Social Thermometer
Description
Vinay Gupta:
“the Social Thermometer. It’s a way of thinking about how people see each other and how we see our environment. It is a very simple but very useful way of taking a quick index of how people (and organizations) are seeing each-other. The Social Temperature has five grades, A through E.
A> Individual Transformation.
In periods of (A) individuals are doing so well that they do not need to form tight groups to move forwards. An example might be 1950s America when jobs were plentiful and promotion was often archived by changing companies, or rare examples of super-talented individuals like David Bowie who become stars in their own right.
B> Collective Transformation.
In periods of (B) tightly woven groups form and move forwards together. A good example of this is The Beatles. Individually they were good, but together they were transcendent. During the dotcom years it was like this for most technologists and web-literate designers. Small teams could form, get venture funding, and often get rich. People formed communities to locate partners to move forwards with.
C> Opportunity and Risk.
In periods of (C) people don’t make a special effort to form communities, and do not generally do well enough to transform. But there are no threats to their stability, so it might be called the ordinary way of things – keep moving!
D> Collective Stability.
During (D) periods, if we stay on our own, life is a struggle just to keep up. During these times, sharing and cooperation are required to maintain our current ways of doing things. People share housing, companies open their books to each other and make more equitable deals, consortia form and put aside their competitive tensions with each other to bring in larger deals. Communities form and achieve mutual support and if things do not get any more difficult, that counts as a success!
E> Individual Stability.
During (E) periods the centre cannot hold. Consortia fall apart. Friends squabble over money. Each additional person you depend on is one more set of troubles, and people begin to think that going it alone is a better plan. This position is often caricatured as Mad Max, and indeed in human history it’s rare indeed that things get this bad.”
(http://vinay.howtolivewiki.com/blog/other/the-social-temperature-1811?)