To make fundamental changes in the behavior of a #SocialSystem requires its #agents adopt an alternative #purpose and #OrganizingPrinciples to those currently in place. If successful, this shift will create a new social system with significantly different #rules and #boundaries.
Any social system change process begins with a set of conversations among agents in the system about how to better apply its purpose and organizing principles. This leads to experimentation with alternatives, then modification of the rules and boundaries to adopt those that work.
The #purpose of a #SocialSystem is to continually seek its #truth. Every social system starts with a truth-seeking purpose. Over time, its #agents often lose sight of it. The system drifts. It’s then at risk to lose its #integrity. If so, convene #conversations to renew purpose.
The #OrganizingPrinciples (OPs) of a #SocialSystem define who’s in, who’s connected to whom, and who benefits from due process in advance of its #RulesAndBoundaries that follow. If the system declines, convene conversations about OPs so more are in, connected, and treated fairly.
One can apply the combination of purpose, who’s in, who’s connected to whom, and who benefits from due process to almost any social system regardless of its membership, location, or narrative and learn where / how to intervene to avert its impending failure and loss of integrity.
Interventions address social system failures that invariably result from the exclusion of agents from membership in the system or a lack of interconnectedness among agents who are members in the system, or a denial of due process for agents who actively participate in the system.
Interventions begin with #ConversationsThatMatter wherein #agents with the authority to modify rules and boundaries invite agents who have not been included to talk about topics they don’t get to discuss and identify opportunities where they can collectively pursue #WaysThatWork.
Successful #ConversationsThatMatter result from attention given to key #questions: Who are the conveners? Who do #conveners invite and how? What do conveners place on the #agenda and how they select those items? Where, when, and by what means do “Conversations That Matter” occur?
Seems like a fortuitous time to reflect on this #BahaiPrayer by ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá:
“O Thou kind Lord! This gathering is turning to Thee. These hearts are radiant with Thy love. These minds and spirits are exhilarated by the message of Thy glad-tidings.
O God! Let this American democracy become glorious in spiritual degrees even as it has aspired to material degrees, and render this just government victorious.
Confirm this revered nation to upraise the standard of the oneness of humanity, to promulgate the Most Great Peace, to become thereby most glorious and praiseworthy among all the nations of the world.
The prevailing social system assigns individual responsibility to each member to engage in paid or unpaid work for as much time as necessary to acquire basic needs—at a minimum.
Should one not be able to do that due to physical and / or mental limitations, then society provides a safety net that makes up the difference—to some degree.
Woe to those who do not engage in paid and unpaid work long enough, hard enough, or smart enough to generate sufficient means to meet their basic needs OR produce evidence that they have physical and / or mental limitations preventing them from doing so.
Oftentimes, private exchanges among those who truly care about one another offer excellent examples of how to recount personal experiences, apply an evaluative framework to them, and convert the insights gained into learning and subsequent change in behavior.
Imagine if these exchanges could feed into a broader #KnowledgeCommons where they can be accessed by others and thereby expedite collective learning / change based on the initial individual learnings / changes?
Imagine how much we could benefit / “profit” from one another if EVERYONE in the world exercised this type of behavior as a matter of daily routine?
Platforms are standalone, organizational units, but users experience them as integrated services. The more seamless the shifts between platform services the more they attract and hold user attention. How to improve integration drives changes in control and ownership of platforms.
Platforms interconnect people within social systems. Once accessed, platforms encourage participants to consume their time interacting among themselves on the platforms in exchange for something deemed acceptable in value derived from the experiences and documented transactions.
Authority figures within a social system expect members to conform to the rules and boundaries as defined by the governance structure of that system. In doing so, they utilize multiple platforms to pursue the purpose of the social system in keeping with its organizing principles.
Platform: dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/eng…
-opportunity to make your ideas or beliefs known publicly
-all the things that a political party promises to do if they are elected
-set of actions or ideas that forms the basis for future development
1/2
-method of communication or entertainment, for example television, radio or the internet
-particular technology that is used for broadcasting television or radio programs
-particular computer technology that can be used with some types of software programs but not with others
2/2
Platforms can have both social and technological aspects. They are the media by which individuals can advance their ideas, beliefs, politics, proposals and commitments to vast audiences. Often the choice of “the medium is the message” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_mediu… one wants to convey.
The ideal social system incentivizes #participation by everyone on vast global #platforms where they exchange their time and its inherent value to generate sufficient #profit that, when shared, meets their basic needs and creates opportunities for their reasonable quality of life
In “Social Action,” a compilation prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, the following selection (no. 119) bahai.org/library/author… emphasizes the significance of participation, platforms, and profiting:
“Access to knowledge is the right of every human being, and participation in its generation, application and diffusion a responsibility that all must shoulder in the great enterprise of building a prosperous world civilization—each...according to his or her talents and abilities”