Social entrepreneur and community innovator Richard D. Bartlett joins Terry to explore the dynamics, challenges and potentials of conscious communities, and the possibility for small-scale social experiments of “micro-solidarity” to scale in a way that meets our global challenges. Richard D. Bartlett is on a mission to help catalyze a more compassionate, intelligent, more co-creative way of working together. In 2012, he co-founded Loomio, a digital tool for deliberation and decision-making in groups, and in 2016, he co-founded The Hum, which advises organizations without managers. Rich is also a Director and longstanding member of Enspiral — a network of people supporting each other for doing meaningful work — and his most recent project is called Microsolidarity, a mutual aid community of peer-to-peer support for people working on personal development. He also writes about how we work together, at any scale, from relationships to organizations to social change. You can follow his insights on Twitter, read his articles on Medium, and access his first book Patterns for Decentralised Organising online (though it’s not finished). Here are some of the questions Richard and Terry discuss in the episode:
- How might “collective intelligence” or “democracy” processes pervade societies, so that small conversations can more easily become beneficial initiatives?
- Which community processes and dynamics are most effective in fostering mutual support, shared understanding, and practical action?
- How might traditional institutions evolve from dominator relationships to partnership relationships? Can our innovative prototypes scale and influence global organizations?
- Rich’s new project Microsolidarity: https://microsolidarity.cc/
- Rich’s book, Patterns for Decentralized Organizing: https://leanpub.com/patterns-for-decentralised-organising/
- Enspiral: http://enspiral.com/
- Loomio: http://loomio.org/
- The Hum: http://thehum.org/
- Rich on Twitter: http://twitter.com/richdecibels
- Rich on Medium: https://medium.com/@richdecibels
- Terry Patten’s website: https://www.terrypatten.com/
- Visit BeingofBenefit.com
