WHAT IF THE LOVE of BUILDING on BILDUNG...

[Michael Grove]

    could [BE]come THE TEMPLATE of THE SOLUTION to OUR SURVIVAL ?

   “ALL IS in NATURE - WE ARE a CIRCUMSTANCE of NATURE - THE greatest

    bond in LIFE is LOVE, and that should receive a fuller understanding and

    BE the basis of RIGHTEOUSNESS in ALL dealings between man and woman.”

                                                                              Leonardo Da Vinci

    SO in the context of that poignant proposal of an IDEA of Don Beck 

    in KOSMOS journal, entitled • Playing the Global Change Game •

   
   "IT IS TIME to get the entire global system set right by respecting all of

    us who exist in clans, tribes, empires, holy orders, cultures, enterprises,

    communes, natural habitats—and are spread along the various trajectories

    of change. Imagine a global Intelligence that, much like a metaphoric

    ‘air traffic  control’ system, can keep up with and direct our many life

    forms which are dispersed in different altitudes, moving in different

    directions, at different speeds, with different capacities, and all with

    multiple bottom lines and priorities. Why not design and build this capacity,

    NOW? Our very lives, individually and collectively, might well depend on it."

    Global Change by Natural Design

    Posted on November 21, 2002

    This paper aims to explore the connections between evolutionary biology

    and living systems theory on the one hand, and on the other, a currently

    emerging initiative called Global Balance which aims to move human

    civilisation into a more co-operative way of behaving, bringing all parts

    of the system into balance for a sustainable future. It concludes that the

    emergence of a global system designed to meet the needs of all, is a

    natural part of the evolution of the human species. By learning from

    evolutionary biology, social change agents can create the natural design 

    that will allow human civilisation to develop its next scale of co-operation.

    The paper is divided into three main parts. Firstly, we take a short look at

    the Global Balance project itself, so you can have this in mind as we

    explore some of the theory around it. We then move on to discover how

    an understanding of evolutionary systems informs and supports the project.

    The third section then takes one concrete map of evolutionary human

    systems, called Integral Spiral Dynamics, and uses it to plot where human

    evolution is at the moment, and how a project like Global Balance can

    best contribute to our healthy development.

                                                                   ... Peter Merry

[Michael Grove]

In the context of Peter Merry's, Global Change by Natural Design 

piece, which was posted on November 21, 2002...

"This paper aims to explore the connections between evolutionary biology and living systems theory on the one hand, and on the other, a currently emerging initiative called Global Balance which aims to move human civilisation into a more co-operative way of behaving, bringing all parts of the system into balance for a sustainable future. It concludes that the emergence of a global system designed to meet the needs of all, is a natural part of the evolution of the human species. By learning from evolutionary biology, social change agents can create the natural design that will allow human civilisation to develop its next scale of co-operation "

... I would applaud the fact that he has published his integral take

on the world of work and have downloaded a Kindle edition of his

"WHY WORK?" and shall of course keep people updated accordingly,

on his views of that which I believe is particularly important for my

soulmate and I's own children and their children's children.

An Experiment in a Complex Change Initiative 

In 2009 we engaged in the 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign, led by the State of the World Forum, and aiming to engage policy makers, business and citizens in a commitment to achieve 80% CO2 reduction by 2020.

We worked on a three-day event that ended up being about 240 people from different sectors of society and different countries, 90 international and the rest were Brazilians, a mix of context and sectors of society, and a mix of age groups. So quite a diverse group of people looking to create some coherence – not just connection to a vision although that’s a very important prerequisite but a shared framework for collaboration on what we need to work on.

80% reduction in CO2 from pre-industrial levels by 2020 was an ambitious target, one which none of the political community are really talking realistically about but which a significant percentage of the scientific community say is what actually needs to happen if we’re going to keep the planet under 2 degrees warming. When we got there, we were challenged by the location, which wasn’t ideal, as well as by the leadership of the initiative which was very emergent, to put it politely – moving targets, changing contexts, a changing landscape pretty quickly. There was little which we could rely on as being fixed, down to the last minute really. We were designing and adapting on the fly as we went.

In the design team itself, of course, there were different interest and perspectives. People get to meet each other a few days before the event and then we have a pre- design. We had to get to know each other and get a process that would work for the diversity of participants and the ambitious goals of the campaign.

[Michael Grove]

In one of Rob Hopkin's favourite interviews with performing artist, author, activist and educator Dominique Christina, she said that in her opinion, all too often, when we are exploring how to address a problem, we become fixated on that problem: "The problem is now in the centre of the room. The broken things are in the centre of the room.  Whatever is not working, or whatever is dysfunctional, is what’s taking up all the space.  Then your interrogation of it, your consideration of it, or whatever you are, you’re reacting to the brokenness.  So the brokenness is everything, right?

Fundamentally for me, the reason why we don’t get things done the way that I think we could get things done – because there are enough amazing, miraculous, impossible, supernatural people on this planet who love this planet, and who operate from goodness and integrity and accountability – but we get so bogged down in staring into the abyss that we’ve lost our sight of heaven, our version of heaven."