ThriveAbility Master Class in San Diego
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ThriveAbility MasterClass – San Diego 4/5 June 2016Unprecedented Opportunities and Challenges for Civic, Business and Civil Society Leaders
ThriveAbility Introduction
It has become plainly evident to a great number that the complexity of human civilization on planet Earth has reached a tipping point. Environmental, sociopolitical, religious, and other contexts are straining under the weight of this complexity. The systems that have allowed us to thrive thus far are sensing and beginning to respond to these evolutionary pressures.
Around the world, these responses are taking form as an increasing variety of creative initiatives designed to address these conditions as opportunity for new levels of harmonic, integrated, and inspired presence of our species in the biosphere. The ThriveAbility initiative is one of these promising prototypes particularly close to my heart.
Looking beyond the traditional mono-capital approach that places financial resources central to our creative considerations, ThriveAbility increases the level of resolution and allows us to assess, respond to, and create from seven equivalently important capitals. Approaching our evolving endeavors (commercial, cultural, political, environmental, etc.) through the lens of the seven capitals enables us to better account for the future implications of our important and often times necessarily expedient decisions today.
I invite you to learn more about this creative new approach and our upcoming opportunity to learn through the lens of this model together in early June by reading the ThriveAbility team’s description here:
Tickets are on EventBrite:
Civic, business and civil society leaders are being mightily challenged by the demands of their stakeholders for increasing transparency about governance, environmental and social impacts. To be successful, leaders and organizations now need to demonstrate that they are making a real difference on hundreds of priority issues, as illustrated by the Sustainable Development Goals.
A socio-political revolution is unfolding in many parts of the world, from the movement to reshape North American politics, to the Panama Papers being released and politicians being held accountable for corruption from South America to Africa. The shadow side of Global Capitalism that has silently captured large portions of major world economies since the late 1970’s, having created unprecedented income inequality and suffering for billions as well as (unsustainable) progress for a few billion, is increasingly being held accountable.
Generational change has raised the bar not only for what is judged as minimally acceptable behaviour by leaders and organizations, but also for the aspirations of billions who wish to be part of a regenerative, inclusive economy that considers the wellbeing and thriving of all stakeholders- what is being called a new moral foundation for our global society and economy.
Why ThriveAbility?
The ThriveAbility Initiative is designed to help leaders and organizations address these profoundly important and urgent issues, through an integrative governance framework and a scientifically advanced approach to change and transformation. In addition to ThriveAbility Masterclasses, we are engaging with selected organizations and change agents in pilot projects that demonstrate the advantages of the ThriveAbility Approach, as well as co-designing and delivering new action learning projects with universities and business schools.
The benefits of this approach include:
IMPACT - Measuring and being accountable for real impacts, as good community members
INNOVATION - Leading to thriving communities and engaging employees and customers with compelling innovation pathways to thriveable futures
ENERGIZING - Based on integrated approaches to change and transformation that engage and energize the whole team to look at bigger picture opportunities and challenges for the organization
MULTI-STAKEHOLDER - A pragmatic approach that engages all stakeholders through a whole systems approach that drives change at every level in the organization/system
MULTICAPITAL METRICS - Measuring real value and risk through the application of the True Future Value methodology, which takes into account human, relationship, social, intellectual, natural, manufactured and financial capitals to assess the extent to which decisions and investments are regenerative and inclusive
BOARD FRIENDLY - Enabling leaders including CSOs, CFOs and CIO's to engage in strategic conversations with the board and other governance bodies
SILO-BRIDGING - The ThriveAbility Approach helps leaders, CXO's and organizations bridge the organizational silos that inhibit innovations and improvements from being generated, adopted and scaled across the organization and its ecosystem.
Following highly generative ThriveAbility Masterclasses in London, Perpignan, Netherlands and Boston, we are now convening a gathering of business and community/city leaders, and integral and sustainability practitioners on the West Coast of North America. We will come to explore together how this new governance and transformation technology might be applied in each of our own spheres of activity.
