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  • Tiffany von Emmel 5:04 pm on August 23, 2010 Permalink  

    Relational Value – what impact do we want to make together? 

    There is $120 billion dollars in the U.S social capital market, money waiting to be spent on social good, according to Hope Consulting’s new report. Imagine what that investment could do for alleviating poverty. Why are investors interested in investing in a better world?

    Because money is not the thing. People use money to create what they really want – belonging, health, peace, making a difference and environmental balance.  People are choosing to lead a simpler life and give back to society more (London School of Economics, Boston Consulting Group).

    Now, to free up this value for good is another thing. We need new new business models, organization design and social processes grounded in the new paradigm of a relational economy. The Dreamfish cooperative is building such a relational economy. We  are developing value tools that are grounded in the fundamental idea that development flourishes in connection, not control.

    Every Friday, we host a Leadership Lab to explore new ideas in “human work” and relational economy. This last Friday, I introduced this Relational Value model. This model is the outcome of a Dreamfish Labs project started in 2009 by Paul Loper, Peter Kaminski and Marguerite Manteau. The first phase of the Value Project focused on what is value and how do we relate to it? Do we create it, exchange it, transfer it? At what moments of work collaboration do we experience it? What kind of social software tools enable us to generate value? The second phase has led to a codified map of categories and processes that are grounded in both an analysis of Dreamfish member experience and research in micro-enterprise development and human development.

    Want to swim a little? Here are the notes and  audio-recording (available for limited time).

    There are three views of the Relational Value model. The first graphic above shows you “what is value”. The second below shows you “how do we get there”. The third graphic shows what the experience is that social designers and change agents design for.

    The Relational Value Map above is an analytical tool. It offers individuals and teams a tool to make meaning and evaluate what kinds of impact you want to make.  These five categories have subcategories.

    • Belonging includes family, friends, and community.
    • Wellness includes food, shelter, physical safety, health, security.
    • Achievement includes quality, productivity, self-worth, self-efficacy, self-confidence.
    • Development includes learning, collaboration, human and enterprise development
    • Global care includes peace, human rights, and sustainability.

    The Relational Value Flow above is the “how we get there”. It is iteritive and agile.

    The colours on the model correspond to the pyramid shown above, now shown in a process.
    Connect out loud – We grow through relationship, rather than a heroic journey.  Connectivity also builds the ground for resilience as the chemical oxytocin floods us. In marriages, the number of frequent interpersonal  “bids for connection” and a low number of criticisms per hour is a good indicator of whether a relationship will last (Gottman). Connection bids, such as a handshake or a blog link help us develop empathy and sympathy, what neureconomist, Paul Zak describes as “the “social glue” that adheres families, communities, and societies, and as such, acts as an “economic lubricant” that enables us to engage in all sorts of transactions.”

    Work out loud –  Open Source your life!  When we allowing our selves to show up without the perfect thing or the completed thing, we give the signal to others that is o.k. to be a life-long learner. By opening up and working out loud, we are helped to learn from each other. This spreads value….

    Value Out Loud — At the end of a meeting or project, reflecting on value created enables you to develop critical reflection skills and an increased awareness that value is not a commodity transacted, but something we participate in. Use the value map as a tool to assess belonging, wellness, economic impact, learning, social impact.
    Give Out Loud –  As we recognize abundance and our development, we experience the generosity of the network and ourselves a part of the network.
    Spread out Loud – Show your impact. Do not hide it under a bed or rock. Whether quantitative financial spreadsheets or qualitative stories,  images and guides, create “reifications” of your value to inspire others to generate more value.

    The Relational Value Experience describes the individual’s experience. This is helpful for designing a social experience.   You know your design is in the right direction when individuals say things like this. To paraphrase Nancy White, “we build social software for networks of people, but it is individuals who experience it.”

    What’s under the hood? The Relational Value model is built from an analysis of Dreamfish member experience through a lens of my research in knowledge and relational culture design. The map correlates with Relational Cultural theory, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Brian Hall’s Value Technology. (For a deeper read and application to an organization, there is a case story  project to build a culture of resilience and sustainability in Dreamscape, Innovations in Transformative Learning.

