Followship, or The Way of the Sheep

Part I

Why always look at leadership? Its the Yes Men, among us, that make leaders think they are God. Consider how crazy people like Saddam, Khadaffi or Ceaucescu were at the end, so far from reality. To avoid such madness is about being a constructive, but not docile obedient follower, to makes the difference. The era of "Befehl ist Befehl" is gone. So start learning to be a brave follower now! For sure lots of industries, rulers or banks need them now! Here's what kind of followers we need now.

Part II

Our world is a slowly sinking ship and we all are crew. When you've accepted your role as follower with responcibility, then how to go about? How to make it work? In this part tricks and tools to just that. From playing the fool to mirror rot in the system, to facilitation skills to help conversations that need to happen, happen. 

Part III

What happened with Occupy and the Aarabic Spring? Why did the one disappear under water and the other drowned in bloodshed? What could have done differently? In fact lots of people are reflecting on this. And they are learning. And developing tools, methods, strategies to try again. About Loomio, Wikipedia, Deep Democracy, Democratic Schools and Native Community Design we have forgotten about.

Part IV

How the sheep can liberate the wolves? Some suggestions of paths currently developed, and out of my hat, to round up the wolves. Ideas how we don't have to follow the Alpha males or sociopathic guys with charisma any more, even though our biology loves us to. No, lets invite them to become the most popular follower and perhaps run the movement that helps us liberate ourselves from the harming hierarchies and our compliant behavior towards them.

New Rules for World Leaders

Being a current world leader is being like a bad eyed guide of a hallucinating tribe in a dying jungle being provided, by self interested parties, with maps that lie. Around you people screaming a thousand things at the same time, some helpers stealing provisions, others attacking natives that might be friends and others manipulating to stay safer than the rest. And it is your task to help everyone stay safe and grow while the land is hurt and resource dwindle. 
Old perspectives do not function at all anymore. New principles of understanding are needed fast and hard.

Here's a few fragments that might be in the book:

Earth is a space ship and we are all crew.

Long term has precedence over short term; general interest have precedence over a specific group interest. Even the words “our interests” state there is an 'us' and a 'them'. But there is no enemy, but those who say there are. And even these are not enemy, but people disconnected from being part of the whole. Including opponents in solutions is the most healthy way forward. This approach used by Nelson Mandela, might be the smartest way forward to prevent a world drowning in war or dying from collapsing natural cycles, like dead seas and dying out of bees, to start with...

Integrity is the biggest coin you'll ever have.

Why did Mandela shine so very much above the rest? We give too much attention to position and strategy. Any leader with a spin doctor at his side, or even using one, is saying, “I will manipulate the truth to further my interests and convictions.” How could anyone fully believe or trust such a leader, however compelling his statements? How can such we expect such a leader to be everyone's leader, rather than a upgraded gang boss? Mandela's kind of integrity means more than being true to your words. It means being true to an essential understanding of the values that make up human civilization. The world needs leaders who act from that place.

What it is about is here and now present.

You are not separated from the people, nor from your body, nor from all of nature, nor from universal laws. They all apply at any time. The greatest receipt for damage is being disconnected.
Standard leaders often gather in a room, deciding about others outside. But whatever the topic, women's rights, slavery, global warming or raising taxes: the issue and that which created it are present in the room. For example, when you talk suppression, corruption and pollution wonder as honest as possible how they are present in the room, or perhaps even supported. If you can't solve the issue in de room or wouldn't apply the new rule for yourself, then it's not a good rule.

Life is a mystery and you have a purpose.

There is so much we don't know. So stay open. Some voters choose the candidate that can make decisions. But being able to make decisions and being hesitant are not opposites. Doubt has more merit than rash decisions. New information, or a view from another angle may bring new insights. Lobby groups will give manipulated information, high ranking people will protect their jobs and position. A true world leader does not decide based on facts and objectives alone. He will judge interests, assume he has not been told everything, and needs to rely on wisdom more than on strategy. And then, from the outcome be open to change course or even apologize.


And much more...

