I don't know about you, but June was like a catapult for me. A real Spring, into Summer. I suppose it is the times in general, and a certain time for me and others I am around, but the movement is unquestionably accelerating, which is evoking various responses for me, including:

• Finding ways to reduce friction and to let things flow, which include
• relying on trust built over time and encouraging people to take more responsibility for making decisions
• engaging more allies, collaborators, and partners to share creation and production
• moving through conflicts faster and smoother (by not holding onto positions and fostering a context for communication)
• Slowing down while speeding up... meditating, walking, and taking breaks during the day to pause, breath, and reflect
  

Overall, it all seems to be working, but I must admit, I still find myself banging into things (like door jams) a little more than normal.

Here are a few other reflections...


Working for Good

• I've conducted a handful of interviews with friends and colleagues who are working for good, including Anne Marie Burgoyne (Portfolio Director for the Draper Richards Foundation), Elad Levinson (Pounds for Poverty, and with whom I am designing a W4G workshop - great fun!), Magatte Wade-Marchand (Adina for Life and Diama Foundation), Cheryl Fields Tyler (Fields Tyler Consulting), and Yasuhiko Genku Kimura (Vision in Action). What a blessing and a gift. So much passion, wisdom, intention, and commitment. Working for Good is definitely alive and well.
• Among the many questions I asked each of them, I pose a couple to you here now, and welcome your response:
  • What does "working for good" evoke for you?
  • How do you define success?

Peace Through Commerce

• Michael Strong and I had an amazing meeting Wednesday with Evan Anderson, Deputy Director, International Reconciliation and Peacemaking, at the Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation at the National Cathedral. Among other things, Evan is working deeply on a project to foster reconciliation between the US and Iran. He contacted me after I presented at the National Cathedral during the Women, Faith, and Development Breakthrough Summit, and is fascinated and excited by the idea of peace through commerce and sees the critical role it plays in establishing a foundation for dialog and other communication and relationship building processes to work. We have actively begun exploring ways to work together to engage the faith community in Peace Through Commerce initiatives.
• Thursday we convened with our collaborator Tim Fort, Executive Director of the Institute for Corporate Responsibility at GWU and a leading academic authority on the relationship between peace and commerce, and representatives of other organizations which will be collaborating to present a PTC conference 13 - 15 November at GWU, and to explore a deeper and ongoing alliance, which we have been cultivating and designing. Incredible meeting and great energy moving forward.
• Will soon have a PTC promotional video to share with you, produced by Free to Choose Media on behalf of FLOW.

Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs

• Michael Strong, Julie van Amerongen and I met with Cheryl Fields Tyler and four others from her team (including Diana Arsenian) last Monday to catalyze a deeper collaboration between us all to "build out" and activate the plan for the AWE campaign. Lots of great energy, focus, and strong intention.
• Monday I convened an AWE meeting in NYC, which was great. Among other things, it deepened our connection to the group producing the Women's World Conference in Sophia Bulgaria in 2010. There will be an ongoing collaboration between our AWE alliance and the SWWC.
• In addition to institutional partners, we are beginning to engage individual "talent" as part of the AWE Alliance, beginning with dynamic women entrepreneurs and brilliant women development economists.

Conscious Capitalism

• I have to admit, this is a lively one. Facilitating collaboration and an alliance here is multi-dimensional, beyond anything I've encountered before, but the ball is definitely rolling. I am about to sign up 5 or 6 companies to serve as initial collaborators, in connection with the fall CC "event." Specifics to follow, but suffice it to say that these are incredible organizations.
• By engaging these companies, we have booked nearly half of the spaces for participants at the event, so please understand if I cannot invite you this round. I suspect we will convene a much larger event next year, while still designing for collaboration, engagement, and an intimate experience.
  

Collaboration Technology

• Elad invited me to work with him to design and facilitate a session during a SF Bay Area YPO conference (Elad will be on his honeymoon, so I will get to facilitate without his noble support). The focus of the event is How Social Networking and Collaboration Technology is changing business. This opportunity, as well as the process of designing the CC and other events, and exploring new tools to build the FLOW and other websites, is exposing me to a panoply of new tools, and to explorations of the relationship between tools and consciousness, and behavior.  A couple I like are www.openteams.com and www.mindjet.com.
• These technology tools also raise questions about collaboration practices and culture, and how the tools embody and facilitate practices and cultivate a collaboration culture. I welcome any insights or information you have on this issue and any tools you recommend.

