FLOW Action News: APRIL 2007

Dear Friends in FLOW,

Following is a draft of a piece entitled "Activating a FLOW Movement" which I recently posted on my blog at Zaadz.com, where I received some excellent feedback, reflected in this draft. As manifesting FLOW is clearly a collaborative endeavor, I welcome and encourage comments and suggestions.

If you are in New York, Austin, or San Francisco, we encourage you to participate in the next FLOW Activation Circle meetings, and to pass the word on to your friends and colleagues in those cities. FACs will be sprouting up in other cities soon.

Yours in FLOW,

Jeff Klein
Executive Director &
Chief Activation Officer
FLOW, Inc.

Activating a FLOW Movement
Part 1: From the Inside Out

By Jeff Klein
Executive Director &
Chief Activation Officer
FLOW, Inc.

Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water,
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.

Tao te Ching, excerpt from passage 78

All things flow to the sea
because it is lower than they are.
Humility gives it its power.

Tao te Ching, excerpt from passage 66

A raging river begins as countless drops from melting snow. If we see the drops individually, their power is not likely to impress us, nor will we feel the river they will become sometime during their journey.

A movement, in the sense of a prospective FLOW Movement, is what happens when countless people converge in a river of shared meaning, purpose, intention, and act in consonance with their shared meaning.

While we don’t presume to be catalyzing a movement, we recognize the potential for a FLOW Movement to emerge, and consider our role in melting the snow and becoming drops ourselves, that might feed a great river of converging meaning and purpose.

Since we understand FLOW, Inc. to be an “entrepreneur of meaning,” then its success will likely be measured by the extent to which the meaning it purveys propagates and manifests. Another measure of its success will be its ability to establish financial sustainability, based on people paying for its products and services, which deliver meaning, guidance, and other value in exchange.

Because the FLOW vision is rooted in an understanding of the interrelatedness of all things and in explicit values and principles of human interaction (based on commitments to human flourishing, non-violence, and radical tolerance), we believe it is imperative that we embody and cultivate these values and principles in our efforts to develop and promote FLOW. To a meaningful extent, this informs the way we embody the entrepreneurial spirit, and play our roles as stewards of FLOW.

To a significant extent , all entrepreneurship and authentic application of markets embrace radical tolerance and voluntary exchange, and support human flourishing. As long as products and services emerging out of the entrepreneurial process do not cause harm or force compliance on people, and markets are not manipulated to limit access and choice, then we celebrate the creative and generative potential of entrepreneurship and the wisdom of voluntary exchange facilitated by markets, to advance human understanding and well-being.

Related to this, in alignment with FLOW principles, we refrain from condemning innovations (and other expressions of the entrepreneurial spirit), production, and consumption we may not personally relate to, identify with, or appreciate. We have great faith in the wisdom of individual choices and the upward flow of human consciousness.

We also know that human beings – individually and collectively – exist and function at different levels of consciousness; that consciousness evolves and can even dramatically shift; and that we can actively engage in the transformation of consciousness – our own and that of others – with significant implications for the manifestations of consciousness and the quality of our lives.

So we put forth an ambitious, optimistic, and idealistic vision for a “new operating system” for entrepreneurship and markets – one explicitly directed towards manifesting a “greater good,” that recognizes the interdependent nature of all things and that seeks to optimize the entire system.

While we appreciate and celebrate entrepreneurship in all of its forms and expressions, we also acknowledge that sometimes entrepreneurs earn the critical epithets they often receive – abrasive, narcissistic, compulsive, etc. – and we invoke and evoke a conscious entrepreneurship, based in conscious purpose and practice.

As we develop FLOW products and services to support sustainability for FLOW, Inc., and work to broadly propagate the FLOW vision and principles, the consciousness of the FLOW Ethos requires that we continually reflect, embody, and refine the FLOW Ethos and Vision to increase the relevance, authenticity, and potency of FLOW.

In this context, a FLOW Movement will emerge if enough people share and co-create the FLOW Vision, embody FLOW Principles, and act in ways that reflect and manifest FLOW. It will define itself through the voluntary participation of, collaboration and exchange of meaning between, countless people.

