Principles that guide my work
Here is a collection of principles that provide the foundation to the way I work in the world:
- When problems are increasingly complex there are no simple answers.
- Whatever the challenge, community is the answer.
- To create a healthier community, connect it to more of itself.
- For stronger systems, create stronger relationships.
- Communities and organizations are living systems, not machines.
- Living systems cannot be steered, controlled or ‘change managed', they can only be nudged.
- Human beings are capable of self-organizing, given the right conditions.
- The way we meet is a model of the future we want to create.
- Collective clarity of purpose is the invisible leader.
- Who we are together is always different and more than who we are alone.
- If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.
- If it's about us, don't do it without us.
- The wisdom we need is in the room, it just needs to be connected.
- We grow in the direction of the questions we ask, ask what's possible, not just what's wrong.
- Start anywhere, follow it everywhere.
- Offer what you can, ask for what you need.
- Expect leadership to come from anywhere.
- Divergent opinions are okay; innovation comes from diverse perspectives.
- The groan zone is where new solutions emerge.
- People support what they've had a hand in creating.
- Everything's a failure in the middle; change occurs in cycles.
- We're not planning a meeting, we're planning a harvest.
- Success comes from planning a process, not just an event.