Thursday, December 15, 2011

Democratic Core Bioteam Selection: Ideas??


I've been talking and receiving feedback about this project and it seems like I need to take a step back and rethink about it. The main question was: Why haven't you got a team yet?? My answers are: That's what I've been trying to do since February until I reached the point where I thought "I need the business model first so I can talk to people" but the main reason I guess is, I don't know how to put it together. Everywhere I read It is suggested that I should put a team of 5 skilled people (the "right" people) and go out and find them. I agree I need to reach out and I feel like I've been unconcsiously tricking myself to not do it because I'm afraid of being laughed at or ignored. I welcome that challenge. I however am not that comfortable with 'the right people" concept....I mean, why are they right and others wrong?? Why impart some sort of inadequacy or adequacy on people I don't even know?? Plus, Cells of the Earth is about democracy, self organization and collective intelligence, so why should we select some and neglect others?? Under what democratic process could that happen?? 

So here I am a bit stuck: I would like to give the opportunity to anybody to be part of the core bioteam, I want the bioteam to grow and shrink as the load of work increases and decreases. I know that there needs to be people who are passionate and skilled about specific topics but, I believe that there is a lot of unknown potential in those who are not "experienced" and I haven't met yet. 

I have a few ideas about creating a core bioteam under democratic means, but I'd like to know people's thoughts about this?? I want to take the risk and go "out of the box" by doing this in a way it hasn't been done (that I know of). If you had no other option but to select your core team democratically, how would you go about it??

According to what I've found around I should have permanent physical contact with the team, or I should be able to meet with them physically and regularly or I should have at least an initial physical contact with them. Would that rule out people in other countries and virtual collaboration?? How would you go about it?? I need some light here!!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Building the Business Model...STOP!!



Step Back, Think, Organize, Proceed.

That’s what I did after I posted the this. At some point I was caught in a chicken and egg dilemma: “Should I build the draft business model (BM) and use it to build the core bioteam?? Or should I get the bioteam and then build the BM with them??” I was inclined to the former. Then, almost as soon as I published the post I started to get “messages” everywhere suggesting that I needed to focus on the team issue, and I realized that forming or putting together a team is what I’ve been trying do from the very beginning of the NEH. It has been a big, let’s say, “source of frustration”. Do I really need to have permanent face to face contact with a core bioteam for the CoE to be a success?? I think that having face to face contact with a team is very important for what I intend CoE to do. Amongst other things, it is about localization, and localization without regular face to face encounters and relationships with my locals doesn’t make much sense. So, at this stage I’m still not comfortable with the idea that I need a core physical bioteam for the CoE, but I do think that several local teams interested in the project should be created simultaneously.

So I decided to STOP with the BM goal and check my alignment with it. Here is the outcome of that decision:

I was asked to choose one place where the CoEproject  would start. Another piece of wisdom was “people invest in teams, not really in individuals”. I addition, very often I see the “get together the right people with the right set of skills” sentence. Initially my thought was “I’ll start it in Brisbane, Australia”. As time passed and I slept on the conversation without being able to completely convince myself about the “one team to start with” thing, a new exciting piece of the puzzle started to form. So, what if the project starts “here on earth”?? Can I make earth my place to start with?? I know, where else would I, right?…but, you know what I mean: How could it start simultaneously and globally??

Imagine: People interested in the CoE project from all around the world gathered in a virtual event. Our first test is to actually run the event together. With the help of an online map, people would add their locations to identify interested neighbors to form future diasporas.

What we would test with the event is, if a mass of people who don’t know each other well, if at all, can, under shared vision and values, develop its own “upgraded democratic [and decentralized] government”. 


"Many of the failures of our current democracy stem from a centralized, “one-size-fits-all” form of representation; we anticipate a world where legislation is crafted not by a few politicians, but by a broad network of people who have been entrusted by others to advocate on their behalf" - Upgrade Democracy
I thought about it because having ONE core team somehow selected by a few didn’t feel like democratic and actually seemed pretty biased towards the usual hierarchic/centralized governments we have today.

