What was I prepared to do?
The definitive seeds of Syntropic World were cast across the soil of my being over the last forty years. Some seeds took a very long time to sprout, while others, like a commitment to integrity, took firm hold very early on, challenging me in ways I could not predict. Living integrity is a fierce Mistress.
It was a hard path. Probably, like you, I also have the scars to show for it. These scars, along with all of the joys, have shaped me to arrive here, at this point.
One of the key moments that allowed Syntropic World to become was an enterprise I founded in 2015. Allow me to tell you the Big Blue Sky story so I can explain how it created the foundations for Syntropic World. Big Blue Sky was an event designed to bring multiple stakeholders from my local city together to co-create the future of our city.
The seed question that birthed Big Blue Sky was my challenge to not be the person sitting on the couch complaining about the world’s woes. But what could “I” do?
I sat in that question for several years.
When the idea that became Big Blue Sky arrived, it was an absolute YES in my body being.
I had never done anything in the public arena. I had no brand identity in my local community. I am a raging introvert. I had never created and produced a world-class event with multiple moving parts. I had never asked for funding and sponsorship.
Yet when I met with the Head of Economic Development for my local city, I left him with no doubt that Big Blue Sky would happen on November 5th, 2015. As a result, they committed $10,000 to the sponsorship pool.
This idea was going to manifest. I had no doubt. How, or with whom I knew not.
One step at a time.
The entire journey was magical. Synchronicities were everywhere, as if Universe indeed had my back.
A team of people — all strangers to me before this project — stepped up.
They agreed to the Trust Manifesto of Big Blue Sky, to the organisational operating code that enabled diversity to collaborate synergistically to co-create the event.
They did the Synergistic Audit , a unique tool that asked them what they had the capacity, willingness and desire to bring to Big Blue Sky in six domains, and for their efforts, what they expected in return, in the same six domains.
Each week for six months we would meet for several hours around a round table. These meetings were chaotic and creative, with the organising strange attractor the purpose for which we were gathered and working towards.
One of my main roles was to get the sponsorship dollars flowing.
We were very lean and that made for outrageous creativity. You have to consider what you have in your ecosystem that can be adapted for use without paying big dollars. This is one of the many powers behind the Synergistic Audit as it enables you to see the abundance and scarcity in your current ecosystem. With this clear sight, you can marry an unmet need with an unused resource to provision the next step.
As we neared the event date, I was down $10,000. While my gut was churning day and night, a quiet place inside knew I would find that $10,000.
I found inspiration in one of my team members who had been, like me, a single mother most of her life. At around age 17, her daughter developed an extremely rare disease that required $500,000 in medication per year to keep her alive. My team member kept her daughter alive, the purpose so big that she was unafraid to ask anyone for money and help.
I have thought about this often. What purpose is big enough and matters enough to us that we get over any sense of self-rejection to ask for what we need? And to do so without apology, clear and sound in our request?
As a single mother, I knew I would have done this if it were my daughter. No door to knock on too big or small. Little care about what people thought. The urgency of the ask would have me do almost anything.
The purpose that I held, in partnership with the team, mattered. We were also responsible to those who had already invested in our project, be that financially, with their time, or with their love.
The event was on Thursday, and it was now Monday. Four days out.
$10,000 down.
What was I prepared to do?
Make a list of everyone I knew, even if I knew they could not help me with the money. Perhaps they knew someone who could.
Call. Ask. Be clear. Carry the purpose of the project as a transmission.
I sat at my kitchen table and did just that, heart beating like crazy. For things to change we must be in motion.
It wasn’t for me. It was never for me.
It was for this purpose and the people who backed the purpose.
I kept going, calling, asking.
At around 2 PM that Monday afternoon I answered an incoming call. It was the Queensland State Government. They had approved a sponsorship package that I had reapplied for three times.
It was for $10,000.
I was crying with relief. Laughing, crying. Dancing around the kitchen.
At the same time I also recognised that I always did know the money would arrive. I just did not know from where. It felt like a miracle. I suspect it was because what we were stewarding needed to come alive, and because I had allowed the Source Idea and Pattern Integrity to become form as it needed to, rather than as I wanted it to, Universe aligned and conspired to support. Not on my timeline, but rather on Kairos time.
Big Blue Sky was an amazing success, for so many reasons. Not the least of these: for me it was the Petrie dish for Syntropic World. Not just theory, but principles applied with effect.
Some of the many principles applied that now live in Syntropic World
Have an evolutionary purpose . One that asks of us to get over our small, scared selves.
The Source Idea towards the purpose has very unique elements. We call these elements the Pattern Integrity of the Source Idea. Do not violate the Pattern Integrity under any circumstances. The idea can manifest in an infinite number of forms. Yet the Pattern Integrity must be evident, no matter the form.
Become a Steward Leader , able to hold the shape of what is emerging, allowing others who join to bring their whole brilliance, yet also work together collaboratively.
Create an enterprise architecture that ensures an ecology of synergy . We call this the Trust Manifesto.
Invite people to nominate what they have the capacity, willingness and desire to bring across multiple domains, and for their contribution, also nominate what they expect in return. This is the Synergistic Accounting tool. It, along with the Trust Manifesto, will enable a self-managed team, with all-team-development built in by design.
Work with Kairos time . The right time, not clock time.
Apply Nature’s Coordinate system to everything. A system crafted over billions of years, far more intelligent than we have even begun to imagine, Nature knows how to coordinate, communicate, emerge and adapt. Some of the many tools in Nature’s toolbox are principles like synergy, precession , and polarity.
Use the Synergistic Accounting tool to provision, to honour value in multiple domains and to never be beholden to money as the only arbiter of value.
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I am an embodied learner. I need to know in my body how things work. Big Blue Sky was my school for embodied learning of the Syntropic Principles. It was the culmination for me of so many nexus points of learning and failing.
We have much to do if we want a world that works for 100% of humanity without ecological offence or the disadvantage of anyone.
If you have been called to take an idea and bring it to form towards a purpose that would have you do almost anything, then the Principles and tools we teach in Syntropic World will make a difference.
The size of your project is not the point. Do not judge or dismiss the power of even a smile.
Does your project ask you to be your best self? Can you get out of the way of your wants and desires about how the project should look, and in what time frame? Are you able to let others shine as they support the life emergence of your project? Do you consider all of the precessional effects of your project? The consequences, short and long-term?
If you are called to support the project of someone else, be sure that these critical elements are addressed. Is there an enterprise agreement? How do we show up for each other? What happens if something goes wrong? How do we honour and recognise value, including value that cannot be measured in dollars? How do we make decisions? Who is the Steward of the idea? Does the idea have a clearly defined Pattern Integrity? Is everyone clear about the purpose? Where is the power held? What is our comfort with transparency, particularly around money?
While these questions are by no means the only ones, they are a good place to start.
Important work for a world with a future needs a diversity of humans to be able to work together collaboratively without falling into a messy human heap.
We need to create ecologies of synergy, where we are better together.
And we need to be able to ask, boldly and cleanly, for what is wanted and needed to bring the project to life.
Because it matters and is bigger than us.
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Syntropic World is a global education and community of practice applying the organising principles of nature to enterprise design and human coordination. Creating ecologies of trust, ensuring integrity in everything, enabling collective sense making, and organising around a central purpose — how to create a world that works for 100% of humanity without ecological offence or the disadvantage of anyone.
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