Mapping the Tributaries of Ecological Organisations
Honouring the lineage of this work.
The Ecological Organisations Framework and the underlying story of ecological organisations didn’t appear out of nowhere. There was no rubbing of a magic lamp or download from the universe. Instead, this work sprung out of the rich and diverse mulch of the work and ideas of others, and a multitude of teachers and elders.
As part of her work into how we might move towards a thrivable world, my friend and often-inspirator Michelle Holiday has started a beautiful open-source mapping of ‘the tributaries (and (dis)tributories) of thrivability’, with tributaries here meaning the ‘countless lineages (that) form a comprehensive, expansive body of thought and a lifelong flow of deepening practice.’
Inspired and moved by the rightness of honouring and naming the work that comes before us, I have spent some lovely hours mapping the tributaries, i.e. the lineage, of the story of ecological organisations and the EO framework to honour the mulch from which this work sprung.
An Imperfect Mapping
This will be an imperfect mapping because:
➳ It will certainly miss important work. When I trace the knowable start of this work, it’s been an 8 year (or so) lead up, and I haven’t intentionally mapped the books or articles I’ve read, workshops or events I’ve attended, or podcasts or teachers I’ve listened to in that time.
➳ It will limit the mapping to the ideas, teachers, practices, perspectives, and work that I can directly trace into the framework and the underlying story. I’m not going to attempt to map the lineages that lie behind these.
➳ I’m likely not remembering the order that these teachings and ideas came into my life quite rightly (due to the first point). Because of this, I’ve mapped the strength of influence of the work/teacher/idea/practice/perspective on the concept of ecological organisations and the framework, alongside my remembered order. This way of mapping is inherently imperfect since it makes it look like I see some work as more meaningful or worthwhile than others, which is not true: it’s simply that some work had a more direct or less direct impact on this particular work.
➳ It’s impossible to perfectly judge the impact of ideas, teachers, practices, perspectives, and work on my thinking or this work.
Mapping Discoveries
To map out the tributaries as rightly as possible, I decided to limit the cut-off point for sources or influence to the launch of the EO Framework last year. For example, Bayo Akomolafe’s book ‘These Wilds Beyond Our Fences: Letters to my Daughter on Humanity's Search for Home’ has been an immense influence on me, but more so in an overall way and in other parts of my work than in the EO Framework (such as directly sparking the name for the podcast Generative Worlding).
This cut-off point has been surprisingly challenging to commit to as there have been some incredible books, words, and ideas I’ve read since the launch of the framework, and they have deeply influenced and shaped my current views of what it means to be ecological as humans and as organisations.
It’s also been interesting to sit with how to navigate the different extents of the influences. Sometimes the influence was a book or an article, or listening to a podcast; such as reading ‘Freedom Inc’ and being deeply rearranged by the case studies and perspectives, and in particular, some sentences that I can recall with ease. Other times, the influence was a book plus practice, or a book plus training plus reading lots of different articles, or a perspective plus workshops. When I read ‘Holacracy: The Revolutionary Management System that Abolishes Hierarchy’ by Brian J. Robertson, that started a many-year process of learning and experimentation, including working in a Holacracy-governed organisation and practising its approach in different spheres. That fascination with Holacracy also birthed a multi-year deep dive into Sociocracy. I read many different articles, watched interviews, and listened to podcasts, attended workshops, and underwent training in Sociocracy 3.0, all the while practising the approaches, and applying the patterns, in many different settings.
So Much More Here Than Just Tributaries
In mapping out these tributaries, I’ve discovered that there’s so much more here than just honouring the work and teachers and elders that led to the EO Framework and the underlying story of ecological organisations.
➳ There’s a lot of tenderness for these tributories and the generosity that is sharing learnings and work and perspectives with the world. It is no mean feat to write a book or send out an idea into the world.
➳ I notice vulnerability in sharing these tributories as the process of mapping them ignites the part of me that feels that I need to do more research, do more learning, to be worthy of sharing my own work.
➳ I am left with a wonder-full wondering, that the story of ecological organisations and/or the EO Framework might one day be part of the mulch from which not-yet-imagined work or ideas might spring.
(Thank you, dear Michelle, for inspiring this mapping of tributaries, and thank you Mike Rowlands for your generous ideas about next steps for this work that sparked the idea of diving deeper into and sharing my work’s lineage).
Dive into the mapping of the tributaries (with active links).