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How this Masterclass can Help You Spark and Scale Initiatives for a Thriveable Future
There is now an emerging opportunity for us to co-lead toward the promise of a beautiful and true thriving for all life on our planet. Regenerative, inclusive approaches to economics, business and politics, are helping us shift to a more integrated and thriveable future for us all. ThriveAbility is an integral governance and transformation framework. It helps us include and go beyond what is working now, while hospicing those activities no longer fit for purpose.
Building on the core principles and models of the ThriveAbility approach, we will guide participants in exploration of how they can use existing knowledge and skills to re-engage and lead the shift toward regenerative inclusive outcomes in their lives and work. Some of the topics covered include:
• From Degenerative, Exclusive Growth to Regenerative Inclusive Growth – what does healthy economic growth look like in a socio-political governance system based upon the principles of ThriveAbility?
• From Mono-capitalism to Multi-capitalism - how “seven capitals” provide a transformative framework for economics and politics that creates an integrated place for financial capital in a balanced mandala with other critical capitals, while balancing political and economic power for social justice;
• True Future Value – how the ThriveAbility Equation frames decisions of thriveable consequence in places/spaces, organizations, markets and leadership;
• Integral Leadership – how “ThriveAbility” starts with you and me, and the stratified leadership approaches that offer breakthroughs in a multi-stakeholder world;
• Global Context – how the ThriveAbility governance framework plugs and plays with existing global sustainability and accounting/reporting standards and human development/psychological frameworks, and is helping them evolve;
• Designing Thriveable Organizations, Habitats and Marketplaces – how can the ThriveAbility approach be applied to designing fit for purpose living systems in a variety of contexts?
• Innovation Pathways – what is the role of innovation pathways in catalyzing the transformations required? How is true Future Value applied in those contexts?
Come and join us for a weekend of “blessed transformation” in a beautiful location in San Diego, with an amazing group of thought and practice leaders.
What Global Thought Leaders are Saying about the ThriveAbility Approach
“When Interface started its journey in 1994 to become a restorative enterprise — meaning to achieve business success with no negative impact — there was no handbook to help us find our way towards that outrageous goal: the top of Mount Sustainability, as our founder Ray Anderson used to call this. We think the ‘Leaders Guide to ThriveAbility' helps today’s leaders to climb their own Mount Sustainability, and support the thriving of their own employees and organisation, as well as the world.”
Geanne van Arkel, Head of Sustainable Development, Interface Benelux
"The investment community and big business need "integrated thinking" at every level. This is central to delivering a sustainable, positive and regenerative role in the economy. It is also fundamental to capitalism's social license to operate. The ThriveAbility operating system is a serious first step toward that."
Dr Steve Waygood - Chief Responsible Investment Officer at Aviva Investors
“Amidst rising global expectations of what constitutes responsible business, incremental improvement must give way to a transformational approach to corporate valuation and value creation. In the future, the valuation of a company must accord parity to all forms of capital. The ThriveAbility Index, which embraces integrated decision-making and innovation, is a potentially major contribution toward closing the gap between contemporary practices and societal expectations.”
Allen White - Co-Founder and Former CEO of GRI, (Global Reporting Initiative), Founder and Cochair of Global Initiative for Sustainability Ratings
"The amount of information in there is fantastic and I would say it is a masterpiece with a new holistic theoretical framework that could support innovation and transformation in business and society. The ThriveAbility approach makes a valuable and refreshing contribution to current debates and policy developments to go beyond economic growth, prosperity and sustainability. The new holistic theoretical framework and strong connection with practice, stresses the importance of eco-effectiveness while creating beneficial additionalties. The authors were daring enough to renew language in order to create the possibility for positive thinking and the adding of true quality in our life. Hopefully it will inspire people and organizations to renew things in a progressive and pragmatic way. Leaders, small and great, can realise the so needed ThriveAbility transition and bring humanity back.”