    Commodity thinking versus relational thinking?
    I’ll leave you with a great quote from last Friday’s Dreamfish Leadership Lab. Leonard Perlson told a great story that illustrates the difference between the Value as commodity or value that is growthful.  Leonard says,

    The difference between trading value and creating value is the difference between trading a Picasso and developing an artist.

    People are artists of life. Let’s develop the next billion out of poverty.

    Want to dive more into value? An upcoming opportunity is upon us. The social capital marketspace is forming at the SOCAP conference, October 4-6th.

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 8:35 am on October 24, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: Co-Entrepreneurship   

    350 – An act of co-entrepreneurship 

    Entrepreneurship requires the physical act of stepping up to act for something. But, the idea of entrepreneurship being a solo heroic act is a narrative that should be challenged. Co-entrepreneurship is a new form of enterprise in which we join together to mutual support our dreams in an ensemble vision of a better world. Together, we are stronger, and we are moving forward.

    35o is a performative act of co-entrepreneurship. Today, thousands of people throughout the world are taking part in actions to raise awareness about the number, 350.

    350 parts per million is what many scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere….To get there, we need a different kind of PPM-a “people powered movement” that is made of people like you in every corner of the planet.

    Wherever you are today, you can participate. Since I am at a day for bloggers at Public Media Collaborative,I am writing this blog post as a 350 action.

    Let’s move to 350, co-entrepreneurs!

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 8:04 am on April 21, 2009 Permalink  

    The dreamfish new look – WDYT? 

    Soon to launch the Dreamfish network in the coming month. Very exciting. As many of you know, this is both a sweet moment at the end of a long climb, and the beginning of a beautiful adventure. Here is a preview of the new homepage. Would love to know what you think of the new look. WDYT?

    dreamfish-splash-page-2009-04

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 8:36 am on February 9, 2009 Permalink
    Tags: , zappos   

    Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, on Why Office Parades Matter 

    Zappos offers an example of a new way of work.  The company’s emphasis on culture reminds me of Dreamfish, as creating a creative collaborative culture has been primary for us. A healthy culture pays off in multiple forms of value – personal meaning and purpose for employees, customer benefits, and financial impact.

    The Zappos strategy is to support an empowering company culture first, and enable the culture to inform how customers experience Zappos. Zappos also empowers their reps to deliver on their “wow customer experience” as they see fit. And the strategy delivers. Started in 1999, Zappos, made a billion in gross merchandise sales in 2008.

    Zappos people decide on what culture they want to create. They come up with activities they want to practice. For example, they have a weekly parade through the office, with themes and costumes such as Oktoberfest with Lederhosen.  Here is Oktoberfest at Zappos…

    At Ted conference, Loic Le Meur, Seismic founder, interviewed Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO in a bathroom about culture and company experience. Well, a bathroom interview is a story itself. Lidija Davis at ReadWrite Web has the scoop here.

    Creating a culture is about commitment to practice. Culture is created through what the community in the company physically practices in their interactions. If you want a culture of health, do healthy things. Notice your patterns, because these are your values in action. The proof is in the Lederhosen.

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 4:56 am on January 31, 2008 Permalink
    Tags:   

    organizing for good work 

    In the last few months, we have been growing and changing in exciting ways. Dreamfish, as an organization, changed over our legal structure from being a nonprofit corp. to a c-corp. We made the decision in order to fulfill the requirements unique to our mission — to provide a global professional networking platform for sustainability. While I expected the change to help us to fund the platform production, I have been surprised at how positive and quick the impact of this move was for Dreamfish and our community as a whole. The change of corporate form has enabled our own organizational sustainability — to give equity to our staff, raise the funds to build the platform, and find a support system of people, who truly got the unique needs of a software as a service model and rallied around our mission.

    Special thanks to: Crissy Tsai, a recent MBA grad, who brings her sharp mind and green building passion to Dreamfish operations; Our community of facilitators, our creative senior consultant, Paul Loper , who composed our theme song. Andrea Cohen – we love our rockin’ lawyer at Nixon Peabody, a progressive law firm, which has the first LEED-certified office and first Chief Sustainability Officer , and has been named one of the top 100 places to work in the US. Susan Wong , our financial consultant from Rose Ryan, generously giving of her time.

    From all of us at Dreamfish, thank you for your incredible support, creativity and patience during this start up. Personally deeply grateful to you, I know that together, we will create a just, sustainable healthy world.

