Collaboration "IS" the New Government
Imagine a new way of thinking regarding what government is …
Rather than government being the provider of fixes, it instead becomes a convener of stakeholders, thereby allowing ‘we the people’ to generate our own solutions, which is how a real democracy should be. This shifts our system from a STATIC governMENT institution into a DYNAMIC ‘governANCE’ system. We go from rigid structure to flowing process. The governing body becomes a manager (or governor) of the ecology of interactions that happen by the people. Collaboration then, becomes the vehicle that acts as the governor, as it enables the flow of action and change. In this way, collaboration and governance become synonymous.
Watch this youtube on collaboration as government …
We no longer have to wait for government to get on board to see a change we want. Instead the governing body builds an infrastructure that allows connection and decision-making to happen. Decisions are no longer made by government. Instead they are made by us (we the people) and government merely create the tools and processes (many now will be via the internet) that allow everyone to have more access to both the learning and decision-making process. This becomes a healthier form of control.
The relationship between Principle, Practice, and Policy
Rather than government directing and making the decisions, it instead becomes an enabler or ‘governor’, as it was meant to be, by acting as policy makers, but with a different understanding of the meaning of ‘policy’. Government monitors rather than polices collaboration outcomes that publicly occur through induced design. Government evolves along with the society by being inter-twined within the overall feedback system. They become watchers of the difference between consciously derived guiding principles and the actually applied experiences and practices that occur within a community of practice.
The diagram shows a model of how the interaction between PRINCIPLES, PRACTICES, and POLICIES can help to build a healthy collaboration system. It suggests that an over-focus on any one of these three can not sustain the system, as it must have flow and movement in balance or the system gets clogged or breaks down. Each of the 3 P’s must act interdependently with the other two.
The policy box represents a more evolved government, or in other words, the convener of a dialog between principle, which is generated out of desire, need, vision, and design possibility. Policy is the way to keep healthy FEEDBACK going between the Principle and Practice boxes, in the same way a governing valve acts on a physical pipe – too much or too little puts the system into instability. There has to be balanced flow of energy, materials, ideas, etc. Note that the people inside government (policy) do not make decisions, which is incorrectly being done today. Rather they merely adjust the flow of information and choices that are being made. They do not alter the information or choice-making themselves. Rather, they create and maintain the channels to be ‘flow’ happens in a balanced way. This is a truer term for the term ‘policing’, which comes from policy, and allows for collaboration processes to INFORM the system as a collective. This is a self-generating behavior and occurs via the interactions between the engagement of the people involved within each of the principle, practice, and policy domains.
See THIS LINK for more on Principle Practice Policy configuration.
So, YES … Collaboration “IS” the New Government.
My considerations here are meant to be a starting point for an expanded dialog for considering how to evolve our present republic system into a truer form of democracy, or something beyond that can hold life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness FOR ALL, not just for a few.
Inquiry: Starting everyone of my questions with ‘open ended’ question words including the 6 ‘W’s: WHY is it this way, WHAT is it exactly, (w)HOW does it work, WHO is involved, WHEN is it enacted, WHERE does it reside or show up. In this way, your research will expand from isolated assumptions into broader understandings and improve data outcomes.
A more challenging but (in my view) more fun part of development, is enabling your research into a ‘social performance’ process for creating social capital and social innovation. This is done through 3 phases as follows (note ‘phases’ are different than ‘stages’):