DIVERGENCE, stories from parallel worlds

Foreword: Mid-nineties I heard a strange message on the radio. China had won a soccer game from one of the big countries: 2-1. I noticed, because I never expected that win. And indeed that evening the score was the other way around. Was it a mistake of the radio reporter, or had I, for a moment, been listening to a parallel universe with a different outcome? Scientists still argue if parallel worlds exist, discussing the point whether each tiny decision or outcome, creates a new alternative universe that plays out that variation. Meanwhile a secret lab has already established contact with another world, or rather they with us. The translation work was so huge; the project was renamed 'Tower of Babel.' Consider talking to someone who speaks a language that developed from ancient Farsi (Persian) into a completely different direction, including cultural differences after diverging over 2500 years ago.

The stories, of these worlds we found, were challenging. Sometimes the differences were so big, we had to shake ourselves to believe it. And several of these variations of our world furthest away from us, are doing considerably better than us. After we started releasing findings we found more and more opposition that wanted to silence us. So here before they can do so, are the stories from brother and sister worlds we all should consider if we want to make valuable choices for our own future.

Remember, in this book are only those parallel worlds we were brought in contact with. And they could only speak to us, because they developed the right technology, and didn't kill themselves with it. The Earth that contacted us first, also helped us with the translations, for some worlds developed so differently that their languages also had gone into quite different direction. Have fun with entering these unknown lands.

A taste of this Babel Universe:

There's a world where there are no professions. Everyone is an amateur, or lover of what they do. Money is a hobby game outside the economy. Everyones interest is to contribute meaningful. The more meaningful your contribution the higher your status.

Our Question: “Are professions indeed creating damaging distance between person and function?”

There's a world where the USA kept their values of the free world after WWII intact, and did not betray its own principles for power and money. Here it is more powerful than ever, and called 'the Golden Empire'. It has now over 74 states around the whole globe.

Our Question: “Do integrity and principles always pay off in the long run?”

There's a world where the Persians still dominate the world, though they have changed enormously. Their 'Diamond Kings' are leaders chosen by the people, in a very different way of selection. And neither Christianity nor Islam ever happened.

Our Question: “What more than democracy is possible to choose the best leaders?”

There's a world where there are no countries and only little self sustaining cities. Here everybody has lots of free times. As a result they lead a celebrative and intense cultural life, that also has sped up invention, more based on a populace working as swarm.

Our Question: “What if work was not the centre of life, but living and sharing was?”

There's a world where imagination is the most important subject teached at schools. As a result there is little hierarchy or order, but a hugely inventive civilization that is lightyears beyond us in technological advancement.

Our Question: “Should we start to take art seriously as the path to intellectual and inventive progress?”

The world that looks most like ours is a dying world. They have strong leaders that claim to protect the people and make matters worse, doing so. Environmental damage is worsened by useless wars and huge gaps in wealth and health distribution.

Our Question: “Is the paradigm 'It's either Us or Them' in nationalism and power politics not worse than the problems it states to fight?”

Another world very similar to ours has no USA any more. It collapsed recently (early nineties). They have developed since then a model of green liberalism, kept in check by a stronger global government that guards the environment above any personal interest.

Our Question: “What interest(s) should rise above all others, when it is about our shared future?”

There's a world where Londan (London) is the cultural capital of the planet, although there is a lot of resistance against this. There is much fighting and constant innovation to keep a slinking post-colonial white supremacy in power.

Our Question: “Does might mean right, and does use of might sustain or decay?”

There's a world where there's less than 5 million people around the planet. A plague, because of bacterial warfare, has killed all others. The ones who released the bacteria are gone too, due to unexpected mutations. Nature is blossoming though.

Our Question: “How can we ever think we can control and foresee all outcomes?”

There's a world where we have bases on almost all planets, but earth itself has became poor because of all the effort to make it so. They claim to prepare for a 'Golden Dawn' when all this effort should start to pay of, but their own government is worried.

Our Question: “How many people may suffer as 'an investment', so that others might enjoy?”

There's a world that is very tribal and diverse. But they have three classes that live outside and across the tribes: the traders, the artists and the discoverers (scientists), of which the last work for the elevation of the whole.

Our Question: “What if all science worked for the elevation of us all, rather than for organizations with private interests?”

There's a world where all generations are always present in any meeting. Young idealism and dreaming go hand in hand with the wisdom of the old. This society was most shocked about ours, and claimed cultures driven by ambitious career men are deadly.

