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Integral City Map 3: Relating Change to Exchange

Posted in Building - Structures, Ego, Ethno, Global/Worldcentric, Inner, Lifecycle, Outer, Storytelling - Cultures, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 15, 2013 | 9 Comments »


Integral City how do we relate to your constant changes and exchanges? Map 3 reveals the cycles that flow through and around your prolific eco-system.

Integral City Map 3: The Scalar Fractal Relationship of Micro, Meso and Macro Human Systems

Integral City Map 3: The Scalar Fractal Relationship of Micro, Meso and Macro Human Systems

In the city, as individuals we grow our capacities. When life conditions trigger us to change, our life’s journey adds new layers of values, worldviews and competencies. Like tree rings we can symbolically map how a person grows capacities that expand from ego-centric to ethnocentric to system-centric to world-centric (Cluster 1 on Map 3).

I have been fortunate enough, teaching at Royal Roads University, to co-create the conditions where individual leaders become high performance teams, where each team member challenges the others to draw on these full set of capacities.  This gives them capacities to impact spheres of influence that can grow to global-size, making impacts on and for future generations. This team capacity is represented in Cluster 2 on Map 3.

When these leaders and teams return, with advanced capacities, to their organizations and communities, they  encounter other people and groups who do not have the same breadth or depth of competency. In this respect, their capacity becomes diluted (and explains the challenge all high performance teams have interacting with those outside such teams). On the other hand, the advanced capacities of these individuals bring new skills and perspectives to their organizations and communities, positively “infecting” their social and cultural environments, with change. (Cluster 3, in Map 3).

We can see the same paradoxical effects (of dilution and infection) when the high performers interact in even larger scales at nation or global contexts. (Cluster 4, in Map 4).

Integral City Map 3, shows how the human systems are constantly interacting in exchanges that emerge from natural cycles, values exchanges, and complex processes. We can see the role of both agents and collectives and the mesmerizing outcomes of interactions in self-organizing systems of exchange.

I have described the merits of this map in the audio (and printed) book, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences in the Human Hive. I also discussed it with Ken Wilber during our Integral City 2.0 Online Conference (and Integral Life) Interview. Map 3 as a whole captures the Integral Intelligences of the city: Inner, Outer, Cultural and Social, as well as Living and Ecosphere  Intelligences).

Map 3 in the Integral City demonstrates strong patterns that relate to the natural designs in Tim Winton’s Pattern Dynamics (TM) Structure , Creativity and Dynamic Patterns. But the Pattern of Exchange seems to capture best the flow of interaction that influences interlocking human systems at micro, meso and macros scales inherent in Map 3. The Pattern of Exchange in the city shows us how human systems produce capacity both for the benefit of themselves and for the benefit of the systems with whom they trade. At its core the Exchange Pattern is the pattern that drives economics, sustainable growth and eco-system balance.

Map 3 captures the relationship patterns of the city at a much more granular level of the city than Map 2′s nested holarchy of holons. It adds to Map 1 the path of emergence and the interrelationship of multiple scales of human systems.  Map 3 allows us to peer more closely into the inner life of individuals and the dynamic characteristics of the social holons they belong to. The conditions for generative trade between systems is reinforced, because inequities exist between different individuals and organizations.

Exchange PatternMap 3 reveals aspects of the Pattern of Exchange because it reveals seven qualities identified by the language of Pattern Dynamics (TM):