Dr Michael Braungart - Co-Founder of Cradle to Cradle
"ThriveAbility brilliantly captures what every leader, every business and every change-agent should embrace - a positive vision of how we can flourish as enterprises, as communities and as people. ThriveAbility is what I would call one of the "sustainable frontiers", where we let go of industrial models and cultural norms that are no longer fit-for-purpose; where we re-imagine organisations and redesign technologies to turn bureaucracies into holocracies and limits into innovations. ThriveAbility is the opposite of denial; it is positive engagement with challenges and proactive creation of solutions."
Dr Wayne Visser, Director of Kaleidoscope Futures and author of Sustainable Frontiers
The Benefits of Embedding ThriveAbility
Closing the sustainability gap in most organizations and places means bridging silos and multiple capitals in every part of the system through effective stakeholder engagement. As almost every experienced strategist, designer, finance officer and sustainability practitioner knows, these silos make introducing change and transformation into the system difficult if not impossible in many cases.
The ThriveAbility Approach and Equation deliver significant benefits:
Convening & Curating Flourishing Local/Regional Thriveability Networks
Bridging/Integrating Sustainability across the Organization/System
Motivating And Aligning Key Stakeholders
Mapping Innovation Pathways for Breakthroughs
Modeling Co-Opetitive Advantage with Integral Metrics in industries and between cities/regions/nations.
ThriveAbility offers these benefits in the following ways:
• Enabling you to take account of the regeneration of seven core capitals through the ThriveAbility Equation: human, relational, social, intellectual (know-how), natural, manufactured (including infrastructure) and financial;
• Offering you a valuation framework to take account of True Future Value (TFV) that synergizes all capitals (largest handprint for least footprint);
• Providing you with a Meta-framework that allows true plug and play of the most useful existing frameworks and metrics to provide decision useful information/tools;
• Delivering an education program that integrates and synergizes human, social and knowledge potentials for thriveable value creation.
AgendaDay 1 – 0930 - 17001. Introductions
- Origins of ThriveAbility
a. Why, Who and What
b. The ThriveAbility Journey
c. The ThriveAbility Governance Model &
d. Organizational Ecosystem
e. Alpha, Delta and Omega Partnerships
f. Licensing and IP/Open Source Program
- Foundations of the Regenerative, Inclusive Economy
a. The Seven Capitals Matrix
b. True Future Value
c. The ThriveAbility Program and Index
d. The ThriveAbility Operating System
- The ThriveAbility Approach
a. The Six Step Model: Generating Innovation Pathways
b. Transforming the System in Focus
c. Strategic Alignment for ThriveAble Futures
d. Incremental & Breakthrough Innovation are Stage Dependent
e. ThriveAbility OS
f. Is This a ThriveAble Decision?Day 2 – 0930 – 1630 THRIVEABLE EXEMPLARS 5. Why We Need Thriveable Habitats and Organisations6. Toward a Thriveable World and a Thriveable San Diego- Case Studies7. Demonstrating the ThriveAbility Approach using Participant’s Projects8. Closing
As a part of this Masterclass we will be exploring some of the leading edge projects featured in San Diego. We will dive into what exactly is meant by "regenerative cities", the "ecopolis", "smart cities" and many more initiatives
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What does it mean to become an "Ecopolis"?
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WHY IS THRIVEABILITY SUCH A POWERFUL APPROACH TO ACCELERATING TRANSFORMATION?
The new discipline of ThriveAbility is aimed at re-designing our socio-technical and managerial systems as follows:
Firstly, it insists that we take account of and regenerate seven core capitals when making any decision, or designing any organization, product, service or solution- these capitals are human, relational, social, intellectual (know-how), natural, manufactured (including infrastructure) and financial;
Secondly, it provides a valuation framework using the seven capitals in which strategies, innovations, programs/projects, products/services can be measured using a new valuation method called “True Future Value”. The “bottom-line” of True Future Value is that it seeks to synergize and enhance the “people capitals” (human, relational, social and intellectual) for the smallest natural and manufactured capital footprint possible, or even a regenerative footprint.
