Author Archive for: Jean Russell
Entries by Jean Russell
Expressing Thrivability: Michelle Holliday
Gratitude. I want to highlight some people I feel grateful to know and experience, people who are expressions of thrivability. Today, I want to express gratitude for Michelle Holliday. She is a facilitator, organizational consultant, researcher and writer. She brings people together and helps them discover ways they can feel more alive, connect more meaningfully […]
Expressing Thrivability: Lonny Grafman
Gratitude. I want to highlight some people I feel grateful to know and experience, people who are expressions of thrivability. Recently I saw Lonny Grafman. Do you know him? I met him in his role as the founder of Appropedia – the encyclopedia for appropriate technology solutions. He is a Practivista. He is head of […]
Come to the Thrivable Future Salon Oct 14 in SF
When we met in 2012 at an alternative currency event in NYC, I could not have imagined today. Here it is! So exciting! Back then, he was interested in my word, “Thrivability” and led Future Salons in SF. A couple years later, while in SF, we agreed to meet again. He wanted me to talk […]
Curating the Conditions for a More Thrivable World
Slides and notes from a talk for the ISSS57 conference. Curating Conditions for a More Thrivable Planet from Jean Russell And my notes from that talk that go with the slides: I am so excited about this conference. I am very English language sensitive, so getting just the right words is important to me. […]
Imagine, Possible, Test, Prove
Questions I was trying to understand a paper by a friend who does evolutionary algorithms. I approached it several times and finally it was clear enough in me to spark a new awareness about the world. It was one of those moments where I saw so much more clearly how the very things in front of […]
Friction is Your Friend: Why Sharing Values isn’t always Valuable
I hear about it all the time… Collaborate with people who share your values. Really? You know why they say this? Because it is pleasant and easy. When you are around people who share your values you can agree all the time, because you are using the same basis for your judgements. There isn’t much […]
Lifespan of Social Metrics
Unlike metrics of simple systems, the metrics of complex adaptive systems have a life span. They grow in value over time. And then they decay in value as well. Take twitter. At first it was follower count – and that still matters some. But over time, people found ways to gain followers that didn’t coincide […]
Organizational Heartbeat
I am working on a book about agency, and the power and requirements for transformational change. This comes out of about a decade of writing about philanthropy – both for effective donors and the sector as a whole. Today, Eugene Kim posted to Facebook a link to a groupaya post, How Can We Make Nonprofit Consulting […]
Resilience Ain’t Enough
It isn’t enough to repair the damage our progress has brought. The unintended consequences of our efforts to improve quality of life for humans has repercussions and requires action. Yes, and. It is also not enough to manage our risks and be more shock-resistant. Now is not only the time to course correct and be more […]