  1. Cycle: Map 3 shows how individuals grow in natural cycles. Also it implicitly suggests the generational cycles where individuals and groups learn from older more experienced people. Thus a cycle of knowledge exchange occurs.
  2. Balance: Map 3 conveys how the encounter of team members with differing skills but equally matured capacities creates well-balanced teams, able to give and take as they engage to produce results.
  3. Capture: Map 3 shows the scales of human systems, that “capture” within their boundaries the skills and competencies needed for their team or organizational system to achieve their goals.
  4. Trade: Map 3 implies that the reason human systems prosper in the city is because humans trade bio-psycho-cultural-social information, matter and energy. In a healthy economy, such trades improve the life conditions of both traders and provide positive feedback for repeat performances.
  5. Uniqueness: Map 3 implies that the larger human systems of team, organization, community and city are inevitably unique because no two people express their competencies, capacities or talents in the same way as any other. Thus both the combination of structures, and the emergence of self-organizing creativity can produce uniqueness that offers selling propositions and values exchanges that can only be discovered through trade and exchange.
  6. Process: Map 3 hides the processes that are better expressed in Map 4 (explained in a future blog). Nevertheless the basic systems frame of input – process- output is essential to the operation of any productive exchange. That can be as “intangible” as a creative thinking brainstorm that results in new ideas for a whole new industry (e.g. the concept of music distribution on the internet); or it can be as tangible as publishing and selling newspapers on the street corner.
  7. Flow: Map 3 clearly shows the flow of the exchange of the neural network within individual minds (Cluster 1) and the flow between people in teams, organizations, communities and the city (Clusters 2, 3, 4).

Integral City how do we relate to your constant changes and exchanges? Map 3 shows that exchange of energy, information and matter flow through the neural network, of the brain, economy and ecology of human systems. The key to city sustainability is that these exchanges between the human hive and its environment flow in renewing cycles which creates a metabolism where exchanges continuously flow through the entire system.

In future blogs we continue the exploration of Integral City Maps 4 and 5 and show how each adds further depth to Maps 1 , 2 and 3.

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Integral City Map 2: Evolving Gardens of Creativity

Posted in B. Individual Intelligences, C. Collective Intelligences, Ecosphere, Emergence, Lifecycle, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 12, 2013 | 10 Comments »


Integral City how do I create thee?   Perhaps Map 2 can reveal how …

There are points of time, of distant memory, 
when the soul unites 
within the pattern of the universe.  
That union brings forth the understanding of life’s harmony.  
So it should be within the [city] garden …
Author Unknown

Integral City Map 2: The Nested Holarchy of City Systems

Integral City Map 2: The Nested Holarchy of City Systems

Every relationship we belong to in the city, offers us a new garden of possibilities for discovering, growing and expanding our sense of wholeness in the city. And because we live in an era when the rate of emergence (in all earth systems) is increasing, our survival depends on our agility to be inspired by the abundance of creative potential in all these gardens.

Integral City Map 2, shows how the human systems in the city nest into a series of “relationship gardens” – or pools – that cascade into one another (that we call a natural holarchy of complexity).  This series of gardens – or pools –  includes a landscape of relationships that is more complex than the one before. The landscape of the whole city creates the habitat for the cascading gardens of communities, organizations, groups, families and individuals.

From a design perspective, each one of these gardens, calls forth a centre that creates strength for all the other gardens connected to it. Architect Christopher Alexander observed that all living systems have strong centres that interconnect and support one another (as we discussed in Map 1). In this way a kind of symbiosis evolves where multiple centres of different sizes actually serve each other in a complementary way, creating natural ecosystems that support wellbeing in each garden at the same time as they create wellbeing in the whole cascade of relationships in the cit.y

I have described the merits of this map in the audio (and printed) book, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences in the Human Hive. I also discussed it with Ken Wilber during our Integral City 2.0 Online Conference (and Integral Life) Interview. Map 2 as a whole captures the Contexting Intelligences of the city: Evolutionary, Living and Ecosphere (with strong links to Individual, Collective and Structural Intelligences).

Map 2 in the Integral City demonstrates strong patterns that relate to the natural designs in Tim Winton’s Pattern Dynamics (TM) Structure and Exchange Patterns. But the Pattern of Creativity seems to capture best the elegance of evolutionary, living eco-systems inherent in Map 2. The Creativity Pattern in the city shows us how adaptation and novelty in the city arise from the the natural emergence of life, like an apple seed growing into a sapling, that becomes part of an orchard, that evolves a whole new species of apple.

Pattern Dynamics (tm) Creativity

Map 2 captures the patterns of the city as they relate to key conditions for innovation and creativity. They reflect how, like a garden, innovation in the city is planted, matures, cross pollinates and adaptively responds to life conditions.

