Look at the whole economic system! Economic, material and consumption growth can not continue as long as climate and nature have boundaries. Solutions exist as potential outside of the box. Create a better system! What could it look like in Ecological Solidarity Economy, article 10? Here are 9 think/feel ingrediences?
1)Positive or negative definition of goals and values?
People may have both drive force motivation away from negative situation’s needs - and toward goal needs. When leaders manage to build alliance between the energies in motion - away from current situation and a direction toward a goal - they may succeed to change. Without direction and goal it works in blind.
2)Negative or positive definition of peace?
Do we need negative peace with lack or less aggression and violence – or positive peace that means system changes into fair sharing of resources, democracy, freedom, solidarity and listening dialogue? To reach a goal, you must have a clear goal to work towards. To only be motivated away from, means you go with your back first towards the future, without seeing the future coming.
3)Negative or positive definition of sickness/health?
Should we aim on lack of sickness – or existence of good health, wellbeing and happiness? The wholeness system of good health is more than the lack of different sicknesses and their details and parts.
4)Repair or prevent?
Should we focus on repair sickness, symptoms – or focus on preventing causes of sickness - and encouraging good health? This is a choise about to understand cause and effect along the line between wholeness – and detail. Is it enough to reduce negative symptoms within current economic system or is it necessary with deep system changes? It is needed to question today’s economic system and system failure – that need deep system changes. This is because system failure must be addressed through system change. Repairing isolated symptoms is too little when there are system failures. System and paradigm thinking - holistic and life cycle analysis perspective are more broad focus than detail focus. First place focus on prevention, then repair symptoms. Shift balance more from repair towards prevention, avoidance, go beyond system failure.
5)Precautionary principle – avoid or go beyond problems
Should we be careful with risky new technology – or start risky technics, and wait for scientific evidence for possible negative consequences? Should we create a precautionary principle economy? Yes! Then we need to access our wholeness balance brain network, salience network. It will help to think of the balance of a new whole system.
6)The system is more than the sum of its parts
Knowledge and competence are located also in the walls! When diverse special hospital divisions are fused and centralised – we may experience that routines and unwritten, hand carried insights get lost. That is because the relationships between employees are important. They are disrupted when different knowledge systems are forced to cooperate and fuse. It may seem cheaper to fuse administration of different hospital departments. But the new administration may not understand nuances that are different in the different traditions, crafts and trades. In creating a new Ecological Solidarity Economy, it has to balance detail aims and values as a whole new system. Economic, material growth and free market competition may be substituted with - nature and people’s common sustainable needs before economic sustainable needs. This is the whole perspective. The parts perspective is that the old parts don’t go bancrupt – but manage to adjust within new values, goals and frames.
7)There is a balance between system and parts
When the wholeness system is outsourced, split up to focus too much on economic details and parts, it may be easy to forget the wholeness system. Economy activity will always look at details, but balance should be shifted more towards the wholeness system of protecting nature and social cooperation perspective to satisfy needs.
8)Alternative to TINA - «there is no alternative»
Economic systems are made by people – and may therefore be changed by people. Look for possibilities - what if? This is alternative to either-or thinking pattern. One time – always is a thinking that ignores that changes may occur in small scale – but still going on. We-or-them thinkinjg may be an unprecise thinking pattern, cognitive distortion and cognitive bias. Broader – narrow are alternative thinking approaches. Wholeness-detail perspectives are alternative motivation triggers. In these choices there exists a lot of new possibilities and roads not yet chosen.
9)Enthusiasm, local and diverse creativity
Different persons are put in motion by different triggers. Yes! Great! And let these alternatives to material growth, competition, profit – be allowed to develop! Towards hope, solution, cooperation, co-creation. To create trust for common solutions – means there has to be deep listening, compasionate dialogue and communication. People that are trusted, get empowered and motivated from their inside. Really good!
You are expert in your field and craft! How may your special field change into durable, sustainable development?
What mental frames do you use today? What thinking pattern do you need?
Inspiration book: Jakobsen Ove, 2019: Økologisk økonomi.
Read more in my book: Kreativ i ekstremvær
https://www.helgechristie.com/butikk/helge-christies-15-bok-kreativ-i-ekstremvr-e-bok
Do you want to experience a test session on how you may shift brain networks and be more creative in climate and biodiversity solutions, contact helge.christie@gmail.com