Our Question: “Is it almost a war crime to lock up elderly in homes and give them and children no say in economic and legal issues with far reaching consequences?”

There's a world thats run by a global dictatorship by a 'Divine Clan'. Despite its advanced technology it is in bad shape. Military power is constantly challenged by tribal uprisings. Slavery, corruption and oppression have taken the initiative out of the majority of peoples.

Our Question: “Who are you really helping when you grasp power with force over others, and why do we allow this every time again?”

There's a world where genetic engineering, toxic waste and agricultural poisons have indeed killed all the bees. The last bases of civilization are panic driven developing new techniques to keep their agricultural food alive.

Our Question: “Once again, how much warning do we need to really have, before common interest takes precedence over corporate convictions and interests?”

There's a world where the side effects of geo engineering, due to previous disasters are slowly transforming the world towards something as dry as Mars and each new attempt to turn the tide has proven to add to the process.

Our Question: “When companies design solutions for us all, on which they'll make huge profits, how much are they willing to lie about side-effects, just to score the contract?” "When is the point to let nature run its course?"

There's a world without schools. A children learn through play and intrinsic motivation and mentoring. Life long learning is here much more a trend, than in our world. Around the age of 21 you choose your way of contributing and may change that every 7 years.

Our Question: “How much is our school model really motivational to learn, and how much about social conditioning?”

There's a world where science is very different form ours. For them truth is when it works in harmony with nature, even when it's driven by a fairy tale. Enrichment of the (shared) life is the highest value, that so far has made the first flight to a different star possible.

Our Question: “When science would not put checkable facts at the centre, but positive experience of outcomes, what would be different?”

There's a world where human kind lives way more like Bonobo's. Sex is everywhere as means of conflict resolution. The power is matriarchal and the world quite peaceful. Wars are only used to prove prowess, not to destroy the other side.

Our Questions: “What if our wars were about proving prowess and not about destruction. How would we fight differently?” "What if we took a more free take on sex as means of conflict resolution?" "And how about more female attributes at the top?"

There's a world where the interest of the whole is rules over the individual. Here the Chinese 1 child per family has become global. Here the Chinese Global Enforcement is hated, but human numbers are going down and global warming has been avoided.

Our Question: “Where is the best balance between personal tragedy and general interest?”

There's a world where proven scientific discoveries are implemented, when it benefits the whole. Latest is: since owning more than 10 million dollar destroys your sense of ethics, this is now the maximum amount anyone, even a company can own. The impact is huge.

Our Question: “When did we listen to proof that bonuses or abject amounts of wealth, or don't work or dared to act collectively on any essential insight?”

There's world where the native Americans are the cultural dominating force. After killing all settlers early on and stealing their technology, they started to raid a plague ridden Europe. As a result there is no pollution, nor huge territorial wars for land ownership.

Our Question: “Do we dare to even consider the West not being the best way and investigate alternatives?”

There's a world where the Asian Fighting styles are the dominant way to train attitude and physical condition. Governments are way more accepted and less troublesome, for here people tend to focus on self development rather than on organizational power.

Our Question: “If we all focus more on self development, with at the core self containment and self restraint, would that also help self restrain damaging businesses?”

There's a world were war is an art, that is played as a sport. Weapon technology is low, media technology very high, to be able to watch every corner of the fighting. Biological advancements are also huge, to have bigger, better, stronger fighters.

Our Question: “Could we play out our wars in restricted sporting zones and have negotiations on the outcome before and after?”

There was a world that didn't want to tell anything. We only knew they talked a mixture of Greek, Kurdish and Arabic. After we pressed them a little, we heard the people on the other side being murdered and all contact was broken off.

Our Question: “What is more important: free information or governmental interests? What is more dangerous, a madman with access to everything, or a madmen regime who controls it all?”

"Write the Book You Need in One Day"

Booklet almost ready

This is (more than) a concept.
Version 1 of the whole booklet (22pages) is finished, but for allowance of use of the picture of the typewriter on the cover.(which is copyrighted by Worth1000, a website full of amazing photoshopped pictures)
If I get it, this cover and the whole booklet will be published under Creative Commons on the Knowmads website.
Otherwise I'll have to create a new cover with a different copyright free picture.
Unless someone is willing to support this cover :) or my whole writing :)

unleashing inner wisdom

For years I have been specializing in unleashing the inner wisdom and knowledge people have. I get smarter in it all the time. From recently developing a way to learn to play a piano, even when you never did so before, in 15 minutes, to now: How to write a book in one day.
Of course I don't expect it to be publishable, but one day is enough for great input and confidence booster for yourself.

