Integral City Discovery Zone Q & A

What if Baby Boomer grandparents connected with their grandchildren to really focus on the future?

Flex Replies:

Jerry Barney has found a way to make this happen ... he writes ...

'As you may remember, the task of our generation (Our Task) is establishing a mutually enhancing relationship between humans and Earth. OT is approaching this task by developing an international network of the people with the most at stake -- the world's young people. OT is helping them (1) to formulate a substantive vision of the Earth they would like to inherit from their parents and grandparents and (2) to engage in constructive intergenerational dialog with those formulating the sustainable development strategies published by our major culture-shaping institutions: religion, government, corporations, international organizations, media, science, education, and civil society. See http://www.OurTask.org for details.

This summer the OT released the first fully-text version of the Youth Earth Vision: see: http://www.ourtask.org/youth_earth_vision.asp. Please read the Vision and discuss it with friends and colleagues. Also tell thoughtful young people you know about the OT work and encourage them to get involved.

In late July, several members of the the Earth Vision Team had a first intergenerational dialog with twenty adults to present the Youth Earth Vision. The adults were impressed with the quality and depth of the vision and provided constructive suggestions. See photos at http://www.ourtask.org/events.asp.

We have established an OT Group on the internet to facilitate communications among the members of the Youth Earth Vision team. Team members use the OT Group to discuss and arrive at consensus on various matters. For example, the first group discussion is on strategy and plans for the coming 12 months. It is focused on (1) improving the Youth Earth Vision, (2) outreach to more young people and mentors, especially via web sites, blogs, and attending conferences, (3) educating ourselves on sustainability, and (4) organizational issues, including how to function as a virtual, global organization, the need for a small staff, and beginning our fundraising.

OT has been represented at meetings of the Universarium and the World Wisdom Council in Toronto this summer and also meetings of the North American Conference on Christianity and Ecology and the Democracy School. We will be represented at the 25th annual international Balaton Group meeting on sustainable development in Hungary next week and at a conference on the Gaia theory (that the interacting systems of Earth are so complex they resemble a living organism) in Arlington, VA, USA in October.

If a group you are associated with would like to host a presentation of the Youth Earth Vision by members of the Earth Vision Team or to post a link to the OT web site (www.OurTask.org), please let us know. We especially appreciate opportunities to present our work at conferences and web links to the OT site.

Thanks for your interest.'

You can get hold of Jerry Barney at:Dr. Gerald O. Barney
Chair, Our Task, Inc.
1900 North Harvard St.
Arlington, VA 22201, USA

+1-703-525-1162 (h)
+1-703-981-0010 (c)
+1-703-841-0050 (fax)
http://www.OurTask.org
Jerry@OurTask.org

WHAT IF... we tried to make political and organization decisions on the basis of the wisdom of crowds?

Q. WHAT IF... we tried to make political and organization decisions on the basis of the averaged answers from groups of diversified individuals (as suggested in the book 'The Wisdom of Crowds' as a means of attaining intelligence which exceeds the level of the most informed individual in the group)?

Flex: This is an interesting question. According to author, Surowiecki he frames the wisdom this way:

'... the group's guess will not be better than that of every single person in the group each time. In many (perhaps most) cases, there will be a few people who do better than the group. ....it's likely that each time one or two [members] will outperform the group. But they will not be the same [members] each time. Over the ten experiments, the group's performance will almost certainly be the best possible. The simplest way to get reliably good answers is just to ask the group each time.

Some evidence of this phenomenon may be in operation in the many democracies who are returning close to 50:50 votes in elections (US, Canadian, Australian elections). Perhaps the intelligence of crowds is telling us we shouldn't polarize our politics but use what is appropriate from both parties?

Q. Could this be done as a practical method in socio-political affairs?

Flex: This might be the third win approach where we seek better choices through taking the best options all parties offer. Some would say that is what Canada's (Conservative) Prime Minister, Stephen Harper is doing, in selecting members from other parties to fill important roles eg.Liberals, David Emerson in Forestry and Mr. Kahn as Asian Advisor.

Q Would it allow groups to 'out function' groups that did not harness collective intelligence in as practical a manner?

Flex. If the groups would pay attention to a variety of sources of knowledge, this might prove possible. Ervin Laszlo might argue on behalf of the Akashic wisdom in the 'A Field'. Likewise Rupert Sheldrake might argue on behalf of the 'collective unconscious'in the morphogenic field. It would sure be interesting to apply to climate change issues, for example (or any of the challenges documented by Jared Diamond in 'Collapse'.

Q And would it work best across all the vMeme (for maximum variety) or within particular memes in order to concentrate on issues relevant to that worldview?

Flex: This could be a both/and answer -- any crowd will have a spectrum of vMemes -- they are the invisible diversity that exists five deep below the surface behaviours. Each level of complexity has different intelligences -- so I'd vote to have a cross vMeme crowd. However, as noted above, I'd sure want to have some weighting for more complex vMemes so that votes could be cast based on complex scientific knowledge by at least a few people.

