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STIR Lustrum 1 – re-positioning society
First of 3 lustrum blogs….
Re-positioning society
On June 25th 2009 the STIR Foundation, or “City of Tomorrow” (as it was rapidly called by people) was announced and initiated. Now we celebrate already 5 years of activities that re-position the way we build society. In three blogs I will explain what happened, what we have accomplished and what I expect next.
How it started
The foundation was set up by me to do whatever I could to pass onto my children a society that protects real human values and sustainable human progress rather than money and destructive systems of power.
Things had happened in my personal life that had made me powerfully aware of the intense need to transform our civilization or accept our self destruction. But awareness is not enough to change the working of a complex society. On the day of the kick off I had managed to surround myself with a very first group of intellectuals and professionals that were either interested in finding ways to address sustainable progress or solve the financial crisis, especially their own. 55 persons came to the kick off congress.
Together we started experimenting with our idealism by creating groups that addressed issues that we wanted to pay attention to. There were groups to address energy, mobility, coaching, new way of working, city design, housing, value system, food productivity, education, health care, leadership, etc.
My book (in Dutch) “Secretes of true wellness” had introduced my own first basic views of our human evolutionary complexity. This I used to guide the group’s processes together with the 5 keys of entrepreneurial success that I had published in 2005. Both models and insights have been perfected ever since.
In 2009 we position ourselves in the area of chaos in the midst of the effects of the 2008 credit crisis. Willingness was high to address key issues but the culture and mentality within the groups was still very much money driven. People were in a survival mode and saw in STIR a possibility to access new entrepreneurial markets. Whenever a market had been defined the cooperation disappeared and self interest started to prevail again in foresight of profits or subsidies. This did not work.
STIR organized monthly congresses on a variety of topics that helped us further in expanding our views while trying to find support and commitment from others. The regular work group encounters helped us understand better the complexity of the challenges, especially that of our own individual money dependencies and behavior, but we did not get changes initiated.
After 8 months all work groups had been dissolved, over 20.000 volunteer hours had been spend but the spirit of change had disappeared due to lack of results and overdose of struggles. I decided to take responsibility myself to materialize my views and realized that I could not proceed through the traditional entrepreneurial way. My own criticism to the groups was that they had all been money driven, not focused on change or value creation. I had to adjust my views that entrepreneurship was the sole engine for change. It may still be but not the type that placed money first. That kind of entrepreneurship was manipulated by money dependencies and hence would never change society. I wanted transformative change to lead and this cannot be done by considering it first “a market” or “a product”. Re-positioning society is more complex than that.
The idealistic views showed the need to involve also people from government. Experimenting with this multidisciplinary approach I could make valuable steps forward towards defining what we now call “Sustainocracy” and the “transformation economy“. Having clarified this in my own mind it became important to make it work in practical reality.
Breakthrough
In February 2010 I was invited to speak at a world encounter via internet in Amsterdam. My speech was about the difficulties to get government into sustainability projects of change initiated by citizens. University of Madrid was presenting a project on air quality measurements with 3D presentations of the results. Cisco presented a trial done around the effects of working at home on the emission of CO2. Both projects were ending. For me however it was a mental breakthrough. Summing up my own activities with those of Madrid and Cisco got me to a holistic vision and approach. It was not the fragmented approach that makes the difference but addressing “the whole” would do it.
Air quality as a point of reference for regional health development became my goal to which I could attach all kinds of transformative issues too. I presented the idea to a group of people and finally also to the political director of our province. He remarked that if we wanted to address such complex issues we would have to work through the quadruple helix (government, business, citizens and science). It became clear that none of those four pillars could take the initiative “in the old world” because of their fragmented interrelation based on money and systems of control. A true co-creation would have to be initiated by an independent person, and that had to be me. I had be the connecting pioneer. The working format became clear.