That's all for now....

"Work is love made visible."  ~Khalil Gibran
     
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
 I awoke and saw that life was service.
 I acted and beheld that service was joy.”   - Rabindranath Tagore

May was quite delightful and, in spite of its 5 weeks, fast! be fore I look back, here's a quick look ahead.

Coming up...

• If you will be in Austin this coming Thursday, June 12th, don't miss "A Conversation on Conscious Capitalism with John Mackey," which I am producing at St. David's Episcopal Church, downtown. Sounds True will be recording the event for release on a multi-CD set next year, and we will be video taping the event too.

• And if you want more good content, in a somewhat less ideal location, John, Michael Strong, and I will be at FreedomFest in Las Vegas, July 10 - 12. John will be participating in several panels and debates, and Michael and I will be presenting Friday morning (the 11th) on FLOW's Peace Through Commerce and Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs programs.

Working for Good

• The biggest news for me right now, which bridges both May and June and beyond... I have a greed to publish my first book, entitled Working for Good, with Sounds True. I began working on Working for Good in the context of my work with Peace Cereal, three years ago, and engaged FLOW to create a curriculum for the initial W4G program, which I produced in collaboration with the Global Nomad Group, Zaadz.com (now gaia.com), and others. The book reflects my experience and insights into, well, working for good, as well as those of others, and will support others in their quest to successfully engage in working for good. I will be delivering the manuscript at the end of the year and we are targeting September 2009 for publication.

• The book and related publishing deal is catalyzing a whole array of activity related to W4G. Among other things, my friend and colleague Elad Levinson and i are designing a W4G workshop, which we will begin delivering later this year. More to come...
  

On the Home Front

• Those of you who know me well, know that my number one "project" is that of being "dad" to Meryl Fé. May was a big month for us in many ways. Among other things, after a year and a half of living together full time (as I had been granted temporary sole custody), Meryl Fé's mom has left and temporary has essentially become permanent. The liberation (from anxiety of not knowing) this has lifted from Meryl Fé is profound. I nearly have to tie her down to keep her from flying off (in a good way).

FLOW

• After 2 1/2 years of building the channels, so to speak, FLOW is flowing without a lot of heavy lifting. Now the challenge is to keep up with the accelerating flow! Without going into full detail, here are some highlights:

• Wiley & Sons wants to publish the first FLOW book (and a series of FLOW books). This is a very good thing.

• The FLOW programs are rolling. Since the beginning of my tenure as ED and Chief Activation Officer, I have been applying the Cause Alliance Marketing model to the FLOW programs, and refining the model in the process. The alliances and programs are kicking in:

• Peace Through Commerce®: We are catalyzing a deep partnership with the Institute for Corporate Responsibility at george Washington University, and will be co-producing a PTC conference there this November. We've just completed (after a few minor edits) a promotional video and finishing up a treatment for a full length documentary. We also have a curriculum and game in the works. FLOW has just engaged our friend and colleague Chris White of 3G to work with us to cultivate and engage corporate partners for the conference and program overall.

• Conscious Capitalism®: As mentioned above, next Thursday John Mackey will present a public talk and engage in conversation with Tami Simon, founder of Sounds True. On November 7 - 9, FLOW is convening a CC conference (by invitation only) at The Crossings in Austin. Ron Pompei of Pompei A.D. is serving as Creative Director for the conference. Working with him and seeing his work is great fun and inspiring.

• Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs®: This program is great fun for me, as collaboration and alliance is core to its very existence, and is flourishing as it unfolds. Coming out of the AWE retreat in Austin in March, we have an array of organizations and individuals collaborating to develop and implement a long term campaign. FYI. As part of the AWE program, we are developing a pilot project (actually various projects) in Liberia, again, as an alliance. I expect to have more specific news to report soon, including a trip to Liberia in the Fall.