    Tiffany

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 5:34 am on November 9, 2007 Permalink
    Tags:   

    Call for Social Entrepreneurs 

    At the OD Network conference, I was inspired by Trabian Shorters, North American Director of Ashoka, as he layed out Ashoka's vision and ambitious support of social entrepreneurs. Ashoka now has over 1500 Ashoka Fellows which they have supported to realize their ideas.

    The message of Ashoka is that as a society, we need to encourage more entrepreneurial activity to meet our world's biggest challenges. Here is a video of Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka telling the story of how Ashoka got started and the amazing work that social entrepreneurs have done.

     

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 12:47 am on July 14, 2007 Permalink
    Tags: green, green for all, , ,   

    Connect to the power of Van Jones 

     

     

    Friday, July 13, 2007. Paul Loper and I carpooled to the meeting of NTL in Oakland, California. NTL, founded in 1947, is a group of professional consultants and leadership educators, a group which has a strong commitment to social justice, and is skilled in experiential learning and social psychology. I went to the meeting to connect with friends, and to be moved by Van Jones. I have listened to Van many times and have deep respect for him. I have been moved to tears with him at the Green Festival (see the video).

    "I want to thank you" Yes, Van Jones was billed as "speaker" and he did speak, but when Van speaks, Van is a mover. Van moved physically, embodying every emotional phrase of his stories. Van moved the crowd, emotionally – "You, you are the people that help people…and I want to thank you for doing what you do". My neighbor's cheek was wet with tears.

    And, he moved me. Van moved me to step up to move beyond "really, really, small dreams".

    "Pop a couple Advil and watch an Inconvenient Truth" His wake up call is that we have global problems – global warming, globalization's economic problems, and global conflict. If we don't act, in as little as 10 years, the ice which reflects back into the universe 90% of the sun's heat will disappear and then our planet will absorb that heat. In this moment of our history, it is up to each of us to step up and get courageous. But, pointing fingers is not the answer.

    Deep down, we must address also the spiritual and psychological crisis of the self. "It is much easier to confront the persecutor and polluter without and much harder to confront the persecutor and polluter within". As he spoke transparently about the moments when he felt little and scared, he made his body small, hunkering down. My mind then went to the moments when I feel little and scared, as moments when I carve out small dreams and pools to lead in. As he stretched out his arms wide and stood tall, I stood also for the world. When I fear, I think small. When I love, I act big.

    "Clean energy jobs build"
    The big solution which Van is bringing to Washington D.C. is that a green economy will address two of the critical global problems – environmental and economic. To retrofit the U.S.'s buildings for energy conservation, install solar panels on every home, create the green infrastructure – these are all JOBS. Jobs that unemployed young people can learn. Jobs that are empowering and leaderful, where youth can learn and expand their choices while making a critical difference to our global survival. Locally, as the president of the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, and nationally with Nancy Pelosi, Van is moving forward "green jobs, not jails".

    "Connect leaders of all kinds"
    Van moved the core of my heart when he spoke of our need to connect as catalysts from many paths, in order to come up with new solutions beyond what we know and do now. This is a time when it is not enough that we lead as individuals, experts, professionals. The leadership we need now is to connect leaders of all kinds, so that we can take it to a new level. "Let's connect you!".

    After Van's speech, we had an Open Space activity, in which people self-organized into small groups. I was struck by how in each of these small groups, the power of Van had taken effect. In our group, we talked about how to share transformative stories about the environment.

    When we reported back to the large group, we performed a skit of "Zip-Lock Bag Anonymous", and confessed struggles and small steps to not use plastic bags, plastic bottles, bathroom paper towels, Bounty towels. As people fessed up to the laziness of forgetting our canvas bags when shopping, and the fear in avoiding to watching an Inconvenient Truth", the crowd laughed and nodded as they listened.

    As we nod to our littleness, we then take the step to act from the bigness of our love for the world.

    I am moved to say, Van Jones, "I want to thank you".

    May we together bring forth a just, sustainable healthy world,

    Tiffany

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 2:12 am on May 23, 2007 Permalink
    Tags: , , ,   

    Van Jones meets NTL Event, Friday, July 13, Oakland 

    This email was sent to users with the following roles: authenticated user

    Friday, July 13th, Oakland, California. NTL Institute will host a pubic 2007 Member Meeting at the Waterfront Plaza Hotel. The meeting will be held on Friday, July 13. Come on out! Charlie Seashore and I are swimming over to flip our fins. Hope you can make it.

