Multiple Perspectives

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I had the pleasure of chatting with Bill Liao today. We covered a lot of ground in 30 minutes, manuevering into alignment on the language of happiness and what thrivability is and looks like.

One of my takeaways from the conversation is the reminder of how critical multiple perspectives are. We discussed how some words have so many different meanings in them – like happiness, truth, justice, and beauty. For me these words are next to meaningless because they mean such different things to different people. Bill is a fan of etymology.

cross-sections
We discussed the etymology of science. Science derives from scire, which means to discern or to cut into smaller pieces. And while I value very highly the wisdom science brings, it also can reduce things to parts. Part of thrivability, to me, is about unity, interconnected systems, and whole-ness.Can we see the world as both whole and parts? It reminds of this lovely piece by Kevin Clark about intention in the Thrivability: A Collaborative Sketch ebook.

Creative Commons License photo credit: [177]

A whole. And parts which are whole in themselves. Multiple perspectives. Being able to hold many perspectives at the same time can feel paradoxical. Like a good zen nugget. Can we see the world from the perspective of a child? A tree? An atom? A brain wave? A diplomat? A starving mother? An entrepreneur? A convict? A farmer? An anthropologist? When we can hold this, we begin to understand the flows of exchange and demand, of gift and grace.

I have a game I play to step into multiple perspectives. I blogged about it here before.

In my coaching practice, when someone is inside something so much that it reduces their resourcefulness, we play a little zooming game. It is often as if we are looking through a microscope at what is before us. And seeing it from across the room or through someone else’s eyes, or from a different timespan or place altogether allows us to detach enough emotionally to find our resourcefulness again. This is about gaining perspective. 🙂

Another coaching tool, especially useful for when we have tensions with another person, is to step into different perspectives of the situation. What does it look like if you are in their position? What does it look like to a witness? What does it look like to you when you are in a different state of mind? What does it look like in the future after you a successfully resolve it? What does it look like to your mentor?

It's cooler. Is the AC on orchid it be Fall?

Bill shared a lovely story about an artist asking a biologist about viewing a flower. The artist presumes that because the biologist knows the internal workings of the flower, that the biologist can’t see the forest for the trees – can’t see the flower for its parts. The biologist replies, but no… I can both see the beauty of the flower and the beauty of the internal workings of the flower.

Being able to hold multiple perspectives gives us a richness of experience, a resourcefulness in our choicemaking, and a greater peace of mind.

How do you incorporate multiple perspectives into your work and play?

What tools do you use to engage multiple perspectives? What practices do you have around it?

And thank you for sharing your thoughts. It helps me expand my ability to perceive the world through multiple perspectives. Thank you.

Wowed by Structure Lab

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Find My HeartStructure Lab – the place to learn what structure to ask your legal advisor for. It can also be useful for foundations, investors, and others working with social benefit start-ups.

I feel wowed. I have been reading about structures for social benefit start-ups and considering my own for years now. I felt like I had a pretty good idea. Now I feel like I have a clear map. I even know what signs to look for.

Creative Commons License photo credit: PharCyder
A hearty thank you to Joy Anderson, whose breadth of experience and warm comfortable facilitation style made the day fly by delightfully. I appreciate clarity. Now, I see more clearly the people collaborating with me and the roles they play. I understand better the vehicles for getting funding (and the structures those work with). And I grasp better what the asset types of the organization are and who I want to own and control them. I also gained clarity about some of my fears! Let me share with you some of my key learnings:
  • No one owns a nonprofit. You can’t do investment vehicles with equity. And you can’t close them easily.
  • Certain core factors drive decisions at different layers of your structure from the legal form to the governance structure. And governance structures can help manage mission/vision holding.
  • Understanding what makes the IRS nervous helps uncover which structure will work for your organization.
  • Foundations and investors avoid making their heads hurt. Your strategy for structure can help reduce their confusion and headaches.utzon died today at ninety
  • The last two are about understanding where those relationships fit on several values matrices. Knowing where you are in relationship to them, helps you communicate. Understand where you are on those matrices helps more smoothly facilitate many of your relationships.
  • The difference between PRIs and MRIs.

Key questions and explanations allow participants to create solutions that fit their situation.

  • Some structures are easy to start or end, and others are hard (read, take time or capital). Consider where you will encounter resistance and what benefit that will bring you. Choose the resistance in a legal sense and resistance in the market that is right for you and your endeavor.
  • It is hard enough to describe a new enterprise. Consider that when choosing a form – what structures do people understand.
  • Clarity about the roles different relationships play and the degree of formality of your agreements support each.
  • The management of your assets and your access to capital dance with the structure of your organization. There is a complex choice set that doesn’t neatly fit a decision tree.
  • Consider the exit plan. It has implications in the structure. Do you plan to sell the org? What if you get hit by a bus?
  • Don’t be seduced by scale nor lured in by the idea of wild profits. What is the right approach for the appropriate growth of your organization. Yes, it has implications for certain structures.
  • Mediate the concerns of one level of structure (for example LLCs at the legal form level) with tools of another level (for example, governance and agreements).
  • When creating hybrids, there are benefits and drawbacks to the 3 simple forms (and
    one complex form). The workshop explains what each one is useful for.

look downstairs into stairwell whirl

Creative Commons License photo credit: quapan

There is more, but this hopefully gives you a sense of the information provided. The approach of the workshop is playful, and the process allows for each person to understand their specific needs and values.

We also delved into L3Cs. They were legalized in January for Illinois. We discussed what makes them useful as well as what the alternatives are.

I wanted to come away with a clear decision on how to structure thrivable.org. I have that decision. I also know now how that can change over time, and what my plan can be for the organization(s) over time. Best of all, I feel equipped to manage the unexpected, in terms of structure. So I feel resilient and flexible structurally.

Way to go Criterion Ventures!