Will we ever realize this? We don’t know but we’ll live and die trying…
Rebooting Society’s Operating System
The complex nature of interdependent, commonly accepted, formal and informal (explicit and implicit) norms, structures, rules, policies and practices etc. that overlay and undergird most of society’s organizations, exchanges and ways of functioning — are in essence its operating system.
Many of us recognize that society’s current operating system is seriously failing.
Some of us would even say, it’s f*cked.
While that poses a humongous challenge, Unstitution’s overarching mission is to Reboot Society’s Operating System to become life-affirming — functional, robust, connected and fit-for-current-and-future-purpose for the benefit of humanity and the living planet we call home.
Definition of reboot: To make a change in (something) in order to establish a new beginning; to start anew or make a fresh start.
We debated (and continue to debate) using words like reboot, drivers, engines, mission and impact. And (increasingly) in some contexts as our work unfolds, we aren’t even using those terms. As time goes on, perhaps we can let go of terms that outlive their value because they fail to embody living value.
But hey, we also realize we gotta relate to (much of) the world today while living into adaptive life-affirming ways of being. We are consciously still using the term reboot (for now) as a metaphor that many people can understand as we build bridges from the current system to a viable adaptable living operating system that works for all of humanity.
The reboot metaphor is kinda paradoxical…
Mechanistic domination-oppression Industrial Age colonizing patterns are unacceptable — whether blatant or insidious. True partnership isn’t a superficial flip-of-the switch reboot. Healthy equitable societal operating systems — ways of being — call for deep-rooted transformative shifts.
Living into regenerative life-affirming patterns for people and planet is a deeply humbling ongoing learning journey.
While it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see a full reboot in our own lifetimes, we will stop at nothing short of this compelling imperative. And besides…none of us can really know what that reboot will look like…
Living into an unknowable future calls upon us to learn how, in the present, with all our senses and sense making capacities engaged to embody ways of being futures literate…as described in this article, The imagination of the future influences and impacts the perception in the present. But today we suffer from ‘poverty of the imagination’
“Since the later-than-now does not yet exist, it can only be imagined, and because such imagining has a major impact on what humans are able to sense and make-sense of, it is crucial to understand the role of different kinds of imagining of the later-than-now. Particularly since different kinds of imagined future, not all about planning or preparing for later, have a significant influence on what can be perceived and invented.”
Perhaps becoming and being futures literate is about honouring (and restoring) the roots of our Indigeneity, being present-centred and forward facing, widening and deepening our imagination lenses and the reservoirs of wisdom that might guide us.
Much of this wisdom, preceded Industrial Age modernity. As we (re)learn what is inherently natural, let us be mindful of what keeps reemerging — reflecting the laws and ways of nature and our oneness as nature.
Working from the space between, collaborative communities, intitiatives and coalitions can become viable work systems for making meaningful progress.
Increasingly there are more of us working diligently and tirelessly…stepping up collaborative ways of working.
Many of you reading this are already underway, doing (potentially) extraordinary things in the world. We honour and value all of you.
As efforts take shape and people — all (of us) ordinary citizens — across sectors, disciplines, regions, cultures, generations and diverse lived experience can engage and co-create a broad and deep range of purposeful and connected initiatives.
As progress is made, as we move — every step, maybe a little bit closer…living into, envisaging…co-realizing our collective quest — toward a pluriversal, omniversal world that can vibrantly hold all humanity and a living planet.
Some of the positive effects that we can live into and experience along the way:
🔮 Bridges are built across the divides
🔮 Imaginations ignite and Story making comes to life
🔮 (Trans)contextual Insights are gained and Active Learnings shared
🔮 New patterns are applied, culturally aligned, adapted and right-scaled to more places around the world
🔮 A deep [reframed] sense of belonging can be cultivated and nurtured, honouring diversity and gifts differing…
🔮 Mindful activation and regenerative progress become the living demonstrated proof of life-affirming patterns that work
🔮 New working models and new forms of work systems replace the tired, dysfunctional ones
🔮 Transformative shifts and healthy regeneration becomes more achievable, within contexts and conditions conducive to life
“Don’t try and change the existing system. Build new models that make the existing obsolete.” ~ R.Buckminster Fuller
Many of us have heard this adage over and over again over the years. Still rings true…though how to live into this…not easy…
Unstitution is U — you and us — we.
Being unstitutional reflects a metaphor and ways of being that can open and widen diverse and adaptive pathways…
We are finding one another. We are observing growing convergence. That further fuels and fortifies our collective raison d’être — reasons for being and the way we roll…together.
Plenty more where this came from, with many links to being unstitutional, as a work-in-progress action learning journey.
Each of our articles one can be viewed as a fractal-like glimpse through the unstitutional keyhole or key-whole.
None of us hold the keys...
Collectively, perhaps all of us can interbecome key holders toward life-affirming ways for people and a living planet.
Here are additional articles where we elaborate on some of the evolving elements:
🔮 A little bit about how Unstitution came to be unpacks some of the backstory.
🔮 What Binds Us Together explores coalitions and how these can help advance new forms of work systems…
🔮 Let’s work for net value co-creation discusses our WorkNet constellation of collaborators…
🔮 The beauty and reality of being a messy human unpacks our inherent humanness…the challenges and opportunities that underlie our human systems
🔮 This is what makes you extraordinary discusses how we ordinary citizens can, collectively, become extraordinary
🔮 Rebalancing society with collaborative common[s]sense — an unstitutional dance of emergence & strategy further describes the ongoing journey and ways we can advance meaningful work in society
🔮 This is no game. It’s real life. — the living operating system principles that guide our ways of being…
🔮 Dancing with Monsters… delayers pervasive complex dysfunctional patterns and explores ways we might dance — understanding, addressing and overcoming barriers and dilemmas…
🔮 We’re Dancing to the Beat of a (R)evolution explores emergent/organic AND strategic/by design navigational patterns— toward revolutionary and/or evolutionary systemic transformation…
🔮 Being ‘Roughly Right’ is ‘Always’ and is ‘Never’… ‘Good Enough’ explores the paradoxical nature of navigating through uncertainty and discerning what’s right, wrong and roughly right …
Some day we… our children…our grandchildren…our great-grandchildren…might look back and share stories about the good-old-bumpy-reboot-days, when the trajectory of human civilization began to shift — for the common[s] good.
In the meantime, we are underway — sometimes anguishing…yet not languishing…
We are working, playing, unlearning, dreaming, focusing, making music, dancing, learning, laughing, loving and-and…
Please reach out if you resonate…are underway…ready…to explore…co-catalyze…co-create…co-navigate and help shape these winding reboot pathways. We can choose to dance together, uncovering, restoring and co-discovering many collaborative ways to navigate.
*This article was lightly updated June 2024, with additional links and reflecting 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 a wide range of context-based, place-sourced and themed initiatives 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 our articles 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.
You can follow Unstitution and engage with us on LinkedIn. Many of our posts and perspectives also pop up under hashtags #messyhumanness and #wisdomwithteeth.
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