes to fomenting change.
The moment we find ourselves in is ripe for change. Look around, all the systems that were cracking, creaking and convulsing for the past few decades, are now fully exposed. It turns out that we can learn without campuses, work without offices, stay fit without gyms, maintain law and order without clear governance and/or leadership, and connect without contact.
Transitioning to this new way of living has been painful, yes, and, in every crisis lies the roots of possibility. As our “leaders” race to find cures, mitigate contagion and secure band-aids for gapping global wounds, an amazing opportunity has ripened; the opportunity to talk about how we want to move forward long term, not what must be done to return to “normal.”
October is not the time to begin discussing how to secure our voting process, nor can we wait until 2021 to talk about improving our governance, nor can we maintain our white-knuckle grip on our current economic model as it continues to widen the gap between the haves and have-nots.
The moment is ripe to talk about major structural changes societies around the world need to bridge the chasms that we have tolerated for too long. To ensure this crisis results in the change so many of us have been striving to create for decades, we need to begin discussing root cause issues, and exploring new possibilities. We must get out of the weeds of who is to blame, who will come to our rescue, how we will reopen next week, and begin to think bigger about the long term possibilities that have ripened to perfection in this moment. What are those issues and possibilities? Glad you asked…
Governance Structures: While the world raced ahead, many of our organizations (private, public and volunteer) relied upon the same governance models used by regimes from Pharaohs to Franklin Delano to Fidel - centralized, hierarchical and fragile. Over the last decade, we have begun to see the power of more distributed governance models (see Linux, Zappos, Wikipedia, Wordpress, Ethereum). These governance structures are not new, far from it. They take inspiration from First Nations and attempt biomimicry at human-scale. Many organizations are beginning to test new governance structures, and many more would be wise to embrace this ripe opportunity to make the switch. The most innovative, experimental and bleeding-edge in governance possibilities is currently being forwarded by members of the DAO movement (DOA stands for “Decentralized Autonomous Organization”). To learn more about DAOs, check out Ethereum, Status and Dash.
Voting Methods: For our most important decisions, we often take votes, but the manner in which we vote, the issues about which we vote and the efficacy of the result of the vote remain black and white, while the world we hope to impact operates in psychedelically patterned technicolor. Majority and supermajority rule are the most popular voting methodologies, and how is that serving us?! Delving deeper, how are paper ballots working for us? How is digital voting working for us? Luckily, communities around the globe have been experimenting with voting methods rooted in “skin-in-the game” style incentive structures, built on mind boggling encryption technology, allowing for an astonishing level of vote integrity. One such method is known as “Quadratic Voting,” a voting methodology that allows voters to express the degree of their preferences. Voting methodologies and digital encryption are enabling countries (see Estonia) and organizations (see Status) to create more access, equity and integrity in the results of their elections.
Economic Models: When 21M people file for unemployment and the market goes up, there is something fundamentally wrong with our economic model. The operating system our global economy runs upon is complex beyond imagination, unaccountable beyond belief and broken beyond repair. The false choice between socialism or capitalism ignores the fact that there are many more fair, sane and creative models that better serve the collective and the individuals. The most battle-tested, transparent and cutting-edge economic model experiments are taking place in the blockchain space. It is there we see deflationary assets being deployed and circular economic models being employed by hundreds of thousands of global citizens. These blockchain projects are experimenting with new economic models in communities around the world and providing fascinating, hope-inspiring case-studies in economic possibilities.
Our species is amazingly resilient. Our planet is a self-healing organism. We will get through this current crisis. In the meantime, we have important work to do - and we would be remiss to not take advantage of this Great Pause to lean into the important conversations about how we want the next 100 years to look, instead of figuring out how to restart the dysfunctional and disenfranchising “normal” of yesterday.
