In a technological society many of us dream of being entrepreneurs, breaking out of rule-bound bureaucracies to try a new idea. However, a successful new organization has to deal with a world full of bureaucracy, so to do this, it grows its own administration. As it grows, its administration – a millstone around its neck […]
Kivalina is one of four Alaskan seacoast native villages eroding so quickly that they need to relocate within 10 years or less. Ice in the Bering Sea keeps diminishing; ice that until the last 20 years or so diminished the waves pounding the coast for much of the year. Native Americans living in these villages […]
E.O. Wilson is first of all, a naturalist. That differentiates him from specialized biologists studying little slices of the field. Naturalists observe a total ecology. Wilson became well known for studying ant societies, but he had to do it by immersing himself in the total context in which ant colonies thrive or die. Consequently, Wilson […]
By Frank Dixon A Whole System Approach to Corporate Responsibility and Socially Responsible Investing A large opportunity exists to substantially improve the effectiveness of the corporate responsibility (CR) and socially responsible investing (SRI) movements. Over the past 15 years, these movements have gone mainstream. Nearly every large corporation has some type of sustainability strategy. And […]
What would a system based on increasing not quantity, but quality of all life look like? All projections are speculative, but any will differ substantially from the current tech-based, growth-oriented system. But as long as “establishment” business leaders are in the grip of the current system, they are stuck projecting extensions of the current system. […]
As they say, there is no free lunch. However, our illusions easily deceive us that there is. Illusions may stem from the structure of modern systems (don’t worry; we have insurance), or simply from our ignorance of how a system works. If systems work poorly, frustration is “pushback.” If systems completely break down, anger and […]