Thirdly, ThriveAbility integrates this into existing global standards and frameworks for reporting, accounting and data management so that the ThriveAbility Approach offers decision-useful information that is comparable with existing financial analyses, but much more innovative, sustainable and motivating.
The True Future Value Equation Provides Metrics for the Regenerative, Inclusive Economy The ThriveAbility EquationWhy ThriveAbility is emerging as a Key Integrator of Strategy, Finance, Design and Sustainability Decisionmaking
Following the SDG and COP21 commitments made in 2015, the ThriveAbility approach has evolved to make it simpler to integrate these commitments into your sustainability goals and metrics. The ThriveAbility Approach and Equations have become much more powerful tools to make life simpler for those seeking to identify the innovation pathways that will deliver True Future Value for the stakeholders of any organization or place. What is True Future Value? "TFV" embodies the following four key aspects, as highlighted in the diagram below:
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We need to integrate shifts in human consciousness and culture with shifts in our capacities and creations so that they synergize a thriving future for all of us. We each need to start where we are, with what we are each doing or planning to do, today.
We’ve designed programs for leaders, communities and organizations to go on the ThriveAbility Journey, along with an Index to measure progress, including introductory ThriveAbility MasterClasses for those ready to begin the journey.
Come and join us for one of the 2016 ThriveAbility MasterClasses and discover how you can become one of the ThriveAbility Leaders. Each Masterclass is a co-creation of future actions for a more thriveable environment.
How True Future Value is Transformational
• CONTEXT SENSITIVITY - TFV is a context-sensitive methodology, which works on the basis of progressive approximation to arrive at a best-estimate based decision. In the simplified version of the ThriveAbility Equation in the diagram above, you will note that the CONTEXT of the decision/s being made is the very first factor taken into account when applying the equation;
• TRUE BENEFIT/COST - TFV is an holistic equation which measures the ratio of the value created in any human activity through synergies between human, relationship. social and knowledge capitals (or “anthrocapitals” that generate thriving and BENEFITS), relative to the natural and manufactured capitals COSTS associated with that value creation activity;
• THREE CORE VARIABLES - TFV includes three key terms - on the denominator we have TERM 2 - Science Based Thresholds (social floors and environmental ceilings) divided by TERM 3 - a Sustainable Innovation Factor (including, for example, circular economy/C2C, green chemistry, renewable energy, biomimicry and micro-biome based innovations); and on the numerator we have TERM 4 - the Value Creation Capacity of the anthrocapitals that generate thriving;
• ALL EXTERNALITIES INCLUDED - TFV includes both positive and negative externalities in terms of metrics that measure both impacts and value/thriving, in such a way that context based sustainability thresholds are honored;
• THRIVEABLE DECISION BENCHMARKS - TFV provides a benchmark for decisions of all kinds through which a “thriveable” decision can be made, taking into account a full seven capital, multi-stakeholder analysis of the true costs and true benefits of a particular investment, program or action.
The Four Contexts of the ThriveAbility Approach
The ThriveAbility approach involves applying the True Future Value Equation to the four key entities that must work well together to enable life as we know it to flourish:
PLACES/SPACES – What is needed to ensure the future thriving of this place/space and its people and resources for future generations?
ORGANIZATIONS/PURPOSE/PARTNERS – What kinds of organizations, products, services, solutions and programs are needed to help make that thriving future a reality in a globalized world? •
MARKETS/PRICING/TRUE FUTURE VALUE – Using the ThriveAbility Seven Capitals framework, what pricing and promotion strategies should we use to ensure that we are creating true Future Value for all stakeholders through our activities?
POTENTIAL/PEOPLE/PARTICIPATION – What kinds of competencies and work are needed to ensure that we can attract those organizations that are prepared to invest in the future of regenerative places through innovative approaches?
