2022 — a year of systems change in review
If this year has shown us anything, it’s that the “normal” so many legacy institutions have been seeking a return to is forever out of reach. For those working across the business of change, the status quo has long failed both people and planet; collectively, we have been seeking ways to meaningfully redesign the systems we depend upon for our survival, while also navigating immense social upheaval. The toll on the individual, no matter who they are, where they come from, or what they do, has been incalculable, and humanity is caught between the demands of society, the requirements of the economy, and the constraints of the environment.
Planetary scale systems change is essential, and must address each of these spheres. Yet one of the key questions we often hear regards how to balance the micro and the macro. How do we take care of our needs as individuals, families and communities, meet our obligations to our organisations, and ensure the work we are doing ladders up to the sum of something greater?
It’s not an easy balance to strike, and has subsequently been a critical area of inquiry this past year. As a mutualistic organisation, we recognise that co-creation requires elements of collaboration, cooperation and coordination in order to be meaningful at scale, and our work proves out the value of this approach. As we’re heading into the solstice season, the team at Armillaria has been reflecting on 2022 with deep gratitude and admiration for our partners, contributors, and allies in all that we’ve achieved together. Some of these highlights include:
⭐️ Supporting the scaling strategies of our longstanding development partners through the design of innovative finance and governance mechanisms, and enhancing data and knowledge mobility through and across their digital properties
- Following our work in designing Zebras Unite’s mutualistic hybrid structure in 2019, we’ve designed and integrated participatory governance and decision making mechanisms that inform the creation of the necessary digital infrastructure to support this growing global cooperative of over 300 members. We’ve taken a similar approach with the Inclusive Capital Collective, Zebras Unite’s flagship incubated program, a growing, national network of independent loan, equity and real estate funds and entrepreneur support organizations working to create lasting community wealth in BIPOC communities in the United States.
- We completed our final phase of design and engineering work with Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI), expanding the functionality of the Pescadata mobile application in service to a digital ecosystem that increases the flow of marine conservation innovations and capital while centering the needs of fishing communities in Latin America and the Caribbean. We also led the authorship of their report “A rising tide lifts all boats” that describes how mobilising knowledge between marine conservation organisations can support large-scale marine conservation outcomes in Latin America & the Caribbean; and are supporting their creation of a special purpose vehicle to support LAC fishers and fishing coops to benefit from having sovereignty and agency of their data.
⭐️ Socializing our perspectives and design principles in the market.
- We hosted three more installments of our Design Principles for Systems Change event series, with deep conversation on how to design equitable systems that rectify historic injustices and create opportunities for all, cooperative systems that centers mutual benefit to transcend organisational silos, and adaptive systems that are resilient in a volatile, uncertain, and complex world.
- We also hosted a panel at SXSW on building digital infrastructure for collective impact, with our partners and allies at Hylo, Common Approach to Impact Measurement, and Shanzhai City.
- Additionally, both Managing Partners participated in multiple virtual and in person events, including Astrid Scholz discussing alternative approaches to financing and Madelynn Martiniere talking about humanity-centered systems design.
⭐️ Evolving our own organisational design to support greater worker-ownership.
Co-founded by three individuals from two companies, Armillaria was designed from the onset as a mutualistic entity, intended to provide pathways for deeper engagement with partners, where ownership, governance and rewards are shared. As we prepare to expand our membership in the upcoming year, we’ve been continuing to refine our structure and governance to encourage individuals and organisations from anywhere in the world to join us (and for us to join them!).
So what’s next for the collective in 2023?
We continue to believe deeply in our theory of change, as outlined in From Billions to Trillions. Specifically, we’re guided by three key hypotheses in the next phase of our growth and development:
1. Making it easier to share, discover, and reuse innovations that address social, environmental and economic challenges will rapidly accelerate their resolution.
A plethora of challenge platforms, solutions libraries, and internal knowledge management tools hold a wealth of knowledge on social innovations that if broken out of their respective silos would increase their adoption, adaption, and capitalisation. In 2023, we’ll be accelerating our participatory work on an open standards framework for sharing solutions and opportunities, to enable innovation and capital liquidity across the silos of the social change industry.
2. Co-designing capital products in deep cooperation with the communities most impacted by social, environmental and economic challenges is key to mobilising capital at the scale and speed needed to address them.
The multi-trillion dollar challenges represented by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals are too vast and complex for any one organisation to address in isolation. We need participatory financial mechanisms focused on aggregation and dissemination of capital by community capital intermediaries. In 2023 we will be Implementing and supporting new initiatives such as the Inclusive Capital Collective in a number of diverse sectors, geographies and demographics that exemplify our participatory approach to impact finance.
3. Designing innovative mechanisms for participatory culture and governance will help ecosystems more effectively and equitably collaborate, cooperate, and coordinate at scale
This year we’ll be in a period of deep applied research and practice in participatory community design, bringing our design principles to life through new methodologies, frameworks, and toolkits to help regional and global networks drive meaningful collective social change, together.
❤️ If you resonate with any of the above, we would love to connect and explore what we might learn with and from you.
The business of systems design and engineering in service to planetary change is a multi-generational, multi-national, multicultural, multi-disciplinary marathon. We’re in this for the long-haul, and are seeking long-term partners to work together with in service to the greater good.
