Exploring, Inviting, Pondering — Edition 4 Participatory Process

Hello, or perhaps hello again! Either way, I welcome you to this of my monthly letter.

Here I outline a concept I’m exploring, extend an invitation to a gathering I’m hosting, attending or advocating for and offering you a question to be with and ponder.

Here’s what I’d love to share with you this month…

Exploring — ever since founding 4i in 2016 we’ve been experimenting with participatory process. These practices nurtures autonomous, self-organising activities that function to enable effective network-based workflows within living systems. As time has gone on, we’ve deepened our practice within our collective within our product development process, how we engage with clients, and in the way we run generative learning and transformation programs. At the heart of participatory process are ways of being which are deeply inclusive and democratic, which we have found to generate highly innovative, creative and effective outputs. Within organisational development, and broader social change within our cultures and societies, we have witnessed the increasing emergence of these patterns. A few examples are self-organising ‘Teal’ organisations such as Buurtzorg & Patagonia, collective networks such as Enspiral and citizens’ assemblies informing conventional democratic decision-making. In my…