This is a post in my series on organizing ”between and beyond.” Other posts are here. The purpose of this post is to reflect on subjects occupying my mind. I make no claim to fully believe what I write. Neither do I pretend that others have not already thought or written about the same subject. More often than not, I take up, combine, and add to already existing thoughts and ideas.
What is on my mind?
Today’s reflection is inspired by this and this post by Michelle Holliday (@thrivability).
Michelle writes (my emphasis in bold):
It usually takes more than action to generate and support change. …
We need to reconnect with what matters. We need to rediscover our place in the whole of life. …
Ultimately, what we need is to find the collective will to cultivate life’s ability to thrive … in every sphere of society. …
The outgoing worldview has been dominated by persuasion and even coercion, “driving” and “incentivizing” change.
Cultivating thrivability is not a discrete item on your to-do list; it’s an ongoing life practice…
Everything comes down to our ability to acknowledge and celebrate the precious gift of aliveness, source of our kinship with all existence.
It is through a sense of place … that we connect with the generative dimension of life most directly.1
Michelle also writes (my emphasis in bold):
Beyond specific techniques or the latest management fads, then, thrivability calls for a conscious commitment to nurturing life. It asks us to recognize the life in our organization—acknowledging that the organization isn’t something we can fully manage and control, but that our role is as stewards and participants, creating fertile conditions for life to flow and thrive across the fullness of the organizational ecosystem and beyond. —
For individual organizations, the lesson seems to be: get on in whatever way you can… Keep moving forward. … Adjust your speed and direction until you find the flow. And you will find it.2
Generative organizing calls for a conscious commitment to creating fertile conditions for life to flow and thrive accross our organizational ecosystems and beyond. It’s about reconnecting with what really matters, acknowledging the precious gift of life itself. It’s about finding and staying in the flow.
Notes:
1 Michelle Holliday, Beyond Best Practices—How to Listen for Generative Threads of Aliveness in Stories of What Works | Medium, 2018-08-13 (accessed 2018-08-14).
2 Michelle Holliday, Lessons from Amsterdam | Medium, 2018-08-14 [first published 2013-10-31] (accessed 2018-08-14).
Related posts:
Organizing in between and beyond posts
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