• The FLOW Activation Circles are flourishing in NYC, Austin, and San Francisco, and about to expand to other cites. Building local community has been a great and rewarding challenge, and it is encouraging to witness community emerging. My FLOW colleague Phyllis Blees, and various FAC participants, have played a pivotal role in the birthing process. Let me know if you are interested in starting an FAC and I will introduce you to Phyllis.

In Closing...

My friend Christiana Wyly sent me this great video on Values Driven Organizations, which I think you will enjoy.  


I will be in PA, NYC, and DC later this month and early July. Briefly in Colorado and in Las Vegas. Let me know if you would like to connect if you are in any of these places.

Wishing you a wonderful onset of Summer.

Best regards,

Jeff

Here's an announcement of a public talk John will be giving in Austin on June 12th.

28 years ago John Mackey joined with friends to open a small natural foods store in Austin, Texas. Today, he is the CEO of the world's leading retailer of natural and organic foods. Throughout the growth of Whole Foods Market, he has held fast to a mission-driven business model he calls Conscious Capitalism®: motivated by higher purpose and focused on serving all of its stakeholders as interdependent elements of an integrated system.
 
Join in authentic dialogue with John Mackey as he reflects on the process of developing and discovering the Whole Foods Market business model, and examines the implications  – personal, economic, and societal – of building a conscious business.

John will present his view of Conscious Capitalism® followed by an extensive dialog with Tami Simon, CEO of Sounds True, including questions from the audience. 

The event will be recorded and packaged into a multiple CD set to be released in 2009.

Don't miss this exciting opportunity to participate in the genesis of the Conscious Capitalism® Movement.

Reception immediately following the conversation, for those who purchase tickets to the reception. All proceeds to benefit FLOW's Conscious Capitalism® Program . 

Limited seats available. Reserve yours now! 

I wrote this last night, on my way home (to Northern California) from Washington, DC, where I participated in the Breakthrough Summit convened by the Women, Faith, and Development Alliance (WFDA), held at the National Cathedral Sunday with a leadership circle working session yesterday at the Academy for Educational Advancement. What an amazing and inspiring two days. In addition to representing FLOW and our Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs campaign, I was honored to represent the Whole Planet Foundation and to present their commitment live (one of ten that were presented at the event at the Cathedral; the other 60+ were presented in the program and projected onto a screen). WPF is rapidly expanding their very effective Micro-credit program in countries where WFM sources products.

While I can’t even begin to convey the depth and breadth of impressions I took in (the people, place, and presentations were amazing), a few stand out. First, Her Excellency Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, is one of my new heroes. It is no wonder that Ireland is where it is today. What an amazing person – clear, wise, skillful – a true role model. Madeleine Albright, who gave the keynote yesterday, was superb - straightforward and effective. And the young people (from Jamaica, Uganda, and Kenya) who spoke towards the end of the event were probably the most inspiring and touching, so poised, grounded, and passionate. And Ashley Judd, who introduced and interviewed them, was great.

The work of this new alliance is to advance the position of women in society and, specifically, to do whatever it takes to alleviate poverty and other violence against women. Women Thrive Worldwide, one of the core partners in the Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs campaign I am producing with FLOW, is one of the core partners of the WFDA, and played a central role in organizing the gathering as it is playing in catalyzing the ongoing work of the Alliance. The AWE campaign will be deeply connected to the WFDA.

I was thrilled to reconnect with Linda Higdon, who is now running PEACE X PEACE (she was their partnership director when we worked together three years ago in the context of the Celebrate Peace program I produced for Peace Cereal). Their online portal to facilitate women to make personal connections with other women around the world is taking off.

I also met Kimberly King, who now owns the Peace Company (another Celebrate Peace partner) and is part of the organizing circle for the Women’s World Summit slated for 2010 in Sophia, Bulgaria.

And had a great time last night at dinner at the Egyptian Embassy with Elise Smith, the co-founder of Women Thrive Worldwide and a delightful woman of great service, and with Chris Grumm, CEO of the Women’s Funding Network, who kept me in stitches all evening (I suppose it was an even exchange). I must admit, working with women is great fun.