Map 2 reveals aspects of the Pattern of Creativity because it reveals seven qualities identified by the language of Pattern Dynamics (TM):

  1. Seed: Map 2 starts with the individual as the core seed of intelligence in the city. In the modern city the seeds come from many cultures (like species) so that the family gardens from say the Punjab culture are distinctively the Dutch culture.
  2. Bifurcation: Map 2 does not explicitly show bifurcation – or branching in two directions from one initial path – but it has this choice implicit in it; for instance, when children who play together are directed to attend different schools; or when one family member breaks away from the church they grew up in, to attend another one: or when neighbours on the same street belong to different recreational activities or drive to different work places.
  3. Adaptation: Map 2 reveals the variety of habitats to which individuals, families and groups must adapt as they interact in the city. For people used to traditional ways, the number of choices on daily offer, is often overwhelming because they demand constant (and often stressing) adaptation to new situations outside their worldviews. For students schooled in high technology applications and entertainment, adaptation in the city is both a game and an expected life condition.
  4. Growth: Map 2 conveys the natural holarchy of nested systems in the city through which an individual can grow over a lifetime. Each system represents a “garden of experience” that expands the habitat of relationships for the individual. Each expansion offers the opportunity for more exchanges between individuals and collectives – with possibilities for innovative production, financing and integration of services.
  5. Emergence: Map 2 suggests that the interaction and interconnections amongst the different wholes (or holons) of the city will cause emergence – i.e., the creation of something new that has not existed before. (This is also powerfully conveyed in Map 3, which we will discuss in a subsequent blog.)
  6. Evolution: Map 2 clearly reflects the evolutionary complexity of the human systems in the city, as the holarchy of nested relationships becomes more complex. Map 2 shows how evolution of a city ecology depends on the transcending and including of all the less complex sets of relationships in the city. For instance, the neighbourhood, like a garden, includes all the organizations, recreational zones, schools family homes and individual comings and goings. Every neighbourhood evolves differently than others because of the variety that makes up its nested holarchy of city systems. This is why they have such distinctive patterns – just like a Japanese garden has very different features than a classical Italian garden.
  7. Elegance: Map 2 conveys the simple elegance of a classical natural form – like a conch shell, or a spiralling galaxy, or Venice’s St. Mark’s Square (a favourite example of Christopher Alexander to illustrate the evolutionary nature of creativity and beauty).

Integral City how do I create thee? Map 2 suggests that the simple unfolding of the pattern of relationships that naturally emerge across a life time in the city,  will create the complex adaptive conditions for creativity. As we have explored with Integral Architect Mark DeKay, the vibrancy of life in the city depends on creating the conditions for humans to emerge solutions that improve the wellbeing of self, culture and nature in the whole city.

In future blogs we continue the exploration of Integral City Maps 3, 4 and 5 and show how each adds further depth to Maps 1 and 2.

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Systems Thinking – A Primer

Posted in A. Contexting Intelligences, E. Evolutionary Intelligences, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 26, 2013 | 2 Comments »


Systems thinking is fundamental to understanding systems. So to understand systems, let’s start with exploring, what are systems? (1)

TED_city21, copyright TED

Systems are evolutionary structures. They are characterized by boundaries that contain system elements. Those elements have evolved across deep time, from the Big Bang until now. The basic evolutionary strata that we can point to on our planet can be classified as A – B – C (2).  Explaining this backwards …

C is for Cosmosphere – containing Universe, Earth and Matter . We study this with Astronomy, Cosmology, Math, Physics, Chemistry, Geology, Hydrology, Meterology

B is for Biological Systems – containing the living environment and life. We study these with Microbiology, Biology, Botany, Zoology

A is for Anthropocentric Systems – or human systems. We study these with Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, etc.

As humans we are the most complex systems and we not only depend on all the ABC systems but we ARE those systems. We are in effect Awake Bhangara-dancing Cosmic-dust.

An interesting characteristic of systems, is when you combine two different systems a surprising result can happen that is not necessarily evident from looking at the two original systems separately. For instance if you look at Hydrogen and Oxygen as two separate elements, you would not predict that combining them as H2O would produce water – with qualities that neither Hydrogen nor Oxygen possess on their own. ( We call this propensity of systems for unexpected outcomes – emergence.)

