Global Guild of Evolutionary Architects
URL = http://globalgea.net/
Description
"GlobalGEA (Global Guild of Evolutionary Architects) is an emerging global web of evolutionary architects committed to reinventing of our social systems in a way that best serves all of life — for all time.
More specifically, GlobalGEA aims to achieve three mutually reinforcing breakthroughs in the design of social systems:
1. From today’s narrow/myopic definitions of success to defining success in terms of net contribution to the well-being of all life. 2. From today’s control-over-people designs to designing to unleash the full potential of people. 3. From social systems that resist learning and change to social systems designed to consciously self-evolve.
At GlobalGEA, we see these breakthroughs as absolutely essential in solving and healing today’s spreading and deepening global crises, and building a prosperous, fulfilling and nourishing society that works for all life."
(http://globalgea.net/)
2. “Why GlobalGEA?
There are thousands of wonderfully generative initiatives committed to addressing our myriad local and global crises. However, we know of no initiative focused on what we see as the root cause of essentially all of these crises — fundamentally flawed social architecture.
Our various social systems (education, healthcare, commerce, governance, media — our organizations, communities, etc.) seem to be trapped by their dysfunctional social architecture without realizing that, collectively, these systems have been “perfectly designed” to produce today’s crises.
Ironically, we have all the “raw material” we need to re-invent our social systems.
However,
• The special expertise for this transformational work is scattered.
• There is little to no infrastructure in place to support such a societal metamorphosis.
• Adequate resources (e.g. leadership attention, funding, spacious time) have not been dedicated to developing, planning and carrying out this profound undertaking.
GlobalGEA aims to fill these gaps by:
• Identifying, attracting, developing and connecting that global expertise which is best equipped to support the local and regional metamorphoses of our social systems.
• Developing the infrastructures that (a) support the development of GlobalGEA as a robust resource to local/regional initiatives, and (b) support co-creative collaboration within and among these initiatives.
• Attracting global and regional resources in support of this transformational work.” (http://globalgea.net/uncategorized/faq/#what-is-sa)
Characteristics
“What are GlobalGEA’s core features?
• The purpose of GlobalGEA is to attract and connect that global expertise best equipped to support leadership committed to the metamorphosis of our social systems throughout the planet. • GlobalGEA will focus on identifying, understanding, appreciating, connecting, developing, challenging, supporting and promoting diverse evolutionary architects whose work is directly relevant to our mission of societal metamorphosis. • 10X Principle: We seek to work with those systems, leaders and providers who are committed to at least a 10X improvement in their lasting contribution to the well-being of life they affect. • GlobalGEA’s commitment is to wholeness, with respect both to vertical levels of system and the horizontal embracing of diverse sectors, functions, domains, specialties, aspects of being, etc. The commitment to focus on a region as the primary unit of design is based on this drive toward wholeness. • GlobalGEA intends to operate as a consciously evolving social entity — a generative action-learning organism. • GlobalGEA will consist of a growing network of generative alliances, each making an important contribution to the emergence of a robust, entrepreneurially driven generative business ecosystem. • GlobalGEA is strongly committed to its financial sustainability; we intend to pay equal attention to “doing well” and “doing good” from the start.” (http://globalgea.net/uncategorized/faq/#what-is-sa)
Discussion
What is “conscious evolution?
“Conscious evolution,” as used on this web site, is much more than a philosophy. It’s an in-your-face global imperative. We have a choice. We either take extraordinary initiatives to learn how to consciously evolve ourselves and our social systems, or risk a spiraling devolution into an increasingly hellish global situation. Conversely, if we get serious about serving as co-evolutionaries, we have the potential to design a future that nurtures all life for all time.
Humans are a recent product of Nature’s 4.54 billion year evolutionary journey on this planet. We are a very young species, still pretty much in the adolescent stage of our development. 2012 is the year to declare that we’re ready to make the passage into adulthood — to consciously choose to take responsibility for the well-being of all life. The well-being of our children and their children are dependent on the well-being of all life. We can demonstrate our passage into adulthood by learning what it takes to consciously evolve ourselves and our social systems in ways that serve all of life.
The evolution of our biosphere is our best example of an “infinite game.” Today’s social systems (education, healthcare, commerce, governance, etc.) overflow with examples of devastatingly “finite games.”
Conscious evolution can be seen as a commitment to transform these systems from finite to infinite games.
As Tom Atlee reminds us so poignantly, “the question now isn’t whether we will evolve—because we will and are evolving, no matter what. The question is rather how consciously and wisely we will go about evolving… If we fail to harmonize our individual and corporate self-interest with the wellbeing of the whole of life, we will soon be gone. We have become too powerful for it to be otherwise. This is not a fate to which we are doomed. It is a challenging opportunity to which the evolutionary process has brought us. And rising to that challenge will constitute a heroic evolutionary leap — one we can only take consciously. The more consciously we leap, the more likely we’ll succeed with the least unnecessary suffering and the most powerful learning and thrill.” (http://globalgea.net/uncategorized/faq/)
What is an “evolutionary architect?
An “evolutionary architect” is a game-ready infinite player (GRIP) who:
• Is committed to free humanity from the tyranny of unconscious social design — to make the shift from “mechanistic” to “generative design principles.” • Sees humans and their social systems as having the potential to consciously evolve to ever-higher levels of well-being — and is committed to that quest. • Strives to achieve the same level of design excellence for our social forms as is present throughout the rest of nature. • Is concerned with the interplay of whole ecosystems — natural, social, economic, etc., in the service of maximizing the contribution of these systems to the well-being of all life — for all time. • Is committed to master the emerging field of Generative Design as it applies to all systems at all levels of system.
While an individual evolutionary architect can have a powerful influence, we see the “evolutionary architect” needing to take the form of a unique kind of community — a generative action-learning organism. We see all participants in the GlobalGEA organism as life-long apprentices in the greatest undertaking imaginable — the conscious evolution of our species.”
(http://globalgea.net/uncategorized/faq/#what-is-sa)
What is “social architecture?
“Social architecture is the conscious design of an environment that encourages a desired range of social behaviors leading towards some goal or set of goals. As such, it includes all of the domains in what we callGenerative Design, i.e. Context Design, Technological Design, Environmental Design and Social Design. While it is crucial to approach social architecture with wholeness-centric mindset, at this time this website primarily focuses on Context and Social Designs. We will rely on the growing community of GlobalGEA allies to contribute their deep expertise in other areas of Generative Design.
Two crucial elements of social architecture are Stories (i.e. our inner and outer conversations, our visions, our dreams, our fears, our metaphors, our beliefs, our values) and Structures (our roles, rules, principles, objectives, strategies, our built infrastructure, even our language.) An effective social architect is able to choose the Stories and Structures that best support social system leadership in turning a Sad Face system into a Happy Face system. An evolutionary architect strives to help leadership adapt their Stories and Structures in ways that imbue the system with the capacity to continue to evolve toward ever-improving well-being of all life affected by that system.” (http://globalgea.net/uncategorized/faq/#what-is-sa)