We Just Went Through 200 Years of Radical Economic Upheaval — The Next Economic Era Offers Us a Chance to Control It

Proposing a ‘design economy’ — the more we participate in it and share it, the better we all live and the more sustainable and stable it can become.
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Technology has been the fundamental shaping force of the modern era; developing an understanding of the power of this shaping will enable us to meet some of challenges we face as new technologies now reshape industrial society. It is the understanding of this shaping process, call it design, that will be a fundamental force and positive potential of the next economic era. We are leaving the era of industry and embarking on great new experiments of design. To succeed, we will need the active participation of each of us helping shape our individual and collective lives. We must all be active participants in creating the thinking, tools, institutions, politics, and culture of the design economy.

First thanks for the Junto project.

The SYSTEM (Us) is always wiser than the leader or the leadership team that leads it.

The link that I am forwarding you below together with the work that you are doing right now is about to shape the present and the future of your nation.

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Measurement matters, If you can measure it you can manage it.

The answer to this blogs question as you know are held in the collective intelligence of the system (organizations/nations).
2 years ago, a national values assessment has been done in your system (USA as country).
Please have a look what are the emerging values in your country.
This assessment also shows what are the current values in your system, which is very important because if you want to arrive somewhere you need to know where are you now. https://www.valuescentre.com/docs/USA2009.pdf

This document without the open space inquiry is like a raw diamond.

The instrument used above is called National Values Assessment. It is part of the cutting edge Culture Transformation Tools (CTT). These tools are used to measure the culture within a system. This measurement is the first step in the process called whole system transformation.

Some 60 countries on the planet have done exactly the same kind of measurements. It started 10 years ago by measuring corporate values. 2000 organizations all over the world are doing this today.
We still don’t have a global measurement but I feel it will happen very soon. Its inevitable.

The end result of this evolutionary process will be global alignment and full spectrum functioning that will bring sustainability and balance on our planet.

Here in the Shenandoah Valley, a community of ‘Old Order’ Mennonites has been using resilient approaches to farming, transport, and energy for around two hundred years. We see horses and buggies in our town every day.

A local group is exploring art and “design economy” opportunities to learn and earn (http://www.abcdayton.com ). We hope to launch an art studio/coworking center soon, and are looking into a project on “homeshoring” via 3D printers/fabs.

I’ve learned a lot from recent visits to Asheville, NC’s River Arts District, Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA, and the Beahive coworking center in your neighborhood. We’d love to exchange ideas and experiences with a range of resiliency-oriented doers and innovators in coming months.

Best,

Mark
@openworld

Relocation might or might not play that big a role depending on how our society, work practices, and technologies evolve in this decade. Also, it might play a bigger role in certain verticals and not as much in some. And lastly, we might see a trend in relocation that is distinct for the various generations (Gen X, Y, Z..).

I think in the immediate future, the desire to relocate to a like-minded community is going to compete with the desire for a good life (for self, family, kids etc.). Eventually, I am sure communities will spring up among cohorts of individuals, but what remains to be seen is how those will impact other personal domains like relationships, marriage, education etc. I do have a little concern about living in a community that is very homogenous (people liking the same thing, working at the same place, doing the same stuff etc.). I feel that consciously or unconsciously our lives are enriched by the diversity around us (good or bad).

Now having said that, I do see your point of fighting a ‘losing battle’ sometimes. This is where I think that the present generation of kids and the ones coming up are going to play an extremely critical role in how we might shape up as humans for the next few centuriees. Depending on how things evolve in the coming years, I am optimistic that we might not have to “convert” the vast majority – they will already be converts growing up in a tech-incubated society. In our lifetime however, I do see a see-saw battle between those who want to move to the next step and those who don’t (or don’t care).

Anyway, sorry for my rambling – we definitely have our work cut out for us being in the transitionary phase between the past and the future.

Regards,
Ned

@Mark – I agree with you on partnerships emerging between social networks and communities.

My simple take is that many of the existing corporations will never completely “switch” over to the new biz model. Some might phase into it slowly but for most the mindset & other changes needed will be too much of a barrier to circumvent. Instead, what I think will happen is the sprouting of new entities (similar to corporations) that will have fluid boundaries and span of life and an environment where people move in and out of these entities on an as needed basis. I am making it very simplistic but there is definitely a trends towards fluidity & flexibility in today’s culture across the continents.

Of course, as we have discussed in some of your previous posts, a shift in this direction also means that the criteria and skills for success in this new world will be quite different from today’s world.

One of the more exciting aspects of the future is that people can truly follow their passion and love — whether it is ‘Green’ or ‘Education’ or something else — as newer technologies, tools, and resources will allow them to instantly connect with like-minded individuals to form a dynamic ‘corporation’. This will create a surplus of happiness (to use economic speak) and we all can agree that happiness is core to our well-being and health . I think this decade will see the transitionary phase where the past and future biz/economic/cutlural models will coexist and eventually cross the threshold to delink completely from today’s models.

Regards,
Ned