Hearing stories of rape, murder, HIV-AIDS, and other atrocities and abuses that many of the women experienced directly – themselves, in their families, communities, and in their work – was humbling and motivating. But the overall spirit was one of hope, unity, and determination, with deep commitments to coordinated action.

On another note, last Friday a small group of us were privileged to take a workshop with Jim Costello, who flew up to SF from LA to introduce us to his extraordinary brain fitness program™. Drawing on my experience with Spinning, ChiRunning, and music marketing and business development, I am working with Jim to package his program and take it to a mass market. He is an incredible person, who has worked for years to understand how the brain and body work together – physiologically, chemically, et al – how most of us have gaps in the development of our nervous system, which creates stress and dysfunctional patterns, and how we can re-pattern our system to achieve a profoundly higher level of well-being. It makes so much sense, and the results he produces with athletes, children with ADD, survivors of stroke, high pressured executives and others is quite remarkable.

A friend of mine who participated, who suffers from something called hand-eye dystonia, loved it and wrote:

The thing he is doing integrates several pieces, which I have been experimenting with for the past year and a half to manage the dystonia. I definitely learned a lot and I want to know more! Instead of manage it I would like to FIX IT! I would really like to correspond with him to see if we could do something remotely. Can you persuade him to move to the Bay area! 

Stay tuned for more.

I find that there are two principal ways I “seal in” new learnings. 1. is to reflect on them, 2. to pass them on to others. What I love best about writing my reflections like this, is I get to do both simultaneously!

It has been quite a while since I have put the two together, as it has been a long, intense run of productions and personal passages (including divorce and mastering the art of full-time, single fatherhood). But here we are, on the other side, with a little break from event production and settled into a good rhythm at home, even with a quickly expanding almost 10-year-old!

My focus over the past 6 – 12 months has been on:

• Building FLOW in general
• Applying my cause alliance marketing model to building the FLOW campaigns
  • Conscious Capitalism
  • Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs
  • Peace through Commerce
• Beginning to distill my learning into a Working for Good book and program to support others to cultivate conscious entrepreneurship and to build successful social enterprises.
  
  

Here is a brief overview of some of the developments with each of these:

FLOW

• The FLOW Book – Liberating the Entrepreneurial Spirit for Good is essentially complete and available for download
• FLOW Activation Circles are alive and well in NYC, San Francisco and Austin, and soon to be beginning in other cities. The SF FAC is becoming a Conscious Capitalism Circle, beginning in April.
• The FLOW team is solid and slowly expanding. Randy Eisenman just joined the FLOW board, and Praveena Vadrevu is brilliantly filling the core administrative support position in Austin.

Conscious Capitalism

• We recently convened a small gathering at John Mackey’s ranch outside Austin, focused on Catalyzing Conscious Capitalism. In two days, the highly aligned group, which included David Wolfe and Raj Sisodia, co-authors of Firms of Endearment, Robb Smith, CEO of Integral Life, Michael Strong, and others, initiated an array of development projects to bring the Conscious Capitalism movement to a new level of activation, including a Catalyzing Conscious Capitalism conference, scheduled for November 7 – 9, 2008, at The Crossings in Austin.  
• If you have not yet read John’s seminal article on Conscious Capitalism, you can read it in the new FLOW book.

Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs (formerly Empowering Women Entrepreneurs):

• Right after the Conscious Capitalism retreat we convened the AWE retreat at The Crossings in Austin. The group of 30+ (mostly women) worked with great intensity and focus to infuse the Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) campaign with wisdom, focus, and energy. Many collaborations were forged out of the retreat, including core partnerships between FLOW and others on the campaign. One of the key developments, which reflects how we are advancing the FLOW mission, is the broad and deep recognition of the critical need for legal reforms to provide the context for women entrepreneurs to flourish. Michael Strong’s superb presentation on the role of economic freedom and legal reforms was brilliantly reinforced by Dahlia Khalifa of the Doing Business project of the World Bank’s IFC.
• Graphic facilitator Diana Arsenian brilliantly captured the substance and spirit of the retreat and the campaign, which you can view on the FLOW web site. Here is one of the many reflections we received after the retreat from participants:
  
  

Congratulations on an AWEsome retreat!! It was a stellar group of women that you drew together to discuss a significant subject – women’s economic empowerment. Each presentation and working session continued building upon the previous discussions, thus propelling both the development of the movement and the enthusiasm of the retreat participants. Cheryl was a magnificent facilitator who inspired great thinking and helped to keep conversations focused. Michael’s presentations drew upon insightful research and highlighted the importance of economic empowerment. Your hard work over the past months paid off spectacularly!