Our role in activating a FLOW Movement begins with our own cultivation and practice of FLOW Principles and embodiment of conscious, FLOW entrepreneurship. Specifically, we see our work of activation to include:

• Articulating, disseminating, and propagating the FLOW Vision, Principles, and FLOW Ideas in general; continually refining them to reflect new understandings and insights, and feedback from the marketplace, to ensure and enhance their relevance and resonance. Some of the specific ways we currently do so and envision doing so include:

• Publishing:
• On our web site, through other media outlets
• The FLOW Papers – a draft in-progress currently available in sections at a private pod at Zaadz.com, soon to be more broadly available in a refined format via our web site and the FLOW pod at Zaadz.com
• Fostering dialog, collaboration, and user-generated content on-line and via FLOW Activation Circles and other FLOW gatherings. These bring stories to life reflecting FLOW Vision in Action, provide access to resources and community. This will be greatly enhanced when we launch our new, wiki-based web site (very soon).
• Programs: Including Peace Through Commerce and Conscious Capitalism, through which we focus on specific reflections of FLOW Ideas & FLOW Action.
  • Partner Relationships:  We are actively engaged in cooperative interactions with a large number of idealistic organizations in which we often provide a very distinctive voice and perspective.  Often we are the only voice supporting the positive power of entrepreneurship and markets with organizations that typically promote peace, environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation, or improved education.  Likewise we are often the only voice supporting social entrepreneurship, conscious capitalism, and the upward flow of consciousness in organizations that promote free markets.  Much of our preparatory work in building trust and mutual understanding across these chasms of understanding will become manifest later through concrete cooperation in our programs, but this work is having a definite impact within these organizations now.
    
  • Cultivating and embodying FLOW Values & Principles in all we do as and through FLOW.
  • Daily practice: We consciously and explicitly hold ourselves and each other in awareness and accountability to embody FLOW Values and practice FLOW Principles in our work with each other and more broadly, and we introduce these Values and Principles, and related Practices to others, as we carry FLOW into the world.
  • Conscious Design, Development, & Facilitation: With tremendous guidance, support, and resources from Interaction Associates, we purposefully design, develop and facilitate our Programs, FLOW Activation Circle meetings, and gatherings to foster a conscious, collaborative “field experience.”
  • Convening and collaborating with others to propagate FLOW Ideas & FLOW-related action.
  • As mentioned above, our Programs and FLOW Activation Circles are designed and produced to catalyze community around FLOW Ideas & Action.
  • Our Programs are designed to provide opportunities for collaboration with other organizations who share a commitment to FLOW Vision and Principles, and whose business or organization can work with us in a balanced exchange of value for all involved.
  • Employing the Zaadz tools and (soon) our wiki-based site, we are catalyzing on-line community. 
  • Developing systems and tools to facilitate ever-broadening access to FLOW ideas and to resources to support FLOW entrepreneurship and Conscious Capitalism.
  • In addition to the Zaadz tools and our wiki-based site, we are working with the Bootstrap Network and Enterprise Teaming, we intend to employ other tools to facilitate direct collaboration between participants in the FLOW community.
  • We will soon begin packaging training programs, as well as audio and video content for on-line distribution.
  • We are in the process of formalizing a currently informal consulting practice to provide high-level guidance and support for FLOW-related endeavors.

  We understand and appreciate that FLOW is both a process and a product (or desired outcome). For the FLOW Vision to become manifest, we must embody FLOW Principles. Realizing the promise of FLOW’s signature line - liberating the entrepreneurial spirit for good – requires the light of consciousness to melt the snow of potential of countless beings, to feed a great river of love, compassion, and profound generative creativity and energy.

  We embrace the potential of a FLOW Movement, and do our part to be and to catalyze the drops that feed it.

  Knowing others is intelligence;
  knowing yourself is true wisdom.
  Mastering others is strength;
  mastering yourself is true power.

  Tao te Ching, excerpt from passage 33