The B & A Systems contain the living systems. They are wholes that not only have boundaries, but the elements they contain co-exist within the boundary symbiotically – that is the existence of each element is dependent on the co-existence  and adaptability with other elements.

Systems are considered alive if they can do three things. They …

  1. Can sustain themselves.
  2. Connect with their environment (or adapt).
  3. Reproduce.

When we consider how all these A-B-C systems have evolved together we can see that they make the world sustainable – as we know and need it to be.  Geology, Energy, Water, Climate, Food, Bio-genetic Ecology and Human Systems are all necessary to sustain our life and all other life on the planet.

And when we consider how these systems impact on one another we can see the major Threats that our global systems face today. Because human systems have become so successful, we are impacting on Ecology, Food Systems, Climate, Water, Energy and Geology in ways that are eroding these system as non-renewable resources or if they are renewable living systems, we are eroding their capacity to adapt and regenerate themselves.

Living systems evolve in complex hierarchies – which means as they evolve, they become more complex as they contain more and more systems.

Basic systems start with atoms, that make up molecules, that make up cells, that make up organelles, that make up organs, that make up organ systems, that make up bodies, that make up ecologies.

As a whole living system, the human body-mind is the system we are most familiar with.

But even our individual human systems belong to larger human systems: like families, teams, organizations, neighbourhoods, communities and cities.

Interestingly each of these systems is made up of other systems and we say they exist at different scales – that is they retain similar patterns, but each system is larger than the ones that make it up. And the larger it is the greater is its sphere of influence. The concept of scale lets us zoom in and zoom out to see systems with the same patterns at different magnifications and how they impact themselves, each other and their place on this planet.

My great interest is in the most complex human system that we have yet created – the city – because it contains all these systems co-existing in dynamic relationship. I call it the human hive.

In fact I believe we are in an era when even cities are being superseded by yet a larger system – that I call the planet of cities.

In human systems we need to consider not only what makes up our bodies physically – but also what makes up our minds consciously – and how we relate to others in group cultural systems and to the environmental and built systems.

So this brings us back to Systems Thinking. When we can SEE systems – i.e. recognize a whole with a boundary containing elements – we are starting to think in the basics of systems thinking. When we can see how different systems are interconnected, we are progressing our systems thinking to a more complex level. When we use our consciousness to design NEW systems we are demonstrating our evolutionary human capacity to use emergence and adapt through being innovative and creative.

As we design new systems, we eventually produce systems of systems – like say controlling water, by carrying it in water vessels, then irrigation channels, then viaducts, then water canals and locks; then building reservoirs and dams; and then creating plumbing systems; and- dare I say it? – bottling water.

But the challenge of systems thinking is not just to see one system in isolation of other systems – but to see the whole trajectory of ABC systems as an evolutionary supra-system. Then our thinking must consider the consequences of our innovations, designs and creations. True systems thinking embraces our responsibility for initiating change that impacts all earth systems – taking responsibility not only for our intended consequences – but the unintended ones.

One of the great values of Systems Thinking is that it is critical to being able to shift our perspectives so we can be effective change agents in the world. Systems Thinking enables and supports us to see (and respect) ourselves as whole living systems, in relationship to other whole living systems, within the larger context of environmental systems and ultimately the earth as a whole planetary system.

Thinking in systems impacts how we can shift perspectives and thus how we are able to adapt and innovate, design and lead and grow and expand our capacity for caring for the living systems we are, that we relate to and that we co-create.

This is fundamental to what I call the Master Code of the Human Hive: Take care of yourself, Take care of each other, Take care of this place … so that we can take care of this planet.

Endnotes:

(1) This was presented to Waterlution Toronto, Learning Lab Journey ” Exploring Complexity & Innovative Leadership Around Water & Energy in Ontario”. January 26, 2013. See also Guiding Step 4: Systems Thinking Helps Shift Perspectives

(2) Concept from Dr. Brian Eddy

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Evolutionary Intelligence Emerges New Intel

Posted in E. Evolutionary Intelligences, tagged , , on August 28, 2012 | 1 Comment »


Evolutionary intelligence is the capacity to transcend and include the intelligences we currently demonstrate, in order to allow new intelligences to emerge.