It was a thrilling experience to reflect on the progress that was made in such a concentrated amount of time. We look forward to accelerating the framework that was established at the retreat.

Congratulations again!

Warmly,
Barbara Barrett
And Jamie-Brooke Forseth

Peace through Commerce

• The PTC campaign continues to develop, thanks to the funding catalyzed by the challenge grant from Ken and Frayda Levy and Harvey Cody, and matched by many FLOW supporters. We recently viewed the nearly complete, and very exciting, PTC promotional video produced by Jim Tusty and Maureen Castle of Free to Choose Media (and Mountain View Productions). Michael Strong is working with Jim and Maureen to refine some of the language, and we’ll be ready to put it out. Simultaneously, Jim, Maureen and Michael are completing the treatment and plan to produce an hour-long Peace Through Commerce documentary, with three segments that will be repackaged for distribution to high schools throughout North America (and, ideally, beyond).
• We have also begun to collaborate with Timothy Fort, Executive Director of the Institute for Corporate Responsibility at George Washington University, School of Business, to produce a Peace through Commerce conference in November in Washington, DC. Michael and Tim have been cultivating a “thought-partnership” for over a year, and Tim attended the Conscious Capitalism retreat this month.

Working for Good

• Since the time I came up with the name and concept for Working for Good over two years ago, I have been immersed in the process of working for good, principally in FLOW and the FLOW campaigns. I have been inspired my colleagues and collaborators, by the amazing people and projects I encounter daily, and by the continuing flow of people who join this community at Gaia (formerly Zaadz). I recently acknowledged that I feel a sense of responsibility to myself and to others, to draw from my diverse experience exploring and engaging in working for good, and on stories of the countless others I have encountered who are doing the same, to share information and inspiration for others who are committed to working for good. On that note I intend to blog (and email) more frequently and have begun to work on a Working for Good book and related workshop. Over the weeks and months ahead, I will post excerpts here and will send them to you in you ask me to do so.
• I have come to deeply realize the power of collaboration at all levels of enterprise creation and I look forward to engaging the Working for Good community to collaborate in creating Working for Good content that truly serves others in their journey to do good and do well simultaneously.
  
  

That’s probably enough for now.

I welcome your reflections back to me and I look forward to the unfolding of our collaboration within and beyond this community.

Namaste,

Jeff

This post is the fourth in a series on the topic of Conscious Capitalism & Green Business.

To see the previous posts check out:

Julian Walker's announcement
Siona van Dijk's Meditation on Conscious Capitalism
Brian Johnson's The “Consciousness” in Conscious Capitalism
Christiana Wyly’s Zymposium on Conscious Capitalism & Green Business

Greetings all. What an honor to participate in this Zymposium with such brilliant and thoughtful colleagues. Thank you Julian for organizing this, and to all the participants contributing to the dialogue.

As you will note, Christiana and I just emerged from a two-day Conscious Capitalism retreat at The Crossings in Austin, produced by FLOW and convened by John Mackey, a great practitioner of and passionate flag carrier for Conscious Capitalism. Coming out of the retreat, we (the FLOW team, including Christiana and Randy Eisenman, a new addition to the FLOW core team, introduced to us by Brian) are charged with developing an integrated Conscious Capitalism program and producing a Conscious Capitalism conference in the next 18 months.

Given this context, I intend and expect to be increasingly immersed in the theory and practice of Conscious Capitalism. At this point, I consider myself a student and, perhaps, an apprentice in the practice of Conscious Capitalism, so please take what I write in that context.

I noted a fairly wide range of perspectives in the postings by Brian, Siona, and Christiana, and even wider in the comments. Clearly, quite a bit of skepticism about, even hostility towards the notion of Conscious Capitalism, principally based on perceptions of the nature and role of Capitalism.

