THE BEGINNING
A Declaration Of Interdependence
July 4, 2023: I am doing the most 2003 thing imaginable, I’m starting a blog. I’ll use it to share insights and musings on the role of leaders in communities, networks, and ecosystems in these uncertain times — and to explore the global forces that got us here.
Twenty summers ago, I graduated from college and wanted to become a social entrepreneur. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I wanted to “change the world.” (How American of me.)
Two decades later, one thing I know for sure (and what I’d certainly share with my younger self) is that despite what we’re told, one person can’t change the world, and no one person ever has.
What I’ve come to better understand over the past two decades is that societal and community change happens not because one person has a bright idea, but change happens because groups of people in relationship with each other — networks, communities, ecosystems, whatever you want to call these groups of people— lean into those relationships and find ways to work together. In the complex alchemy of community, people, ideas, and resources combine and recombine, and things emerge…new activities, relationships, cultures, and ways of being that do create change.
As Margaret Wheatley, whose wisdom I will likely draw on heavily in this publication, so succinctly puts it:
“The world doesn’t change one person at a time. It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what’s possible.
This is good news for those of us intent on changing the world and creating a positive future. Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections. We don’t need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits. Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage and commitment that lead to broad-based change.” (1)
I’ve spent the last twenty years as a social entrepreneur, traveler, community builder, media maker, storyteller, and — most recently — in philanthropy, exploring the role of these types of communities, networks, and ecosystems in changing societal conditions for the better.
My work over the last six years at the Kauffman Foundation has been focused on an emerging group of community leaders called “ecosystem builders.” A person (or, more likely, persons) whose entire job is to think about the system they are working to change/shift/influence and not just focus on any one of the system’s individual parts.
My work at the Kauffman Foundation has focused pretty exclusively on innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems, which are the networks of people, ideas, and resources that help create the conditions for entrepreneurs, innovators, and creatives to turn their ideas into reality. Entrepreneurial ecosystem building is a new emerging practice and profession that is key to how we build thriving communities in a hyper-connected 21st-century world.
Ecosystem building is a role I know well, as I’ve been doing this type of work since I stumbled into it by accidentally starting a social entrepreneurial incubator with a group of friends in college.
I decided to start this blog as a way to share and make sense of what I’ve experienced over the past twenty years in a format that’s more public than is usual for me. I hope it will provide the opportunity to share some of what I’ve learned, get thoughts and insights from others, and connect with kindred spirits who — like me — still haven’t given up on the idea of changing the world — but know that we can only do it if we work together.
Our Problems Are Interconnected, And So Are The Solutions
For anyone who has ever done even cursory thinking about any of society’s challenges, one quickly realizes that when you poke around any one problem (homelessness), you realize that it’s connected to another problem (mental health), which is connected to another (income inequality), which is connected to another (the availability of good jobs), which is connected to another (educational access)…and on and on…
If our society and the planet are to survive in a time of what feels like unprecedented levels of perpetual anxiety, crisis, and change, we’re going to have to find better ways of working together to tackle our society-level challenges, because the solutions must be as interconnected as the problems.
To do this, my strong hunch is that we need to elevate and model a different type of leadership than most of us are used to. It’s a style of leadership that reminds us that we are not singular, independent humans (or organizations, clans, and countries) operating primarily out of self-interest and self-preservation but that we human beings live in an interconnected, interdependent web of humanity whose very survival depends on our ability to work with our neighbors, coworkers and fellow human beings (even the ones you madly disagree with).
It’s a style of leadership that helps us all recognize that in an interdependent world, we often contribute to the very problems we wish to solve. This perspective is cleverly captured in the pithy observation, “You’re not ‘stuck’ in a traffic jam, you ARE the traffic jam.”
It’s a style of leadership that helps us all see that if we’re part of the problem — however humbling that might be — that means we’re also, by definition, part of the solution.
I’ve seen many examples of this type of leadership in many places, and it isn’t necessarily coming from people with fancy titles or big platforms. Whatever you call it — ecosystem building, network weaving, community building, systems change — I can see it emerging on a global scale at what feels like a moment it is most needed.
It is my intention to use this space to explore and learn more about it.
More to come. Stay tuned…
FOOTNOTES:
(1) Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to Scale by Margaret Wheatley & Deborah Frieze. The Berkana Institute. Page 1.