Content of the book

The book offers:

• A timetable for the day
• Writing tips
• Psychological tips.
• Specific formats to write in, like a handbook
• Some help with structuring your input.
• Ideas and exercises to get out of your own box and surprise yourself with new ideas.
• Suggestions what to do with the end result.

Invitation

I personally would like to find someone who can help me to create an App that would help to download small conceptual books, and or cover designer, to uplift the concepts presented on this blog.
I have currently no money to invest so it would be a joined venture adventure :)

The Way of the Fool

The ambiguity of the meaning of the word fool, nor the meaning of idiot make it a very popular archetype to be. There is the idiot, stupid, damaging fools. And there is the fool I focus on: the wise fool, the one of crazy wisdom, the holy fool. And I am exploring how this archetype can help people, organizations and society to find more inner balance, be mirrored where the err and open them up for new ideas.

This is my own transformational path, that links both to shamanism and alchemy.
It trains to be free from (opinions, rules) and free to act, it trains to be more deeply connected what is here right now needed. Freedom lacking connection is blind hedonism to me. Connectedness but no freedom is a form of slavery. Consciously contributing to what is 'needed here and now' combined with the freedom 'to do what might be considered crazy but is the right thing to do' is an art that will help restore balances, like the fool of old would balance the king.
And the third most needed aspect is lightheartedness or compassion. When we do our things with a smile, or playful attitude things become so much more easy and fluid.
I've given workshops about this for personal development and in organizations.  It works for very creative people to take the next step, becoming a very creative soul. It helps people to become more free and less adjusted and more authentic in how they contribute. And it helps managers to discover deeper forms of intuition.

Your Problems Are the Solution.

 

While this is book is currently just an idea, I have been successful with a new workshop of mine: "How to make Money with your Weaknesses." based on this idea.
In my life, I think I made at the least half or even more money with my weaknesses than with my strengths. They are just added value. I got paid to be lazy, read inventive (read help to cut costs by doing it way more simple), got paid to be nasty and arrogant (as actor in training, I played nasty people, solved my own issues with it, because in a professional setting you just must make it work and get paid for it. More fun also then going to a therapist. Got paid to create confusion and provoke people.
Yes, I am good at that and many companies all need a shake up when they want to change things. So I help to shake frozen structures open towards new options and possibilities. I love attention and am a bit megalomaniac so I shine when working with big groups. Here too though the trick is to self constrain your weakness into a capability. The art is not to change yourself, but to find a context where it works. Be as different as you can and find where exactly that is missing.
If you like it, here's a bit more of my thinking behind this: http://wayofthefool.blogspot.nl/2013/10/the-importance-of-failing-and-losing.html.

Swarm Leadership

We can all see how on facebook we forward this message and destroy that one. In this each of us is a leader. Some messages, through some kind of viral attraction, reach millions in days or even hours. Others stay private, even when you'd wish for something else. Why is that? And if each of us is already a leader, than how can that idea be strengthened? Wouldn't it be nice if there was a book about that?
I'd propose to call this shared leadership of us all Swarm Leadership. It is about taking responsibility for your own role in the whole of things. It is also about more fluid cooperation between large groups of people.
Wouldn't it be nice to not only understand the principles behind this, but also find practical aspects you can do to strengthen those movements you believe in, or even help to start a movement or swarm.

We are with many. And we move as smart ants. Society is everyone of us moving as we contribute (or not). When we know the principles behind this, we can do two things. Work easier together, even when there's no dialogue or rule. And we can trust more that a new whole will emerge out of our joint input. It will anyway. Your choice to help it in a more constructive direction. And that is easy too. Actually this idea is more than a concept, for it has been written as a lecture. So check out Swarm Leadership as a free PDF file. Oh, the bit about Occupy might seem a bit outdated, but I see Occupy as a learning step towards large scale cooperative movements without clear leadership.
The Human Swarm is rising and learning how to make it work, be part of that!

In this century the mass might go from looking up to leaders, to being a self organizing system that decides for itself.