In the text that follows, I intend to briefly address…

• My basic understanding of the essential nature and functioning of capitalism
• The role of freedom and voluntary exchange (i.e. markets) in fostering innovation, and establishing conditions for self-actualization and human progress
• The role of competition
• The role of government – to set and enforce the rules of the game and to protect the commons
• A definition of Consciousness
• A basic definition of Conscious Capitalism and opening the “case” for Conscious Capitalism

Here is a story I tell myself about the origins of capitalism, which may or may not be true, but certainly hold some truth…. The first capitalists (or proto-capitalists) were farmers. They gathered seeds, held them over time, and planted them when conditions were right. Somehow, they got the idea that, if they held the seeds and planted them, they would be able to grow more and more over time, and not have to worry about whether they had enough to eat, since they could store some of what they produced. Hence, the definition of Capitalism – a system of production and exchanged based on the generation of wealth for the purpose of generating more wealth. (Wealth being broadly defined). Not a bad idea.

Since some people (and tribes, cultures, etc) produce or collect or create more of some things than others, and need things other than what they generate and also want what others produce, they have various options for attaining the things they don’t have that others do. They can produce them themselves, take them from those who have them (i.e. war), or trade. “I’ll give you some of what I have if I can have some of what you have.” Not a bad idea. And, in the process, complex relationships between individuals and communities are forged, as they gain greater understanding of each other through the process of exchange, and they exchange many things beyond the products they are trading – a taste of food, a song or tow, a perspective on life, etc. Marketplaces are always places where ideas, information, beliefs, and much more are exchanged.

What monarchs, oligarchs, collectivists/statists (communists, socialists, etc) have in common, is their interest in limiting the “movement” of people and controlling what they do and how they conduct their economic activity.

In its essential form, capitalism aims to protect the freedom of individuals to generate, innovate, and engage in the process of wealth creation, in all its forms, and to freely exchange value with others voluntarily. Not a bad idea.

A note on competition: Brian once pointed out to me that, the root of the word and idea of competition is the latin competere, which means to meet, to come together. In competition we come together with our competitor, and support each other to be our bests, to strive for improvement and excellence, arête.

The role of government in Capitalism is to set and enforce the rules of the game, and to protect the commons (e.g. the environment, and the resources therein). This includes protecting the rights of individuals to generate wealth and own the fruits of their productive activity, their property. Not a bad idea.

Christiana defined Consciousness as “a characteristic of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one’s environment. It is a subject of much research in philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science.

In common parlance, consciousness denotes being awake and responsive to one’s environment; this contrasts with being asleep or being in a coma.”

“The ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one’s environment. “Being awake and responsive to one’s environment.” This is a good place to start…

Conscious Capitalism

I will posit that the essence of Capitalism is to facilitate of voluntary exchange of value and provide incentive for creativity, innovation, and initiative to solve problems, fulfill needs, and express the imagination.

If this is so, then it is an exceptional system for fostering self actualization and human progress (witness the existence of Zaadz and the conditions in which most of us live, with the freedom and resources to afford us the opportunity to have such a conversation and exploration).

Since Capitalism, as the reigning ideology and social/cultural system on the planet, is clearly not perfect, and its application has caused countless adverse effects, even as it has generated countless favorable benefits, it warrants refinement.

Fortunately, individual consciousness continues to evolve and adapt, to reflect on its/our relationship to ourselves and our environment. And we note that our wealth generating system has also created waste and in many ways is undermining its long term ability to generate wealth. (And I define wealth in the broadest terms – sustenance, money or other abstract representations of other value, health, friendship, security, etc). Fortunately, many of us recognize this and, in the context of a system which fosters innovation and voluntary exchange, we come up with new ideas about how Capitalism can work (ways to update the operating system) and we develop new applications built on top of the operating system. with respect to ths issue of evironmental sustainability, I refer readers to Michael Strong's piece entitled Sustainability in a Bright Green Future). This is a good thing.

As I posted in my comment on Brian’s offering to this Zymposium, John Mackey presents a view of Conscious Capitalism as characterized by enterprises which are created and built to serve a higher purpose, and which operate to optimize the system of interdependent stakeholders, which include customers, team members, investors, vendors, the community, and the environment. As a system of aggregated Conscious Capitalists, CC is the most productive economic system (producing better results than conventional capitalism), as well as the most just and sustainable.