The four contexts in which ThriveAbility is applied are shown in the following diagram-
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WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO THRIVE SUSTAINABLY?
Rule Number One of ThriveAbility is: “ThriveAbility begins with me”. Simple, and effective. You want a thriving life and world? Then start with yourself. How can you learn to thrive in your own life and career? What would it take to inject your joy, passion and love into your family, friends and significant others in your world. And into your workplace?
While most of us can think of ways to enhance the thriving of ourselves and significant others quite easily, it becomes a little harder when it comes to work and career. Depending on what kind of organization/s you work in/with, there may be some boundaries and limits to what you, as an individual, can do. There are bosses, power structures, rules and protocols, politics and much complication in this world of work. And yet, something must be done.
While 70% of the workforce globally are either unengaged or actively disengaged in their place of work, there are the lucky 30% that ARE engaged, and hence spending the bulk of their working hours (and life!) in an activity which gives their lives some meaning, purpose and perhaps even pleasure. This is the place ThriveAbility starts.
The extensive research on human flourishing shows that there are five key ingredients to thriving:
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Positive Psychology– can you take the ups and downs of life in your stride? Are you resilient? How can you become more resilient, including with the help of a support network?
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Engagement– are you and those around you engaged in activities that are important to you? Do they give you a sense of purpose? How might you transform those situations that are getting you down, by fuelling yourself with those things that lift you up?
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Relationships– probably the most important of the five factors for flourishing. Are you in good relationships that make you happy and mean something to you? Or are your relationships getting you down, a source of stress? Because relationships are always a two-way street, start with yourself and your role in those dysfunctional relationships. What are you doing that might make them unsatisfactory? Work from there to engage with the other person on the relationship to see how you might both fix it and help each other. This is an entire book, but absolutely key, as people in unhappy relationships with other unhappy people are likely to be 20-40% more depressed and unhappy than people in happy relationships with happy people. And depression really sucks!!
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Meaning– what gives your life meaning? Your family? Your work? Your hobbies or religion? Concentration camp survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl discovered that people whose lives had some meaning were much more likely to survive the death camps than those without meaning. meaning is, literally, a lifesaver. Explore how you might inject some meaning and purpose into your life, your job, your spare time, doing things that make a difference, especially for others. Service to others it the most rewarding thing you can do.
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Accomplishment– finally, we all love a little recognition for our achievements. Both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, though the former are more powerful long term. Small strokes of approval and recognition for activities well done are as if not more powerful than bonuses and trophies. The sense of being recognised for a job well done, a career that leaves a positive legacy, a life that serves as a role model and inspiration for others- these are mighty powerful things. But accomplishments, by themselves, remain empty without the other four key aspects of thriving.
In ThriveAbility, we recognise Relationship Capital as the single most important aspect of thriving, for these five reasons- relationships are the medium in which we grow and develop as people, and the other aspects of of thriving depend on healthy relationships. Viewing your family, friends, colleagues, partners, customers and other key stakeholders as a valuable source of learning and growth through their feedback and support, is the key.
If we live in a world where we are scared of what people might say about us, where we fear that we are inadequate or inferior, then we shy away from such feedback, because we “know” we are going to be hurt. Cue an environment of mistrust, paranoia and ultimately diseased and lonely people playing materialistic games with each other. It takes courage and an honest desire to be open and withstand any criticism that comes your way, to begin the process of healing that can lead the way to more joy, love and happiness in your life and career.
The same goes for organizations. If the leaders (not just the “bosses”, but those that influence others) in the organization are thriving, open, generous and good people, then all those around them will benefit and become more engaged. If the leaders are selfish, petty, demanding tightwads then expect an organization to mirror that, and expect it to ultimately fail (even the biggest titans).
