Dear reader,

Something surfaced that was harder to write down than I expected. I am showing it to you before I think better of it.

A few years ago I wrote Nova Democratia — published only last week as Edition 6. I believed in it. I still believe in its intention. But I have come to doubt it in execution. As I worked it out further, Nova Democratia became a giant meeting-structure project. It tried to solve paralysis by adding more consultation — which is precisely what causes paralysis. I only recognised it once I had written it down and read it back. The medicine was the same recipe as the disease, only dressed differently.

Since then I have been working on something I have come to call VMB-ESG. It is not a variation on Nova Democratia. It is, in a sense, the opposite. Where Nova Democratia assumed more democracy = more consultation, VMB-ESG assumes more democracy = faster ownership with visible accountability afterwards.

The core is what my parents already did in the family business, without naming it: 98 per cent of what they decided, they decided alone — no meeting. The hard 2 per cent went to the kitchen table, where everyone could contribute but one person ultimately decided. Speed for the ordinary, shared attention for the extraordinary, and clear final responsibility for both.

Read the full piece on openvizier.org

Beneath the piece lie three extensive documents that work out the reasoning technically and administratively — The Legacy · Part I, The Table Model, and The Legacy · VMB-ESG and the Table Model. For those who wish to build the system themselves, or check whether it holds.

One request to you — do not sign, do not like, do not share for the sake of sharing. Rather: read, think it through, critique where it does not hold, and — if you are in a position to try something — try. One domain. One department. One neighbourhood. One decision moment. Begin small. That is worth more than a thousand pamphlets.

Until the next time something surfaces.

With warm regards, Jacobus van Merksteijn Malta

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