Creating New Wealth

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A tool is a cup, a hammer, a computer. An industrial economy is a tool, and so is a dollar bill. Tools were developed long ago, when somebody discovered that a bowl carries water better than a cupped hand. Tools are essential to the survival and well-being of humanity." Matt Taylor and Richard Goering, Rebuilding the Future, 1975

Yesterday, my beloved Audi TT's battery gave out and I had to get her a new battery. Jr., the owner of the garage, assigned an apprentice to replace the battery. With nothing better to do, I watched as Jose did his work. He had learned just enough English to communicate at very basic levels but his hands seemed to know what he was doing. He was slow and meticulous but my watching did not seem to bother him. At one point he dropped a bolt into the engine cavity. Ut-oh, I thought as he got down on his knees to look under the car to see if the bolt had fallen through. No luck.  He disappears and returns soon with a magnet with a long handle and within seconds had retrieved the bolt.

I had this sudden awareness as I looked around that there was great wealth all about me in this garage.  Over the years thousands of tools have been invented to serve the auto industry. One problem became someone else's product design.  These tools, probably for the most part, were the genius of ordinary folks with a good idea. They saw a problem (un-retrievable bolts) and solved it with a new product. This ordinary person became an inventor and a wealth creator. He is the millionaire next door type of guy. 

I wonder what on earth we are thinking about today as we bemoan the fact that we have to become green; we must change our ways, do things differently.  Going green means thousands of new inventions by ordinary people.  New ecosystem are being created before our eyes. Each new industry needs ordinary folks seeing with fresh eyes.  It's a great time to be a tinkerer and a designer!  Our new environmental needs are creating a new generation of wealth and prosperity.  What will the tools be to serve our new industries?

 

This Moment in Time

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"In the market, language grew. Became bolder, more sophisticated. Leaped and sparked from mind to mind. Incited by curiosity and rapt attention, it took astounding risks that none had ever dared to contemplate, built whole civilizations from the ground up."
The Cluetrain Manifesto, 2000

Matt and I created MG Taylor, inc. in 1979 for the purpose creating a new way of working that would facilitate individuals and enterprises escaping from the existing paradigm to another. Generally, new paradigms are escapes from a system no longer functioning, to a higher order. We were hopeful, optimistic, and naive as to how long and hard the old paradigm could hold on and constrain new organizing patterns.

With our mission in hand, we went forth as a for-profit business wondering if we could put our ideas and ethics into the market place and be profitable. Over the years we facilitated many good events and worked with clients on their stickiest problems. No one was interested in paradigm shifts however. Whether for profit or not, it was all about near term, bottom-line scarcities and/or profits.

This month that changed. I had the opportunity, in collaboration with The Value Web, to design and facilitate a workshop called This Moment in Time.

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Pulling ideas forward

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Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the kings men and all the kings horses
Could not put Humpty Dumpty together again.


2008 ended an era. It was an awakening of what it means to go global. It was a death to naiveness about being able to act in isolation of everything and everyone else. Many assumptions about our way of life dissolved. The happenings of 2008 were foretold and felt many years before. Tiny fault lines in Humpty began showing up years ago. But like all systems in mature stages of development, behaviors had became more set, oblivious to outside challenges.

It's funny how when something falls apart we think we can simply put it back together again. Not this time. All systems mature and become obsolete over time. They leave only memories, not realities. Such is with the paradigm that just ended. It is gone. Now it is time to build anew and work our way forward with new systems. We need to adjust our lenses and watch for fresh ideas (once thought useless and ignored) to coagulate into somethings new, somethings closer to our dreams and hopes for today and tomorrow, not those of yesterday.

At this moment in time, I find myself letting go of assumptions, particularly for two concepts that I felt sure I had in hand. 1) What it takes to create healthy tomorrows, and 2) what and how "collaboration" plays a role in shaping tomorrow. I have been rewarded and honored for my actions with both. These two concepts have been a part of me most of my life. They have always worked hand-in-hand for me, but now in my quiet moments when I try get my hands around them, my sureness falls away, melting my knowingness.

It's not that I am throwing my knowledge about these ideas away. They are valuable and still useful. But I am glimpsing more, wanting to understand more, wanting to find ways to incorporate my understandings into a larger more potent context. My partner, Todd, and I have talked about this. There is a 'difference' we want to be making so that we can contribute to the 'difference that makes a difference' as we move our dreams forward.

We will be writing and talking about some nascent thoughts over the next several months.  We hope you will join us by making comments and contributing to our thoughts and possibilities...