In addition to Relationship Capital, there are six other capitals that make for a thriving life and world. They are:
A. Human Capital – the 7.3 billion people on the planet right now all want the same basic things- shelter, food, clothing, self-respect and respect from their peers, an honest living, and if they are lucky, some form of personal growth and development. Each of us has a talent or two to offer the world, and we need support networks to help us develop and express our talents. The world of work and organizations should be the place where we can grow and develop ourselves while also fulfilling our basic needs.
B. Social Capital– each individual and organization has a reputation, which can be good, bad or indifferent. We call that a “Brand”, which is the promise an organization makes to its stakeholders. For example, take Volkswagen. It was founded as the People’s Car — a purpose that guided the company and fuelled its growth. And VW became an iconic brand. Yet VW made a big mistake. It used its corporate financial ambitions (one capital of seven only) as a purpose. Market share and revenue targets are not purpose or values-based- becoming the world’s largest automaker by sales is not the same as being the world’s favourite, eco-friendly people’s car. An organization’s purpose shapes its brand and helps create products and services that positively impact all stakeholders to become more ThriveAble.
C. Intellectual Capital– human beings create sciences, technologies and infrastructures. We use knowledge to innovate and make better stuff as well as create better experiences and lives for our customers and stakeholders. This capacity to create is grounded in knowledge and we can see the fruits of knowledge creation as intellectual capital. It can be patented or open source, arcane or self-evident- pretty much everything we need and want in modern life is the result of one of tens of thousands of innovations that have enabled Joe and Joanna Average to live better than the richest Kings and Queens of yore.
D. Manufactured/Infrastructure Capital– the product of all our technological and social cleverness is all around us, in roads, buildings, vehicles, houses, offices, shops, gadgets, phones, schools and universities, and large organizations. Life as we know it would stop immediately without the “things that make us smart and comfortable”. You would not be able to read these words without the trillions of dollars invested in the infrastructure of information technology over the past sixty years by billions of very bright, dedicated people. Nor would you be able to make toast.
E. Natural Capital– of course none of this would be possible without nature, which we have taken for granted for far too long, So long, in fact, that we are now using more than 1.6 planets worth of resources every year to support our modern lifestyles. That is completely unsustainable, and if we do not change our ways we will find ourselves largely extinct within a century. Sustainability has been around for 50 years, but sadly there are not enough people that care enough to shift the habits of the people who don’t care or can’t be bothered. This is called the “sustainability gap”, and is the second main reason for ThriveAbility- to CLOSE the sustainability gap.
F. Financial Capital– it has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. By itself, money is simply a useful means of exchange and unit of value, as well as an incentive system to take care of all the other capitals. Whatever currency you use, mainstream or alternative. The challenge we have is that using money EXCLUSIVELY to measure value means you know the price of everything and the value of nothing. While we need financial capital like a farmer’s fields need fertiliser, to make things grow, it should not be an end in itself. Unfortunately, our global economy has become financialised and rigged for those with loads of money, against those with little or none. its and unfair system that is leading to collapse in many places together with climate catastrophes caused by our abuse of natural capital. The ThriveAbility Equation enables us to change the way we measure our success and accomplishments, using all seven capitals in ways that are sustainable and just.
Which brings us back to Joy, Love and Thriving. We need to integrate shifts in human consciousness and culture with shifts in our capacities and creations so that they all synergize a thriving future for all of us. And we each need to start where we are, with what we are each doing or planning to do, today. We’ve designed an entire 4 year program for organizations to go on the ThriveAbility Journey, along with an Index to measure progress, and a one/two day introductory MasterClass for ThriveAbility for those ready to begin the journey. Come and join us for the ThriveAbility MasterClass in San Diego.
WHENSaturday, June 4, 2016 at 9:30 AM - Sunday, June 5, 2016 at 4:30 PM (PDT) -
Add to Calendar (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/thriveability-san-diego-masterclass-transforming-capitalism-tickets-24700697451#add-to-calendar-modal)
WHEREOpen Field Awakening - 4382 N Talmadge Dr, San Diego, California 92116 -