I placed myself on the green dot and invited the rest to participate
In 2011 AiREAS was registered as a multidisciplinary cooperative, initiated by me and a well chosen partner (Marco van Lochem) who added an extensive network in high tech business. The quadruple helix model was enhanced in AIREAS to become the first Sustainocratic venture in the world. Rapidly scientific and business partners joined in the free of charge commitment through membership. My formula of co-creation became effective:
Talent x Input x Purpose = Value x Reciprocity
Our mission became to co-create a healthy city using air quality and human health as guiding measurement. We got the commitment and support from local Eindhoven government with a very first co-creative assignment: “making the invisible (air quality) visible”. The practical re-positioning of society had started. The precedent was initiated.
The values created so far (2014) by AiREAS are:
- We have positioned and proven the co-creative working of Sustainocratic ventures
- We co-created and implemented the intelligent real time measurement network technology with scientific guidance.
- We learned how co-creation works in a multidisciplinary context with a higher humanitarian purpose
- We defined the basic fundamentals of the “transformation economy” by creating unique complex values first and subsequently expand those values world wide.
AiREAS has also shown how difficult and contrasting the two worlds are (leadership in value driven co-creation, and management through fragmented self interests that interact through transactions) and how complex it is for them to interact. The recent blog about the small window of co-creation between these two worlds (motivated by chaos) was a direct result.
AiREAS has various path ahead. Future will tell what we can achieve:
- Create Local AiREAS across the world to co-create “healthy cities” using Local AiREAS Eindhoven as example and precedence,
- Expand the AiREAS values (products and services) through its partners in the traditional economy of transactions
- Get the reciprocal circular economy going
- Develop more unique values (knowledge, products, policies, justice, etc) in all the Local AiREAS using the demographic, cultural and historical differences
- Use the experiences in AiREAS to address also other key humanitarian issues within the STIR definition of sustainable human progress
Taking responsibility together for sustainable progress such as AiREAS
The repositioning had finished. We now know how we can peacefully address the complex global issues. Establishing local sustainocratic ventures there were the issues need attention we can deal with all complex problems, not just air quality. With the precedent readily available we can offer Sustainocracy to the world, education people and institutions to take local responsibility together and benefit from the transformation in multiple ways.
Most of the world is active on the financial side avoiding transformation until it is too late.
The battle between fear and dreams
This mini analysis is based on the evolutionary situation in Holland (1945 – 2020) using the drawing of human and societal complexities. The law of opposites cause rhythmic changes in emphasis that have to do with our inner conflicts and awareness too:
- Fears versus Dreams
- Greed versus Moral justice
The changing energies between the To Be and To Do show a sinus wave over time with periods of 7,7 and 54 years in a life time. The way we deal with this is meaningful for progress.
Cyclic evolution in rhythmic phases
The natural society rhythms are consequence of these opposites that have become the kernel of the diversity of life on Earth but also the learning battle that our human species fights with itself. Every cycle through chaos of our species is exponentially more intense that the ones before. With a global population now of 7 billion, three times the population when world war II ended, the fear for new violent encounters is as high as our dreams for sustainable progress. These two opposites interact in a powerful awareness struggle without precedence. The next few years will be decisive to answer the following:
- Will humankind enter in a destructive, self inflicted (and assisted by nature) chaos that exceeds every war ever before? The eternal battle between greed and moral awareness?
- Or will we overcome chaos permanently by introducing and accepting the law of opposites and learning how to deal with it for progression without chaos? The battle between fear and dreams, the quantum leap when awareness overcomes fear?
Cyclic evolution and awareness
Our understanding today of the cyclic nature of our behavior is enhanced by the mini analysis of the period between 1945 (end of WW II) and 2020 (new collapse) in the Netherlands (equivalent to the rest of the world in similar phases).
1945: When world war II ended in 1945 in the Netherlands, leadership was needed to co-create a stable society (co-create symbiosis). Leading in the argumentation was the destructive force of the war, the reasons behind its development and what could be done to avoid it? The conclusions were that we need to build social securities that moderate the natural potential of aggression of desperate people by giving them a minimum to survive, sufficient to avoid them to follow immoral impulses.