    Here's the kicker. The world of community and organization development meets the world of green social activism. The rockin' cross-pollinating catalyst, Van Jones, will speak. And then, we'll breakout into small groups for discussion.

    Van Jones is founder and president of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. A 1993 graduate of Yale Law School he has received many honors including the 1998 Reebok International Human Rights Award, the international Ashoka Fellowship, selection as a World Economic Forum “Young Global Leader,” and the Rockefeller Foundation “Next Generation Leadership” Fellowship. If you haven't seen Van before in action, I can testify that he mobilizes the courageous heart to action.

    In a recent interview for CityFlight.com, Van said “I don't believe that the changes that we are now seeking in society can be realized by any one small subgroup struggling alone. You're talking about major ecological crises, from climate chaos to the end of cheap oil to species extinction on a massive scale, and also radical social inequality, with a widening gap between rich and poor and racial antagonisms just below the surface. And we're facing a generalized deepening sense of despair in many sectors of society, both rich and poor. Clear-thinking, big-hearted people from all groups need to start working together to address this triple crisis.”

    Now, the part about this meeting being PUBLIC really tickles me, because NTL(national training laboratories) has been an invitation-only member organization founded in 1947. NTL, founded in the work of Kurt Lewin, social psychologist, is known for outstanding public workshops on diversity and birthing interpersonal dynamic laboratories, particuarly T-groups. NTL is the mother ship for the field of applied behavioral sciences, and the ancestral origin point for generations of facilitators, including me. Admittedly, as an open door interactivist, I prickle at closed door policies, when it comes to fields that are about collaboration, participation, sharing. So, I applaud the choice of OPENness. And, I will be excited to be there to applaud NTL meets Van Jones!!…

    Thank you Kathleen Brown for organizing and sending this heads up.

    Read the event details here

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 10:46 am on April 30, 2007 Permalink
    Tags:   

    Kiva – a PBS Frontline video clip about microfinance 

    This 5 mintue video features Kiva, a microfinance nonprofit, which enables more affluent people to give small loans, like $50 or more, to entrepreneurs in developing areas of the world. These small loans enable the entrepreneurs to start businesses. In this video, we see Grace Aaya, a refugee in Uganda, who invests in a peaanut grinder to grow her business, Grace's Peanut Butter. This video allows us to see how the web can produce positive social change by facilitating both personal and economic relationships between those who have more and those who have less.

     

  • Tiffany von Emmel 4:11 am on February 28, 2007 Permalink
    Tags: balle, , ,   

    BALLE conference, UC Berkeley, May 31-June 2, 2007 

    Let's BALLE! Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, is an international alliance of independently operated local business networks with more than 12,000 members dedicated to building Local Living Economies. BALLE envisions a sustainable global economy made up of Local Living Economies that build long-term economic empowerment and prosperity through local business ownership, economic justice, cultural diversity, and environmental stewardship.

     

    The lineup of speakers is ballecious…

    • Kenny Ausubel, Bioneers

    • Bo Burlingham, Inc. Magazine; author, Small Giants

    • Michael Dimock, Roots of Change Fund

    • Malaika Edwards, People's Grocery

    • Laury Hammel, Longfellow Clubs, author, Growing Local Value

    • Paul Hawken, Natural Capital Institute

    • Jeffrey Hollender, Seventh Generation

    • Van Jones, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

    • David Korten, Yes! Magazine, author, The Great Turning

    • Winona LaDuke, Native Harvest

    • Michelle Long, Sustainable Connections of NW Washington

    • Jeff Mendelsohn, New Leaf Paper

    • Joanne Neft, Placer Grown

    • Denise O’Brien, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Candidate 2006

    • Paul Saginaw, Zingerman’s Delicatessen

    • Simran Sethi, Ethical Markets

    • Don Shaffer, BALLE, Comet Skateboards

    • Michael Shuman, author, The Small-Mart Revolution

    • Jack Stack, SRC Holdings, author, The Great Game of Business

    • Judy Wicks, White Dog Cafe

    For conference info, visit BALLE, livingeconomies.org

     

     

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