Here are a few self-organizing groups I’m learning with/from this week…

1. A touching and cute self-organizing group (love the response of all the different adults in the video):

2. A brave self-organizing group within my neighborhood:

3. A very visible collection of self-organizing groups right now. There are tons of videos and stories online. This one was shared with me by a community member who is occupying Vancouver (and inspiring everyone within earshot, including me):

Related FYI links:

  • Coordinated national gathering in the U.S. July 4, 2012
  • How to leave a bank. Daniel and I are leaving our BIG BANK for one of our many local credit unions this week. Tired of the lack of human connection and the “Suprise!” fees, we’ve been planning to make this move for months but hadn’t found the few hours time to make the switch. A little push from the community this month was all we needed. In all things, who we spend our time with matters. Local credit union here we come! Will this small act change the world? It’ll change ours.

4. An emerging self-organizing work group:

  • My fabulous friend Bas and I have decided to write a series of books about different ways of working. We’re both fans of writing about what we ourselves are doing right now so that learning isn’t optional. Co-learning is exponentially more fun than individual experting! How do I know this? 
    • Exhibit A: Bas ran out and spontaneously bought himself a huge white board to draw on, while at the same time—on the other side of the planet—I was out excitedly buying some rainbow-colored post-its for brainstorming.
    • Exhibit B: I can’t wait for our 11 p.m. (9 a.m. his time) Skype meeting later this week. Woo hoo! 

Think we’re going to write our own stories and gather stories from people and groups who are co-creating different work for themselves and their communities. At the moment, “different” meaning (at least to me) working in ways other than your previous self’s definition of work and redefining what “successful work” looks and feels like for yourself/selves. Don’t hold me to this off-the-cuff definition. It’ll evolve as we learn.

  • Request: if you have lived a great story about a different way of working and redefining success in work for yourself and/or your community, or you know somebody who has, will you contact me and share it? We’d love to connect!

5. My cats partnering to scare a squirrel off the bird feeder (through the window glass). One cat can’t do it. Two cats can. Now we know.