1945 to 1970 reconstruction of a country based on WW I/II awareness
Note: 1945 – 1970 is a 3 x 7,7 year cycle.
1970: The creative social systems (pensions, social security, unemployment funds, etc) are now in place. The “State of social care” had become a fact and should stand model for lasting wellness and peaceful progress. At the same time fear arises in the 1970’s present and at the horizon for the cost of social care. The postwar reconstruction phase is behind us, labor from industrial processes evaporate due to the exodus to low wage regions and first demand on the securities system show inefficiencies. A management culture replaces the leadership culture. The discussion changes from “change for stability” into ” the need for financial growth and controls”.
Growth became the trigger to sustain wellness
Wellness and financial abundance had a positive effect on longevity. Economic growth became the keyword to sustain wellness. The taxable potential of circulating money was important with the foresight of increasing costs to sustain social security. The aging population, statistics on decrease of child birth and expected costs of health care and social securities, showed an unbalance in the future financial stability. Wanting to keep wellness as a norm cannot be seen as greed, the human psychology to sustain it can. We have the tendency of wanting more of the same. This produces the downfall along the axes of moral awareness. Not that we did not learn from the painful episodes in our history, we did. But they grow away from memory as new generation grow up in abundance and peace. Other emotional priorities take the overhand, such as apathy, reluctance, fear, greed, etc. People tend to think now of wellness as a human right and consider the system responsible for maintaining it. The management system develops a structure of hierarchy and power to introduce efficiencies and measures of control. Some important measures were:
- Reduction of the work week from 40 to 38 and 36 hours. This should spread the workload over more (taxable) salaries. Taxed labor was and is one of the mayor sources of income of the government.
- The liberation of money emission from its gold reserve collateral. This should boost the circulation of money, the second largest tax income through VAT development.
- The focus on value added logistics for goods distribution from low wage countries (China, India and Brasil) to the EU, due to our geographical location and trade expertise (a third key source of tax income).
Money became the goal, as a growing means to finance wellness. Tax became the most important instrument for the management of the country. People are slave to the system. “Care” and “Greed” developed into a dual economy of growth: the need for massive consumption of goods and the attention to the consequences of this over consumption, referred to as “wellness deceases”.
The systems starts breaking up
1995: The tension in the system builds up but awareness is at lowest level. Apathy, blindness and reluctance reigns. The economy still grows but by unnatural forces. The consequences of the 1970’s measures lead to a management culture of greed. Bankers took the lead, together with real estate brokers that speculate with shortages of houses. The influx of cheap labor for the supply chain focus increases the demand. The price evolution of a house had become the collateral for money circulation and debt creation. Stones, debt and speculation had become more important than the human being or its capacity to create productive communities. Economy of growth and tax had become dominant with impressive constructions of personal wealth development of heartless speculants. Government had itself tied up in an negative spiral of taxation needs that also captured the greed of state officials who could build personal security, hierarchy and income through the bureaucratic network. The exponential costs of society, that had been expected in 1970, did occur with the unexpected particular emphases on greed rather than need. The credit crisis in 2008 brought the immorality and system’s vulnerability to the daylight. The explosive amount of tensions around the world had not triggered awareness but the bank affairs did, especially that of fear. The instant counter measures were based on massive capital injections out of fear for total system collapse.
The management culture is kept in place by the hierarchical lobbies, legal criminality and fragmented overall money dependence. Everything seems to be done to swim against the stream of progress out of fear for chaos, collapse and loss of authority. This causes multiple tensions to build up further as social securities evaporate, pollution destroys our habitat, greed evolves further, morality is at its deepest point and the system cracks up despite capital injections and increased management through bureaucracy of controls and reluctance to change.
Towards 2020 the choice is ours
2008 is halfway between greed and fear when the credit crisis struck, showing the face of both. Instantly there was a wake up call. The management culture is dominant and seeks measures to sustain itself. Large capital injection, increased control systems and further focus on economic growth are measures of all the fragmented individual self interests that work together.
