Reflecting on learning this week amongst some incredible stars in the circular economy, impactful businesses doing good in the world, provocations from global leader in cyber security and business as activism. Finding our way to the future through ingenuity, creativity, collaboration and being in the sometimes uncomfortable and inconvenient places really is the only way forward. Discomfort at the edges or a little fraying around the edge is an invitation to see where that feeling might take us, maybe even a truth or revelation is being offered up. A niggling feeling invites you to pick at it and discover what is the source of the irritation and with that clue, you can get deeper and closer to the source of what will bring change.
Stars are not solid objects, they are gases and they change over time. Their edges melt into darkness. They can be seen from afar and we marvel at their beauty. When they form a constellation we look for meaning and give them names and whole stories.
The constellation of actors, stars, at this week’s Business for Good conference and then the Pitch night with Collab4Good’s circular impact accelerator was stunning, up close and at a distance we will be able to see these stars shine for a while to come. I am searching for a name for this constellation and keep returning to the inspiration of the Seven Sisters (my all time favourite constellation), partly because so many of the leaders are women and we all are in Collab4Good. Perhaps Sistering? Perhaps Collab Constellation? I will leave it on the table and see what other ideas turn up.
I have often added the word “radical” to actions and thoughts, it has at times almost been a practice. There is a pattern in my history of the use of the word too and how it is applied and shared by others for instance, radical generosity (Coralus), and radical grace (Centre of Action and Contemplation), and most recently, Dr Melanie Reiback this week introduced to me the notion of “radically open security” which is her non-profit cybersecurity company.
My first of these radicals, was via Richard Rohr who talked about radical grace. I kept the newspaper for years, published by the Centre of Action and Contemplation, which had a cartoon of a young girl called Grace, to remind me of the idea of being playful, open hearted, being joyous, forgiving and compassionate. The image was a contemporary way of being in the world to express my faith at the time radically freed from patriarchal images. The Francisan way of loving nature and being rooted in disrupting hate with love, sadness with joy, injury with pardon, darkness with light and developing an understanding that things have to die before the new can fully emerge, has held me many, many times over the years. I was blown away to hear the best known Francis follower of our age Pope Francis being quoted by Reiback – it felt like a circularity all of its own in my life. She was using his teachings on the economy and the environment. His encyclical Laudato Si (2015) calls urgently on:
a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all. The worldwide ecological movement has already made considerable progress and led to the establishment of numerous organizations committed to raising awareness of these challenge.
The word radical has as its source the word root – a return to fundamentals, the centrality of our origins. I am returning to my thoughts about being in business for good and what this actually means as a spiritual practice and looking forward to circling back to this learning edge.
The stars are aligning and the constellations are forming. And I am sure it is the practices that will get us there. Tiny disciplines like the devops of platform developers, daily meditations, short and regular walks, stretches, naps, conversations with friends, chance meetings with strangers – all contributing to the unfolding of the universe.
I was re-introduced to devops this week, a gentle reminder of tiny steps to continuous improvements, and the idea of change at walking pace maybe quicker than either a sprint or a marathon. Lots and lots of baby steps will get you there too!
Devops as a form of incremental continuous change found its way into a conversation about changemaking in policy and working with leaders in local government within hours of learning about it – a version of devops application present in real time. I realise how I do this quite often and ideas and practices get integrated quickly, almost by osmosis. For me less about products and more about practice, but the principle is the same:
Devops is the combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increases an organization’s ability to deliver applications and services at high velocity: evolving and improving products at a faster pace than organizations using traditional software development and infrastructure management processes.
Collab4Good is a creative energy, and we are constantly adapting, course correcting, feeling into our edges where there is discomfort and noticing the invitation that might be lying in wait for us in the dark of those edges. When we see our practices in real time, living colour and multi-dimensional it is like a night sky lighting up with twinkling stars. I love that we sometimes get to see it close up as well as filling the heavens above us. Ever grateful for those moments when I get to glimpse what is and what will be all at once.
This past week I have been blessed to experience radical writ large and get back to my own roots of radical founded in my religious heritage, spiritual and business practices. Love living at the edges of radical, because that is where my roots are.
Letters to 