The Radical Foundation can be made a bit simpler and more focused.
In the book RADICAL COMPANIES, we described the Foundation like this,
| principles | Meaning & Belonging |
|---|---|
| commitments | Transparency & Decentralization |
| practices | Alignment & Experimentation |
At pivotal points, having a Foundation helps you get oriented along the path you have chosen. Will this action help us to develop and grow as people? Will this decision make us more centralized or more decentralized? Are we being too rigid or are we still learning from experimentation?
Meaning and Belonging
Meaning and Belonging cannot be separated. Belonging is key to Meaning to the individual, but it is something we get primarily from others in the community that we are part of. If I make a spear to fish, it becomes significant to myself next time I am hungry and I eat the fish that I caught with my spear. But when I see somebody else make a spear like mine to fish, that is when my spear, my expression, becomes a contribution!
Rather than “principles,” this should be re-labeled “people” to make it super-obvious that people are the basis of it all.
Decentralization & Transparency
Decentralization and Transparency are somewhat redundant.
At the completely decentralized end everything will be 100% transparent. Completely decentralized means complete transparency.
On the way to full decentralization you may consider keeping some things secret. The person charged with keeping them would be the boss of those secrets. The questions, then, would be,Who is going to be the boss of these secrets? No matter if this is a very nice person, or a small, trusted committee with a term limit: so long as there are secrets, there is a boss.
Even though these are redundant, I feel we need to make them both explicit. Sometimes we think we are decentralizing but when we look at the Transparency side we see incoherence. So, although decentralization implies transparency, we need both to keep us honest.
Explicit Alignment & Experimentation
Finally, we come to a leg of the Radical foundation that needs to be changed.
I was never very happy with the combination of Explicit Alignment and Experimentation under Practices. I have now realized that Explicit Alignment is a tool – one that we believe is key and absolutely necessary, but it’s just a tool.
Experimentation, on the other hand, applies to every Radical practice. The result may or may not meet our expectations (i.e., our hypothesis), but even when it does not, it serves to teach us a lesson and we learn.
Tools
Tools are not technically a part of the Radical foundation itself; you can be on the Radical path and use different tools. No matter, this is what we’ve come up with, so far,
| RADs! mobile App | |
|---|---|
| Explicit Relationships | |
| Explicit Alignment |
This applies to a group of people collaborating on a common project (e.g., what we call a company). However you choose to express them, these are the key components that you must consider,
|
| Explicit Agreement | Inspired by J Kim Wright’s Conscious Contracts®, these apply to individuals as they create or enter a community. Its goal is to make explicit that which usually remains hidden for fear of being ridiculed or rejected. It is the start of trust building at a safe pace (psychologically and physically). |
| Explicit Relationships | |
| Future Tools | There are going to be more tools in the future. For example, specialized and community-specific tools |
The Revised Radical Foundation
Foundation
| people | Meaning & Belonging |
|---|---|
| commitments | Decentralization & Transparency |
| practices | Experimentation |