Evolutionary intelligence looks backward at our evolutionary history and forward to our evolutionary future. It assumes that life conditions will continue to change and the human species will change and adapt and evolve with such changes.

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This blog is a prologue to the Integral City webinar conference  City 2.0 Co-Creating the Future of the Human Hive . We are inventing a new operating system for the city.  Click to get more details re the Free Expo and eLaboratory membership  scheduled September 4-27  2012. You are invited to attend and participate.

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Living Intelligence – Are You the Center of Aliveness in Your City?

Posted in Lifecycle, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 4, 2012 |


The city has the qualities of aliveness. It springs from the fact that each person in the city is alive, but also because all the people are alive together in the city – interconnected as individuals, families, groups and generations.

How vibrant is the health of your city? What do you notice about the vitality of individuals and all the collectives in the city? How are people sustaining themselves bio-physically /psychologically /culturally /socially ? Where is your edge of awareness about how the city connects in a sustainable way with its environment?

Architect Christopher Alexander believes that everyone can differentiate spectrums of aliveness. He proposes that aliveness arises around a center, and that centers are made up of other centers. Centers help one another, and “the existence and life of one center can intensify the life of another”. If you think of yourself as a center, consider how you create living intelligence in the city as you interact with others to create the invisible life of the beautiful (psychological) and the good (cultural) and the shared life (social) of collective support, order and strategy.

Here are three simple rules for applying Integral City Living Intelligences

1. Honor the dance of generational and seasonal life cycles in the city.

2. Integrate the natural cycles of developmental and evolutionary change within the city.

3. Learn how to zoom in and out at different scales to dance with the fractal patterns of the city.

When we become mindful of the myriad centers in the city we amplify our sense of aliveness in the city. We essentially come face to face with the ecological dance of our ancestors, friends, relations, strangers, authority figures, experts, caregivers, politicians, bureaucrats, artists and visionaries. We realize that being a center does not makes us an island but rather that we are intimately connected to the center of the environment we have collectively created in the city.

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This blog is a prologue to the Integral City webinar conference  City 2.0 Co-Creating the Future of the Human Hive . We are inventing a new operating system for the city.  Click to get more details re the Free Expo and eLaboratory membership  scheduled September 4-27  2012. You are invited to attend and participate.

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Ecosphere Intel Vital to Planet of Cities

Posted in Ecosphere, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 12, 2012 | 1 Comment »


Ecosphere intelligence is an awareness and capacity to respond to the realities of a city’s climate and eco-region environment. Just as honey bees adapt themselves to different geographies, Integral Cities in different locations must adapt different solutions to the same infrastructure problems.

Ecosphere intelligence is fundamental to our energy security, food security and water security. If we approached Earth from outer space looking for ideal locations for cities we would need to take into consideration how different are the ways that cities of the seaside, cities of the mountains and cities of the plains could invent infrastructure to supply these basic needs.

Each geography on earth has ecosystems that are constrained by nine planetary boundaries that contribute to our sustainability: climate change, ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosol, ocean acidity, freshwater consumption, chemical pollution, biodiversity, nitrogen flow and phosphorus flow . Johan Rockstrom and his colleagues have examined how these interdependent boundaries are now in a state of unbalanced tension.

Rees and Wackernagel have long ago proposed that our eco-footprint must be respected if our cities are to be sustainable. The eco-footprint honours the planetary reality of our metabolic resource flows and the limitations that both local boundaries and global realities impose.

An Integral City lives sustainably not just from resources taken from the environment, but because appropriate resources are intentionally returned to the environment. Thus a self-supporting seasonal feedback loop should operate.

Developing ecosphere intelligence starts with a wake-up call for cities to measure their resource consumption and equivalent land displacements to realize the extent to which they borrow natural capital from both surrounding and distant geo-bio regions, which depletes the planetary natural capital account.  A planet of cities is called to develop a strategy to recycle our natural capital (or even improve it).

