Generative initiatives are plays
in the infinite game.
in the infinite game.
~
GENERATIVE CHANGE: GROWING THE CAPACITY TO CHANGE — NATURALLY is a brief article that describes the difference between generative and mechanistic change within organizations. Reading this piece will help set the stage for rest of the material presented in this section.
Generative Initiatives Overview will provide you an expanded description of the context and nature of generative initiatives. Its contents include:
- 15 ways to know whether your initiative is generative.
- Four examples of champions exploring potential generative initiatives.
- A proposed "patron saint" for generative initiatives.
- Why does this web site focus on generative initiatives?
- If generative initiatives are so generative, why aren't they everywhere?
- How do generative initiatives relate to the triple bottom line?
- Are "ultra-high true ROIs" really achievable — or just hype?
- What's the rub? What are the costs of championing generative initiatives?
- Design initiatives for multiplying benefits.
- Evoke and channel commitment-based energy.
- Appreciate that which you want to multiply.
- Go for the highest possible game — 10X commitments can open the door.
- Design for metamorphosis.
- Sow seeds of accountability where the soil is fertile; nurture growth through its early cycles.
- Mine breakdowns for the nuggets. Be on the lookout for a mother lode.
- Keep Core Developmental Work in the foreground of developmental initiatives until it's so rewarding it's irreversible.
- Wholeness is contagious. Be a carrier.
- You are not in this alone. Ask for help.
- What is it that an Advance Scout does?
- Who would want to be an Advance Scout?
- Where are these scouts?
- Why come forward to serve as an Advance Scout?
- What are the criteria for generative initiatives to be included in this site?
- What should be included in a generative initiative writeup?
- What is required to serve as an Advance Scout?
- How do you start?
12 Step Programs — Two recovering alcoholics, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, got together 70 years ago and evolved an organizing form that has rippled out into more than 100,000 AA groups in 150 countries — enhancing the true wealth of millions of people worldwide. The 12-Step approach is not only self-sustaining but also self-propagating in a way that has addressed many other forms of addiction, e.g., narcotics, sex, compulsive eating, gambling, spending and workaholism.
P&G's Albany, GA Paper Plant — A 30-year "Corporate Social Opportunity" success story. How P&G crossed brilliant organization design with envelope-pushing diversity principles — and has been harvesting and propagating dramatic business and social benefits ever since.
Delancey Street — Mimi Silbert's "Harvard for losers, a concrete campus in San Francisco, where the students are former pimps and prostitutes, junkies and drug dealers, armed robbers and homeless waifs. This alternative rehabilitation program is run solely by its residents (Only one professional staff member—Mimi) and has turned some 14,000 multiple offenders and other societal castoffs into law-abiding-look-you-in-the-eye-self-respecting working people since its beginnings in the '70s."