But 2008 also opened up room for the first initiatives in the field of leadership and change. A new leadership cycle breaks through. STIR Foundation is pioneer and started its co-creative platforms, inviting all those who panicked to join forces. A very first impulse was achieved to connect management of future growth with leadership of change. We achieved temporary progress and showed the way beyond chaos and even avoiding collapse. It was a precedent that collapsed again when management measures thought to have produced positive results. That is natural too. The green line of leadership is still fragile and unsupported. As stated in the previous blog there is only a small time frame when management and leadership can interact together. That is when the expectation of pain and collapse is big enough and a consensus can be reached on the fear eliminating dream (where value creation ends and money making begins).
2020: Even though we live now in 2014 the dot on the horizon does not go much further than 2020. We now stand on the edge of the total collapse that capitalist measures tried to avoid since 2009. From a management perspective, what has changed to date? Nothing! The greedy still benefit in their personal financial growth patterns while social securities evaporate. Leadership is emerging challenging greed, our financial slavery and the system that supports it. STIR is actively developing its precedents. Pope Francis is using very sharp words to condemn the system of growth and calls for responsibility. Leaders occupying management positions open up for co-creation.
Two cyclic battles
From the above we can distinguish two interwoven battles of human development:
- 1945 – 1995: The leadership battle for human wellness through co-creation
- 1970 – 2020: The management battle for sustained material greed through fragmented self interest
Since about 2000 (7 * 7.7 years since 1945) a new leadership battle emerges, this time around “sustainable human progress”. It does not support the management battle. New age 21st century leafership bases itselves on value creation rather than consumption. The law of opposites helps management towards collapse. 2008 was just the beginning. Towards 2020 more of it becomes visible, but can total collapse be avoided?
The 1970 versus 2020 battle
The real battle now is between the 1970 belief and system’s reality that “money solves it all” and the new 2000 leadership belief that “sustainable value is created together”. The latter is based on feeding our awareness with the need to transform the system’s complexity and performance. In history we see that collapse has never been avoided due to the powerful resistance of management forces. The biggest question is now: “Does history repeat itself? Or do we create a new episode and turning point in human history?
My personal choice and daily efforts are for the turning point through persistence, belief in my views of the human complexity and reassured by the precedents achieved so far with Sustainocracy. This can only expand and enhance itself throughout the world. Dream A (money solves it all) can only prosper with Dream B (co-creation through awareness) when they unite in value creation and expansion.
Kind regards,
Jean-Paul Close
Sustainocrat
When leadership and management work together
Evolution has a cyclic nature, clockwise of course. A self aware species develops “leadership and management”. In this drawing I explain how we deal with both in a natural chronological order.
Leadership introduces change after a burst of awareness. It expands into new phases of wellness through the acceptance and co-creative efforts that change entire communities.
Management wants to keep wellness by growing its values out of greed or the fear for loosing it. It tends to avoid change while introducing control mechanisms by building bureaucracies.
Excessive management and focus on growth or risk avoidance tends to blocks leadership out of fear that change affects control mechanisms and hierarchies of power. This unavoidably leads to a crisis, chaos and collapse. After the collapse leadership and change become dominant again with the introduction of new values, making the cycle complete.
When then can Leadership and Management work together effectively in a complex society? That occurs when the eminence of chaos and collapse is so powerfully present and destructive that management open up to leadership development, accepting change as part of the management process. Leadership and management goals can find a match. The purpose then is harmony and chaos avoidance.
STIR Foundation shapes this by taking leadership initiatives around complex issues. We position ourselves in the field of awareness and leadership and invite top level management officials to participate in change processes and co creation towards harmony (symbiosis). The management officials then have to introduce change through managed routines and controlled processes. Total chaos can be avoided when multidisciplinary coalitions address the issues together. This we call Sustainocracy, the complex but highly productive process of interaction between leadership and management.
Experience shows that bureaucracy is largely eliminated, decisions accelerated and result driven processes terminated in years rather than decades. The pain of chaos is reduced to a minimum and surrounded by care.
Sustainocracy, the new democracy 