What do we gain by making organizations a better place to work and learn?

I think we all want to have a pleasant job, to meet nice people and make a difference. If we add making money, than no one will disagree. But that does not explain why lots of communities come together to talk about better ways of working.

I joined and created several groups, on LinkedIn and in real life, that are driven by creating better places to work, live and learn. All of them longing for something they cannot easily find the proper words for and making it work is even more of a burden.

On my journey the last couple of years, I seem to have grasped some things that are in the focus of all the groups I play some kind of role. And to me these “things” unify the basics all these groups want to benefit from.

One of the problems I (and the rest of the World) run into is that all these initiatives behave rather isolated. Every community operates in its own territory, even though some of them cover the whole planet, they are only known in small parts of society.

I think the best thing we can do is bringing those initiatives / groups together. So they can learn from each other , build upon the proof others have gained and be a collective that can create Trust in the hearts and souls of those who do not have a clue on how to handle the changing world around them.

Communities that I know, who thrive for a better world, in basically almost exactly the same way:

•  DeLimes, Rijnlands Organiseren. They celebrate the” Nortern European way of organizing”. Working in the organisational change area.
• STOOS. International community out of the ICT AGILE scene. Trying to become AGILE instead of just doing AGILE.
• BetaCodex. Network willing to make work work again. Applying Beyond Budgeting and non hierarchical value chain ways of operating. Organizational change. Rooted in Germany (I think.)   
• Plein 2050. A digital community that wants individuals and organizations to come together to border less join in virtual cafés and be innovative.
•  DenktankProject.nl  A think tank in the scene of project management who looks for ways to make complex projects more successful.
•  Broedplaats Arnhem HAN. Collective of educational, organisational en individual innovators. Passionate creative experts who want to innovate education, life and work on a Glocal Scale (Glocalization  = Global thinking on a Local scale)
• Giftedness 2012. Conference in Dubai on High Ability, where I met dozens of people from all over the world, trying to get education to differentiate. And putting the human side and special talents of the individual as the central way of steering and facilitating. Making them work together to achieve innovation.
• FM2Share. A "flock" of experts on Facility Management. Al tough the expertise is broad, the form of the network itself is very much according the "making the world a better place" way of working. Not being a formal organization, no boss, no contracts, just doing well by being well and together acting in synergy for and with clients.
• The whole movement about New Ways of Working, or Het Nieuwe Werken as it is called in Holland, tries to create this new setting of ways to organize.

At the STOOS conference in Amsterdam on the 6 and 7^th of July, there were delegates from all over the western world, from Canada, the US to lots of different European nationalities. In Dubai, the Giftedness conference people from Asia, the Pacific and the Gulf States where present.  I think we can definitely say it’s a Global issue.

It’s probably no coincident the first major STOOS happening was in Amsterdam. Participants told me they were thrilled about the atmosphere, the openness and the level of participation. I am Dutch and so I am more aware of what happens in Holland than elsewhere, but  as the above list shows there is a lot going on here in Holland, and foreigners are happy to fly half the globe to join what is happening.

This short film on a visitors blog site explains the STOOS initiative nicely. (The last one in line, that's me!)

Still lots of Decision Making Units in the Dutch society as well,  have no clue of what’s going on.

What I think is going on is that these groups feel ways to gain flexibility, creativity, innovation, synergy and enhancing excellence. To handle complexity. To act out of logic, rather than dogmatic visions of someone's "truth". By tapping into new Value systems, called Green and especially Yellow in the terminology "Spiral Dynamics" uses.

I explained those Green and Yellow Value Systems in the Blog from aug. 1^st. 

And in this Article about the rising Millennium Generation and Spiral Dynamics. Klick here!

If You (dis)agree, please respond and leave a mark!