Foundations, baking, sequence

I am a baker, beginning with my mother teaching me in the kitchen from a very early age.

Taking odd ingredients that on their own do not taste very nice, like flour, raw eggs, butter….and mixing them in the right amounts, with the right sequence, and under the right conditions…to produce something so delicious heaven dances on our tongues. This is the principle of synergy. It is also alchemy.

Baking is a precise activity. Chemistry in action. I learned this when I was playing around as a teenager with types of flour and gluten content. Too much gluten and we had air pockets the size of bananas. Too much or too little salt…and flavour is lost.

If we turn to business, to humans coming together to make something together, there are well known formulas.

Legal codes. Financial terms. Banking and governance conditions. Equity. Control.

For the most part people see these things as external tasks to be done, separate to the co-valent bonds that happen on the interiors — between people and the relationship bringing the idea to form. Or, as is often the case, the thing they are creating is so bright and shiny in our imagination that our attention moves away from the foundations and glue that holds everything together. We only see the future.

We neglect to get the ingredients right. The temperature. The ecology. The synergy and alchemy.

We do not take the time to invest in the relationship. In its qualities. In how we will relate to each other. How we will respond when things get perturbed.

We neglect to really unpack the reason we are doing this, so everyone is on exactly the same page. We neglect to know the Pattern Integrity of the Source Idea as intimately as we know ourselves. We do not consider who is the steward or stewards of the Source Idea…the keepers of the flame. We dismiss the lineage and heritage that has us arrive here, and in the doing repeat the exploitation and colonisation that we might be seeking to move from.

A creation, be that a child, a garden, a song, a poem, a business…is a precious thing.

Precious. Not to be rushed or slapped together.

As stewards of creation we might take the time to get the foundations, the sequence, the relationships, the ecology in the shape that will support the synergistic and alchemical response for both the creation, the people involved and affected, the field and the future.

Honour the gestation. Be deliberate. Considerate. Think whole systems. The long term future. Be responsible. Add love. Delight. Kindness.

This is to practice Syntropy.

*Download How to Start a Syntropic Enterprise here.

Photo taken December 14th 2021