While I could go on here, my purpose is to stimulate more dialogue, not to make a definitive statement.

I will add that, true to FLOW’s intention, I encourage others to criticize by creating, (rather than criticize by villainizing). This is another of the virtues of Capitalism. It encourages criticism through creation, and allows the wisdom of the crowd to speak, rather than the will of the state or its representatives.

Here’s to liberating the entrepreneurial spirit for good.

~ Jeff Klein, Chief Activation Officer

Stay tuned tomorrow for Tommy Rosen’s contribution to this dilogue.

This coming week I am going to participate in a "zymposium" at Zaadz.com hosted by Julian Walker. Participants include Siona van Dijk (Zaadz/Gaiam) featured on 10/8, Zaadz founder,Brian Johnson on 10/9, Christiana  Wyly (Green Mountain Energy) on 10/10, Tommy Rosen (Eco Gift Expo) on 10/12, and C4Chaos (Zaadz Team and Master Blogger) on 10/13.

I'll post my entry on 10/11. I encourage you to participate on the individual blogs, and especially on Julian's master blog.

You may note that my blog is practically bare, as I used this opportunity to clear the slate, and start with a specific focused, catalyzed by the event and by the unfolding on and our programs Peace Through Commerce, and Conscious Capitalism. More on these in the future.

Yours in FLOW,

Jeff

This is the second draft of a piece I wrote recently. I revised and posted it on April 10th, to respond to excellent input from Happiness on the first draft. Elendil added another insightful comment, that is leading me to some research as I develop Part 2 of this theme. (see comments below).

All comments welcome! Bring 'em on!

Namaste,

Jeff

Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water,
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.

Tao te Ching, excerpt from passage 78

All things flow to the sea
because it is lower than they are.
Humility gives it its power.

Tao te Ching, excerpt from passage 66

A raging river begins as countless drops from melting snow. If we see the drops individually, their power is not likely to impress us, nor will we feel the river they will become sometime during their journey.

A movement, in the sense of a prospective FLOW Movement, is what happens when countless people converge in a river of shared meaning, purpose, intention, and act in consonance with their shared meaning.

While we don’t presume to be catalyzing a movement, we recognize the potential for a FLOW Movement to emerge, and consider our role in melting the snow and becoming drops ourselves, that might feed a great river of converging meaning and purpose.

Since we understand FLOW, Inc. to be an “entrepreneur of meaning,” then its success will likely be measured by the extent to which the meaning it purveys propagates and manifests. Another measure of its success will be its ability to establish financial sustainability, based on people paying for its products and services, which deliver meaning, guidance, and other value in exchange.

Because the FLOW vision is rooted in an understanding of the interrelatedness of all things and in explicit values and principles of human interaction (based on commitments to human flourishing, non-violence, and radical tolerance), we believe it is imperative that we embody and cultivate these values and principles in our efforts to develop and promote FLOW. To a meaningful extent, this informs the way we embody the entrepreneurial spirit, and play our roles as stewards of FLOW.

On some level, all entrepreneurship and authentic application of markets embrace radical tolerance and voluntary exchange, and support human flourishing. As long as products and services merging out of the entrepreneurial process to not cause harm or force compliance on people, and markets are not manipulated to limit access and choice, then we celebrate the creative and generative potential of entrepreneurship and the wisdom of voluntary exchange facilitated by markets, to advance human understanding and well-being.

Related to this, in alignment with FLOW principles, we refrain from condemning innovations (and other expressions of the entrepreneurial spirit), production, and consumption we may not personally relate to, identify with, or appreciate. We have great faith in the wisdom of markets and the upward flow of human consciousness.

We also know that human beings – individually and collectively – exist and function at different levels of consciousness; that consciousness evolves and can even dramatically shift; and that we can actively engage in the transformation of consciousness – our own and that of others – with significant implications for the manifestations of consciousness and the quality of our lives.

So we put forth an ambitious, optimistic, and idealistic vision for a “new operating system” for entrepreneurship and markets – one explicitly directed towards manifesting a “greater good,” that recognizes the interdependent nature of all things and that seeks to optimize the entire system.