So the challenge is “we have to do this between all of us, how do we do it?? How do we agree on issues??Who does what and when?? How do we set our own policies??”


this is what I proposed to the Upgrade Democracy folks on the ContactCon Gmail Group

Then…I had to STOP again. The conference (read the proposal) with the authors is still something I’d like to do, but I think we still need more common ground between us, to be able to draw more motivation into the project, and with more motivation and passion, we bring resources and eventually more action…is my wild guess and hope. I feel we need some more glue to hold the Upgrade Democracy/CoE partnership to then reach out to more people. 


Creating a new way of organizing means giving up a lot of the preconceptions it’s easy to rely on. Schools try to teach problem solving, but they use the same techniques. Test scores, class rankings, online MBA rankings…all create a kind of hierarchy that hangs over the whole process. 


So I updated my proposal to this and sent it to ContactCon again. However, not surprisingly, it hasn't gathered much enthusiasm yet, meaning, no one has asked a question so far. So...should I just keep waiting with CoE on hold?? STOP again...no!!


Once the craziness of moving to a town in Central Queensland with my little family decreases, which hopefully is mid February, I would like to get the two things moving. I'd walk the two paths simoultaneusly, if that's at all possible, in order to try both conventional wisdom with unconventional support (putting a local team together) and search for the upgraded democracy dream. 


I feel  inspired by so many things that have been happening and have been reading and I really believe that it is time to put together our individual ideas into something big!! Let's not let the chance go away!! Will be back asap with more on taking advantage of the moment.


Thursday, December 8, 2011

Your Wisdom is Required.


Dear all!!
I was introduced to a book called "Grow Your Own Carrot" by Bob Griffiths and I decided to try the methodology which is based on 5 steps of a process named GROW, which stands for Goal, Reality, Obstacles and Options, and Way forward.

My purpose with this exercise is to learn to provide enough and concise information about what I'm doing, so people have a real sense of whether or not they can and want to participate in and collaborate with the effort.
  • The specific goal I’ll achieve using the Grow Process is "To finish the description of the 9 building blocks and their items for the “Cells of the Earth” business model canvas by the 31st of January 2012.
  • I’ll have achieved it when I print out the google doc, file it in my physical folder and take a picture of it.
  • This goal is important for me because
    • It’ll allow me to have a foundation of the Business Model to start editing collaboratively.
    • With it, I can go out and test it, progress in establishing a Core [bio]team and progress in the BMG process.
    • With it, a core [bio]team can work towards a shared purpose, vision, goals and business culture design process.
    • People will be able to explore if and how they can be involved with the project.




To achieve it I’ll devote 2 hours at least three days a week or its equivalent (if I have to miss a week due to traveling plans) and will base my work on my personal values: Love, passion, alertness/presence, change, and balance and wholeness (Local/Global, Known/Unknown, Matter/Spirit, One for all (Cooperation)/all for one (competition), Uniqueness and Diversity/ Patterns and Community)



Key milestones for this goal are:
  • Each Building Block description finished (dates of completion available as a Task management file online?
  • Physical folder by the 31st of January 2012.
There are steps in the process where I'll feel unmotivated, will find obstacles to which I would like to find the options and ways to move forward, or I'll have ideas to explore related to the Business Model I'm working on. I can't and I don't want to go through it all by myself, I know I have old habits that may prevent me from seeing things with new eyes, and I believe in the collective intelligence. That's why I am reaching out for your support. To avoid bothering you with yet more emails, at least once a week I'll ask [specific] questions on the NEH's facebook page every time I feel something requires multiple viewpoints, and you can decide to put as much or as little time to share your wisdom. It will imply relatively frequent reading of the Business Model Folder. In addition, if you feel like exploring more about this process and offering extra contribution, you can have a look at all of my online items related to this goal on my netvibes dashboard.
To be up to date with the changes on the business model canvas, please keep checking the Cells of the Earth Page and keep in mind that it will be constantly changing as I progress on its description. What I've already done in the Business Model description can be found here, this document is also available as a link in the Cells of the Earth page. 

I really hope to talk to you soon.

Tatiana Maya