I’ve been brushing up on the work of Eric S. Raymond, an open source software advocate and author of ‘The Cathedral and the Bazaar,’ in preparation for meeting and interviewing him at next week’s Culture Conference in Philly and Boston.

Raymond has written extensively about the attitudes and ethos of hackers, the mechanisms of open-source development, and the relationship between motivation and reputation in a gift economy.

As I read his stuff, I see a strong parallel between how hacker culture can apply to culture hacking, and functionally accelerate personal and social evolution at scale. Continue reading →

How do we form learning cultures in times of accelerating change?

What tools and practices can self-organizing structures implement to become more agile and adaptive?

I just received a copy of a new book by Dan Mezick called The Culture Game, which is all about answering the above inquiry. It touts itself as “the reference manual and toolbox for management “culture hackers,” those innovators and change-makers who are focused on creating a culture of learning inside their team…and the wider organization.”

I’ve known Dan now for the better part of this year, and he’s been feeding me these tips, which are totally changing the ways I approach my own personal growth and development, as well as how I’m interacting with others.

For me, the culture hacking movement really gets to the essence of how to build/become a learning organization and transform the future of work.

Below are the 16 learning practices outlined in the book, and a brief description of each. Continue reading →

via Bonnie E on pinterest

this is a cross-post from the blog of Olaf Lewitz. 

People Like Us

Some people—few people—have a sensibility of others
that is more than
gradually higher than the average. Continue reading →

just a mini mindgrape this afternoon…

We’re tired of attending conferences and being talked at, when just about anyone in the audience could themselves be a speaker.

Unconferences are nicer, because we can all self-organize and make the event our own.

But there’s a next stage we’re ready for.

We want something action-oriented, and by this I don’t mean something where we create a plan of action.

It’s more about embodiment.

We want embodied experiences.

We want embodied action. Continue reading →

I’ve been tracking emerging trends for a while now, exploring the co-evolution of humanity and our technologies, and building visions of the kinds of futures I’d like to see. Lately, I’ve found myself a bit restless, wondering “what’s next?”

The conferences and gatherings I’m attending are beginning to feel stale, the conversations needing new framings and lenses through which to look at our world and ourselves.

I’ve been on the hunt for a word or phrase that can encompass the essence of what feels important and resonates with me right now.

The search has been prompted by my decision to start a new project — writing my first book. (yay!)

I’ve spent the past few weeks reviewing everything I’ve written so far on the blog, reflecting upon what I’ve observed, what I’ve learned, and identifying the deep values I’ve chosen to serve as a compass and foundation for what is meaningful and significant.

At the same time, I’ve been surveying the landscape to get a sense of what’s being constructed out in the global mind, and see where the two intersect.

The general narrative is that we‘re facing increasing complexity and uncertainty in the world, information overload, distraction, shallowness of critical thought, and a lack of foresight. On the silver lining side, we have an overstock of creativity and imagination, sufficient to level up humanity and change the world and our crumbling systems, if we could only figure out how to unlock and unleash it from our billions of minds.

While some will posit that the ‘solution’ is technological (better algorithms! quantifying trust and reputation! big data! innovation!), I lean to the side that our breakthroughs will occur when we acknowledge and confront our most raw and human issues. Continue reading →