The bridge we’ve already come to and are already crossing.

——-///

Sometimes it may appear that I’m waxing philosophical in the questions I ask...

however there is nothing theoretical about mistaking what business you are in and suddenly being out of one in the midst of major systemic change.

If you think that this- these- current “interruptions” are simply an aberration I have news for you...

I have watched whole industries who suddenly have hundreds of fb groups about “pivoting” because they mistook their core service and technology as need instead of support.

I am watching the systems landscape change and business owners everywhere ill positioned for what’s to come. (We are in stage 3-4 of systemic collapse of the built industrial systems environment of the last 150 years)

For me it looks like in slow motion... it’s the same feeling I used to get watching people create their own emotional suffering... knowing I had the tools to help and knowing they were more attached to their current ideas than to seeing what else might be possible.

I watched in the beginning of pandemic when people wanted so badly for it to allow them a little break and then to move on... as though our systems weren’t tied desperately together to one another’s capacity. As though moving very deliberately and intentionally was a luxury not a necessity.

Chaos is a dance... and the closer you get to the essential the more likely you will survive the next “pivot.” Why? Well, I was told as a child that why was not an orienting question... for the sake of whom or what would you even bother?

A little story:

Initially I became an acupuncturist because

a. I like helping people

b. medicine has been here since the dawn of humankind

c. it’s a whole system of medicine where I need no tools (maybe a sharp stick?) and can trade that skill for a piece of bread or cup of water in a desert.

d. the people my parents treated treated me like family even though we’d never met because what they did together mattered that much. it was community building medicine. community is more important than money for our survival.

How resilient is your business? Truly? Turns out I don’t even need a sharp stick. One sense and language is all I need. And in the absence of language as long as I had sound or sight I’d still do fine. What I’m doing now is acupuncture at the level of the corporate or business body... at the level of co-mmunity. And the individual is who I work with... essentially I do leveraged community acupuncture through individual leaders if you want to language it that way. In the larger scheme this creates a loose tie network of many communities which is one of the most resilient organization structures there are. (Think algae)

“How do I be with x situation, suffering, confusion, pain?” What they really want to know is: “How can I make this difficulty better, not worse?”

Is the question people come to me with. Call me medicine woman if you want but this is very practical. When any part of the system shifts, the whole rest of the system isn’t far behind.

The way currency is being moved right now is following information flows the storm of pandemic and racial injustice landed in arid soil and the current flows are simply runoff...

Chasing the pivot is good for agility but not a sustainable long term plan. It’s symptom level thinking, not root level stability.

The new streams and rivers of currency are being designed right now and if your business, much less your industry, is not positioned near the banks of one of these rivers you aren’t going to weather the next pandemic.

For example:

Pandemic hits and many people begin gardening...

they are suddenly aware of their reliance on our usual systems. Over the next few years those who can find a way will be procuring much of their food locally.

“What will this do do the food industry?” is only one tiny piece of the resource flow conversation that will arise from this.

Other questions that will arise for people is the question of locality at large. Not just “do I live in a population dense, thereby illness prone area” but the question of “homeschooling” is going to bring about a whole new series of questions and actions around the future of community and of work itself. What kinds of work are feasible in a suddenly inter generational workplace? What kinds of community is required to support certain kinds of work that may not lend itself to child rearing?

The recognition of our global interconnectedness... and the costs of losing it based on ill equipped leadership is a question that only organizations that plan to “make it” through this pandemic only to be blindsided by the next wave in the chain of the tide coming in are not asking.

(this is not a “supply chain” question... this is a question of how shifting technology is going to permanently shift how we think and act, and the downstream effects of

this are way more comprehensive than “supply chain”)

If you want to learn more and you have a team of 7+ humans counting on you to navigate this and become more resilient rather than more fragile from it, message me directly: the future will be business in community.

Pic from the bridge we’ve already come to and are already crossing lol.