An evolving operating system that’s bursting with life!
To make progress rebooting society’s operating system, Unstitution took a hard look at the work that will be required.
That in itself was and — continues to be — a formidable undertaking — in fact, an understatement!
We view this living operating system as an alternative way to get needed work underway and flowing from the space between existing and conventionally established organizations and sectors. This requires adaptability and fluidity but with more form than loose networks.
We asked WTF does this work system look like when it’s fully operational, up and running, working well and reasonably living up to its big bold hairy, mission?
Our default orientation from the outset was to embrace this adventure as an ongoing collaborative learning journey. Accepting the things we don’t (yet) know is actually pretty liberating. It opens the way for co-discovery and the mixing, matching and combining of new possibilities.
Our commons work — from the space between — is sometimes described as the fourth sector. A quick look demonstrates that many have been formulating the commons 4th sector for decades. We are among those experimenting with multiple ways to tangibly operationalize, bring it to life and help it flourish as a way to navigate through increasingly challenging, destabilized times.
From this commons space between, there are patterns, but no well-defined working models out there on which to model ourselves. By breaking free of the existing conventional tracks, we are truly free to experiment, adapt and co-create some new pathways and containers or living labs for working together.
Fast forward, with the benefit of ongoing learning and testing some new ideas, connecting our ways into a reasonably integrated whole picture that nests and aligns with many others’ — and umpteen diagrams and documents — our living operating system is alive, enlivened and always evolving.
It is fuelled and defined by seriously, playful Game Be operating principles and amazing talented, diverse, hearted-centred people from all over the world — all of us working to be the change we hold in our heads, hearts and hands. Aligned with a collective quest and embracing this multi-faceted adventure, many of us are delightedly discovering that we don’t have to go it alone. We don’t have to force-fit this work into conventional boxed-in branding. Systemic change takes and makes space for many forms. The things that ignite our mutual, overlapping and differentiated interests are warmly welcomed — cultivating fertile common[s] ground.
FairShares Governance (FSC) patterns are helping us shape and live into an enabling operating framework and build in the stewardship and resilience that fosters our ongoing ability to evolve — walking-the-talk-and-listening-while-we-walk.
While this commons-based work system and how it all integrates, is a relatively new model — we aren’t starting from scratch. We’re combining decades of experience as we approach this work co-creatively with fresh eyes.
Our living operating system is provisionally geared toward nine (9) dynamic, synergistic and adaptable constituent parts, functions and activities:
⚙️ Civil Society ⚙️ Business ⚙️ Government
⚙️ Active Learning ⚙️ Activation Hubs ⚙️ Coalition Builders
⚙️ Bridge Building ⚙️ Belonging ⚙️ Imagination/Innovation Labs
We’ve also got some cool diagrams that depict the way these are intended to work in action. Paradoxically we learned that we don’t always need the models and the concepts to activate this stuff. Aligned with adaptive living systems, things often naturally and intuitively flow.
Coalition and living lab work is at the heart of our reboot mission, working at the intersections of business, government and civil society, bringing people together across all three sectors to address targeted social systemic challenges anywhere in the world. We are collaborating and working in a variety of ways to help restore life-affirming balance in a society way out-of-balance. We elaborate further in this article: Rebalancing society with collaborative common[s]sense — an unstitutional dance of emergence & strategy
[Trans]contextual Active Learning, Coalition Building, Activation Hubs, Building Bridges, Imagination/Innovation Labs, and Belonging go a bit further defining the differentiated work functions involved.
There’s lots to do and plenty of ways to work and play.
There’s navigational method to the madness, but not the kind that limits possibilities and horizons. There is an adaptable mix of structure, strategy and emergence to navigate coherently and co-creatively.
People discover where to best contribute and we all experience some joy along the way. And yeah…some painful lessons too!
We’ll continue to experiment, incorporating new ideas and learnings. We’re working with the inherent messiness and messy humanness — becoming more comfortable…being uncomfortable.
Our living operating system design is based on (trans)contextual insights gained over many years, with particular focus on the past few year’s experience and the present-centredness that keeps us grounded in ongoing learning-in-action.
We also listen to our gut — what intuitively feels right — and what people have been sharing and describing for a very long time. We zoom in and we zoom out, allowing for naturally iterative inner and relational development, left and right brain engagement — in the context of our work.
As we progress, we’ll continue to survey and recalibrate all of these moving parts dancing synergistically. Overarching contextual insights help us reflect, integrate, and dance relatively wisely — as we navigate through the knowns and the unknowns…moving roughly rightfully and hopefully in the roughly right direction …
We know from countless conversations and the work underway that many people are ready to SHfT from the win-lose dysfunctional degenerative competitive paradigm that is digging society into a deeper hole and taking humanity and non-human living beings — down with it.
People keep asking, “How?” An important question. There are many hows nested within our operational functions. The suite of articles published and regularly updated here, offer glimpses into how we roll. Our evolutionary navigation reflects the strategic and emergent ways we approach our work. We’re guided by patterns, not formulas — more inspired by layered learning than answers and monochromatic solutions.
If it isn’t yet obvious, we are especially excited that our Unstitution living operating system commons truly nourishes and thrives on collaboration and co-creation, opening up and revealing regenerative pathways available to us all.
As always, we can’t wait to hear what’s fuelling your passion, about the work you are undertaking and updates along the way. We’re keen to explore ways we might navigate together!
*This article was updated April 2024, reflecting additional perspectives and ongoing action research, as we continue to observe, listen and adapt — a humbling learning journey for us all.
Unstitution was birthed as a collective creative commons and nested ecosystem. We (co-)catalyze and support collaborative communities, initiatives and coalitions where people from across sectors, disciplines, cultures, generations and walks-of-life work together on mission critical issues. From readiness through to regenerative progress — moving beyond polarization — is how we roll. The links embedded throughout this article are a warm invitation to go a bit deeper, at any time. For more insights reflecting our ongoing journey, our suite of Unstitution articles are published on Medium. They portray a small sample of the ways we are adapting and contributing among ever-expanding commons-based communities and initiatives inspired and fuelled by citizens — perhaps better described as denizens — anywhere in the world — living into the principles and spirit that govern our collaborative work.
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