While we appreciate and celebrate entrepreneurship in all of its forms and expressions, we also acknowledge that sometimes entrepreneurs earn the critical epithets they often receive – abrasive, narcissistic, compulsive, etc. – and we invoke and evoke a conscious entrepreneurship, based in conscious purpose and practice.

As we develop FLOW products and services to support sustainability for FLOW, Inc., and work to broadly propagate the FLOW vision and principles, the consciousness of the FLOW Ethos requires that we continually reflect, embody, and refine the FLOW Ethos and Vision to increase the relevance, authenticity, and potency of FLOW.

In this context, a FLOW Movement will emerge if enough people share and co-create the FLOW Vision, embody FLOW Principles, and act in ways that reflect and manifest FLOW. It will define itself through the voluntary participation of, collaboration and exchange of meaning between, countless people.

Our role in activating a FLOW Movement begins with our own cultivation and practice of FLOW Principles and embodiment of conscious, FLOW entrepreneurship. Specifically, we see our work of activation to include:

• Articulating, disseminating, and propagating the FLOW Vision, Principles, and FLOW Ideas in general; continually refining them to reflect new understandings and insights, and feedback from the marketplace, to ensure and enhance their relevance and resonance. Some of the specific ways we currently do so and envision doing so include:

• Publishing:

• On our web site (www.flowidealism.org), through other media outlets
• The FLOW Papers – a draft in-progress currently available in sections at a private pod at Zaadz.com, soon to be more broadly available in a refined format via our website and the FLOW pod at Zaadz.com
  

• Fostering dialog, collaboration, and user-generated content on-line and via FLOW Activation Circles and other FLOW gatherings. These bring stories to life reflecting FLOW Vision in Action, provide access to resources and community. This will be greatly enhanced when we launch our new, wiki-based web site (very soon).
• Programs: Including Peace Through Commerce and Conscious Capitalism, through which we focus on specific reflections of FLOW Ideas & FLOW Action.
  

• Cultivating and embodying FLOW Values & Principles in all we do as and through FLOW.

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  • Daily practice: We consciously and explicitly hold ourselves and each other in awareness and accountability to embody FLOW Values and practice FLOW Principles in our work with each other and more broadly, and we introduce these Values and Principles, and related Practices to others, as we carry FLOW into the world.
  • Conscious Design, Development, & Facilitation: With tremendous guidance, support, and resources from Interaction Associates, we purposefully design, develop and facilitate our Programs, FLOW Activation Circle meetings, and gatherings to foster a conscious, collaborative “field experience.”
    

• Convening and collaborating with others to propagate FLOW Ideas & FLOW-related action.

• As mentioned above, our Programs and FLOW Activation Circles are designed and produced to catalyze community around FLOW Ideas & Action.
• Our Programs are designed to provide opportunities for collaboration with other organizations who share a commitment to FLOW Vision and Principles, and whose business or organization can work with us in a balanced exchange of value for all involved.
• Employing the Zaadz tools and (soon) our wiki-based site, we are catalyzing on-line community. 
  

• Developing systems and tools to facilitate ever-broadening access to FLOW ideas and to resources to support FLOW entrepreneurship and Conscious Capitalism.

• In addition to the Zaadz tools and our wiki-based site, we are working with the Bootstrap Network and Enterprise Teaming, we intend to employ other tools to facilitate direct collaboration between participants in the FLOW community.
• We will soon begin packaging training programs, as well as audio and video content for on-line distribution.
• We are in the process of formalizing a currently informal consulting practice to provide high-level guidance and support for FLOW-related endeavors.
  

We understand and appreciate that FLOW is both a process and a product (or desired outcome). For the FLOW Vision to become manifest, we must embody FLOW Principles. Realizing the promise of FLOW’s signature line - liberating the entrepreneurial spirit for good – requires the light of consciousness to melt the snow of potential of countless beings, to feed a great river of love, compassion, and profound generative creativity and energy.

We embrace the potential of a FLOW Movement, and do our part to be and to catalyze the drops that feed it.

Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.

Tao te Ching, excerpt from passage 33