Intentional Society: Zoning development
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Practical updates this week! I mentioned the new zones thing recently but here it is in pictorial form, the zones of activity we're orienting to: (this is subject to change, this is wrong in the way that all models are wrong, etc etc)
We had our season kickoff last week, welcomed some new folks, did some sticky-note idea-mapping across this zone map, and are moving toward structural formation now. The zones have different levels of ease in doing that:
- Support seems like the clearest mapping to form: one or more Pods doing case-based practices is a known good structure for helping one another get better insight and perspective on their challenges and their relating-to-their-challenges.
- Connection is a different shape: People might plan or host connection-themed events easily enough... but is there a "social committee" or "belonging circle" that sort of takes ownership of that dimension of IS as a group? (I don't know)
- Impact seems even more diverse in possible aims and interests: individual impact v collective impact, direct (work on thing) v indirect (support person who is working on thing) mode, spreading-IS-outcomes v other causes. I think we'll have to be very practical about what we have enough momentum to do right now: indirect-individual-anycause might be the most feasible, and... is that satisfying? (I don't know) One way to spice it: How many of each other's systems/places out in the world could we visit and contribute to via anthropological observation with an IS lens?
- Practices is securely held (by me largely) in its current form
Lastly I'll mention the "builder squad" that convened for the first time today (Thursday) - a Meta zone structure that I've called with personally curated invitations, to be an infrastructural-working-group in support of IS design as we proceed through this Season of Change. My experience today was that the collective intelligence applied to the task (better designing this Sunday's structure to support our objectives, instead of imitating past routines) quickly identified multiple approaches that I hadn't even been considering, which will result in a significantly upgraded experience for a lot of folks this week! Using more brains (and their diverse perspectival wisdom) "for the win," wish I'd done this earlier etc.
I hope to keep building momentum, expanding-and-robustifying our human ecosystem, and being bold in designing experiments. (Possibly next up, a fresh spin on large-group community sessions - what are they "for" and how do we work them?)
Cheers,
James
P.S. I am honored that you're reading this — I take it as a sign of your interest and support, and will endeavor to "bring you along" well with our week-by-week developments. If you notice any confusion, please let me know, drop me a line!