I have been thinking a lot lately about collaboration, organizations, society and other big and related pictures. Since all this doesn’t fit easily in the categories that other people use, I’m decided to start writing about issues and topics that interest me, and see who decides to join the conversation.
Luther Snow has already joined me as a co-author of the blog. Luther is an expert on Asset Based Community Development, which is a model of collaboration for both economic and social good that is close to my heart. He’ll be writing about what he finds interesting and valuable.
We decided to call the blog “Positive Structures” because that’s what we call processes that help people interact in better ways than just winging it. The structures that we find appealing are those that are collaborative, non-coercive, and appreciative. Appreciative means that they focus on what is present and what can be done, rather than what is missing and what the problem is.
Generally, a Positive Structure:
- Advances the content it addresses (e.g., the issue at hand),
- Strengthens participants commitment to being thoughtful about process (because their experience of good process shows them the value of this thoughtfulness) and
- Builds constructive relationships between participants that they can rely on for other processes
- Makes people feel good about themselves and their capabilities
Other than that --- they don’t do much!!
Here are a few specific positive structures we’ve run across and we’ll talk about:
1. Luther’s Asset-Based Community Development
2. Open Space meetings
3. Other large group processes
4. A specific model of relationship building
5. Specific team processes
6. Theory U – by Otto Scharmer
7. Certain kinds of collaborative structures, and value networks (we think)
8. Some ideas for “generative processes” from Christopher Alexander
And we’ll try to link these ideas to how they play out in businesses and the economy. If you are interested, please sign up for our RSS feed, and comment with us.
We look forward to the conversation.
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