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Solving global challenges
The Economy of
the future
There are many excellent initiatives underway to transform business into a force for good. They have changed business far too little in the past ten years, far too little for us to have hope that we can address our global crises in time.
Every gentle attempt to change the system, gentle enough to keep society stable, will get pulled back to the status quo, unless we also remove the root cause of the gravity holding us in the status quo.
The root cause is — in how we incorporate business today. When investors have all the decision power in a multinational, and simultaneously the courts mis-interpret company law as saying “shareholder return is the only purpose of a company”, then decisions will be taken based on the worldview, emotional drives and cognitive biases of those investors.
It is time to recognise that businesses are already open, living systems in an ecosystem so that we can construct a reality based on the nebulous, ambiguous, volatile, uncertain and complex nature of such an ecosystem. Then we can reshape the fundamental elements and their interactions to maximise our regenerative capacity.
Hope
The Vision
Our vision is everyone having hope for their future, society and a planet we and all future generations can all live comfortably on, because we have fundamentally new kinds of businesses. Businesses that make society and our planet a better place by design, not as an optional extra.
How to build business in ways that give us Hope
Regenerative and free
We can transform the organisations that are failing us, because we now know how to create businesses that are good for all stakeholders, from all of you through to our global environment.
The Foundations
The incorporation is the foundation for any viable regenerative or circular economy. Integrity of purpose and principles, and benefit for all, are hardwired in, because all stakeholders own and benefit from success, not just the investors.
Wondering what all of these terms mean?
Dictionary
Regenerative Economy
Regenerative Economy (including circular, blue, PPP etc.) Our planet and our society is so far gone, it is now imperative that we regenerate all that we have squandered. A regenerative economy grows each of us as individuals; it grows our natural environments, taking net carbon out of the air for example, regenerating our soils and fresh water supplies; and it grows our societies. A regenerative economy includes everything in a circular economy, a blue economy, triple bottom line, impact, etc.; and it generates healthy financial profits too.
Antifragile
Antifragile is the how nature works. Think of a tree; it grows stronger because of the stresses of wind and weather. Each of us, our businesses, and our economy needs to become antifragile, not just resilient. Growing because of the stresses we are facing, not just surviving them.
FairShares Commons
FairShares Commons. In a FairShares company, all stakeholders share the power to govern the company and the wealth generated. So all stakeholders work together to find a way of meeting all needs, including those of society and the planet. Add in freedom from any concept of property, where the company cannot be bought or sold, and insure that stakeholders are stewards of the company in the interests of future generations, and you get a FairShares Commons. The best way of incorporating to get Adaptive Organisations and individuals, and regenerative businesses.
FairShares Commons Ecosystems
FairShares Commons Ecosystems. Put a number of FairShares Commons companies together into an ecosystem, and the ecosystem of businesses cannot be anything other than regenerative and antifragile. Because all the companies have a benefit from the success of each other, and all have a duty of care towards each other.
Adaptive Organisations
Adaptive Organisations and Individuals. To be antifragile, we need to be able to adapt. This means harnessing conflict as hard data on how we need to grow. The best approaches are at the heart of all we do:
1. Developing our individual capacity to adapt: this means being able to recognise how our scripts contribute to creating the reality we experience, and then rewriting those scripts, e.g. using the Evolutesix Adaptive Way.
2. Developing our organisation’s capacity to do the same, by incorporating as a FairShares Commons, organising work using Sociocracy, Holacracy or similar, and using developmental interactions (e.g. the Evolutesix Adaptive Way).
Podcasts & Videos
If you enjoy listening to podcasts, and want to hear Graham explaining the full why, how and what, then listen to this podcast. Graham is being interviewed by business students from Roskilde University — who are writing a guest contribution to the book.