... you might find my article on 'Sustainable Beehives: Sustainable Cities' (see 'Sense in the City' ezine July 15, 2006) relevant to consider how Graves, Spiral Dynamics and Panarchy all might be contributing aspects of intelligence in human systems (in whole system AQAL ways).

What Can I Do to Lessen Global Warming?

I live in an American city and I am very frustrated that the US Government has not signed on to the Kyoto Protocol.

Flo: Even thought the US federal government (and now Canadian government) have not subscribed to the Kyotot protocol, Patty Henetz of the Salt Lake Tribune, reports that a phenomenon she calls 'Trickle up' leadership is occurring. 'As of July, 164 countries had signed on to the Kyoto Treaty, which commits industrialized nations to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, mostly carbon dioxide, by 5 percent to 7 percent below their 1990 levels.
... Left without federal guidance, U.S. cities, including Salt Lake City, Moab and Park City, are taking up the slack. As of July, 272 mayors representing more than 48 million Americans accepted the Kyoto challenge. ' Patty has researched what you can do to reduce your contribution to global warming.

Click here to download a What You Can Do About Global Warming pdf http://www.integralcity.com/FlexFlo/WhatYouCanDoGlobalWarming.pdfwith steps classified as: Easy, Difficult, Extreme. Just remember EVERY step counts.

How do you respond to a whole city failure like New Orleans?

Flo: Mark Satin, Founder of the Radical Middle, has described how to do this in a whole systems way. Check out his 'Katrina Dialogues' reprinted with permission in Sense in the City Ezine, http://www.integralcity.com/Ezine%20Files/current.asp. This dialogue addresses major issues in the recovery process including: planning, employment, housing, race, partnering with nature, insurance and poverty.

Mark has done an elegant job of reporting an imaginary dialogue amongst the brain/mind syndicate of the city, state and nation. This is exactly what is needed to restore, renew, repair and rebuild New Orleans as a bio/psycho/cultural/economic place as well as a geographic space. The 'Katrina Dialogues' is a demonstration of the intelligences that are already present in the system that could leverage potential into a whole new solution. It transcends and includes many healthy approaches to reestablishing infrastructure. At the same time it totally challenges all the tired old attempts to go back to how things used to be. This is a great example of how to coalesce power, authority and influence so the post Katrina recovery job can get done in a way, where a wholly new and inspiring outcome would be achieved. If the city/state/nation follows Mark's meshworked vision it would set a new standard for place/space specific emergency/disaster response AND be a beacon of hopefilled process for recovering and revitalizing broken cities everywhere.

We have a really sensitive eco-system in a ravine area that needs restoring - how can we convince the stakeholders of its importance?

Flo: Every city has stakeholders with different sets of values. Fortunately, the values of people tend to cluster around core beliefs. Try appealing to these different core beliefs by appealing to 'trigger' values that people can support. This way, supporters of different value sets can each find a way to support the restoration project. For example:

People who have a strong sense of order and authority may be influenced by public authorities who espouse such projects because they are a good way to involve young people and develop foundational citizen skills.
People who have a strong attraction to success and quality may be influenced by other successful communities or cities who have completed such projects and generated new economic benefits for the community (like increased tourism).
People who have a strong preference for harmony and peace may be influenced by the opportunity to enjoy the ravine park as a place where people with diverse backgrounds can meet on equal footing.
People who demonstrate a streak of eco-activism can be invited to participate in acting locally to support stream restoration and thus show that they are also thinking globally.

You can think of speaking to each of these different stakeholders in a 'different language'- a language based on values.

Our city has a policy that requires residential developers to set land aside for parks. As a result we have quite a few small parks but the residents don't use them because they say they aren't maintained. What have we done wrong? How could we correct this situation?
Flo: Your city sounds like it had a good idea to start with. You have been accumulating parks as significant recreational assets. However, it sounds as if you do not have an operational budget to maintain and/or develop those parks? Have you considered getting some or all developers to contribute to a long term fund that contributes to park maintenance and development? Maybe you could give developers choices, depending on the city's long term needs? Have you set up a citizen's committee who provides input to the city's parks and recreation department for the use and development of City parks? Have you investigated creating trails that connect one park to another, so that the City's assets are more flexible and more accessible to more residents? Do you have an “Adopt-a-Park” program to encourage individual and corporate citizens to take ownership of their parks?

What if we looked at the city without integral lenses?
Flex: If we don't look at the city with the four quadrants; ie. the integral lenses, we only see part of any possibility in the city. That means not only do we see only part of any issue, but only part of any opportunity.

For instance, the demographics of North America indicate that 60-80 million boomers, aged 45 to 65 are starting to look for new kinds of housing. We need to consider their bio-physical needs (eg. much more active than their parents at the same age); their emotional-mental-spiritual needs (eg. many are seeking a spiritual component to their daily lives); their family and cultural ties (eg. many have been very mobile throughout their careers and want to nurture relationships as an important part of their quality of life); and their social expectations (eg. many don't intend to stop working when they turn 65).

These considerations go far beyond just constructing condominiums or golf courses. Cities need to pay attention to all four quadrants to meet the expectations of this influential age cohort.

Q & A With Flex & Flo

Who are Flex & Flo?

Q & A