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This blog is a prologue to the Integral City webinar conference  City 2.0 Co-Creating the Future of the Human Hive . We are inventing a new operating system for the city.  Click to get more details re the Free Expo and eLaboratory membership  scheduled September 4-27  2012. You are invited to attend and participate.

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Integral City 2.0 Develops Innovation Ecosystems

Posted in Building - Structures, city, D. Strategic Intelligences, Navigating - IVSM, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 7, 2012 | 1 Comment »


Integral City 2.0 innovation systems are emerging because conscious capitalists, governments, students and citizens are aligning strategies for leaders, organizations and governance systems to transform entire cities from resistant holdouts to resilient human hives. Humans as Gaia’s most “reflective organ” have located 50% of our species’ brain trust in the world’s cities.

We are starting to see the shape of Integral City 2.0 in places that have developed a variety of innovative frameworks and practical approaches to optimizing human co-existence. If we could combine and align these emergent designs into innovation ecosystems, we would create a resilience strategy that would move our human hives from City 1.0 to City 2.0 in service to a healthy planet. Five cities on five continents lead the way.

1. Curitiba, Brazil demonstrates an ability to develop individual capacity and organizational capital through people-friendly transportation systems and re-valuing eco-citizens who collect cooking oil, tires and even fallen leaves.

2. Sydney, Australia has developed Sustainability and Resilience strategies through the Sustainable Sydney 2030 Vision  for a Green, Global, and Connected City. It identified 10 targets and  five big moves embracing the city centre, transportation network, green corridors, community hubs and energy and water infrastructure.

3. Metro Vancouver, Canada  leverages community engagement and dynamic decision making that coalesces authority, power and influence, at breakfast meetings with citizens across 21 municipalities. They are anchoring three imperatives: regard for both local and global consequences and long-term impacts of decisions; recognizing and reflecting the interconnectedness and interdependence of systems; and being collaborative.

4. Songpa, South Korea demonstrates the value of Context mapping that integrates Place, Priorities, People and Planet. It completely removed a major freeway that bisected the city and fully restored the river that now has become the ecological and cultural centre of its urban life.

5. Murcia, Spain applies navigational dashboards that monitor vital signs of wellbeing across all city systems. It integrates KSF’s across city initiatives and objectives with multiple stakeholders. These measures include everything from reduction of energy consumption to school use of photo-voltaics to citizen awareness, especially immigrants, women, seniors and students.

What these Integral Cities 2.0 are proving, is that we can create the life conditions for innovation that will become a legacy to future generations. When we co-create City 2.0 habitats for innovation eco-systems we discover that:

  • secure supply chains emerge in around the Integral City 2.0
  • risk is mitigated through shared values and proximate peers
  • we can retain and attract high-performers
  • we create opportunities for sustainable energy efficiencies as we learn how to competitively recycle energy and effort in our eco-region;
  • we can redefine value-added profitability not just for our organizations, but for the city, its eco-region and Gaia herself;
  • our actions inevitably enhance our brand reputations.

Multiple stakeholders acting together in Integral City 2.0 create innovation ecosystems that become self-fulfilling – where we naturally align leaders, strategies and governance systems to develop caring capacities for taking care of people, taking care of priorities and taking care of this planet.

Download Links, Resources, Connections for Integral City 2.0 Developers at: http://www.integralcity.com/developers/

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Integral City 2.0 Economists Create Cracks & Open Light

Posted in Building - Structures, Emergence, Navigating - IVSM, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 19, 2012 | 1 Comment »


There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in. Leonard Cohen

If City 2.0 is to support more life-giving options for behaviours, intentions, cultures and systems, City Economics 2.0 will have to emerge as an integral part of the whole.

A pessimist would say we have been witnessing the disintegration of the old economy in the last ten+ years with the waves of meltdowns surging across the globe like tsunamis, engulfing in turn Asian Tigers, Japan,  Southern Asia, BRIC, USA, PIGS, Europe.

An optimist might way we are witnessing a whole new economy being born – like a new life emerging from an egg that is cracking open. The tsunamis are merely the result of  new life pushing to the surface, seeking light as people outgrow the old systems that enabled survival but now curtail the next natural stage of emergence. The Occupy movements and their cousins are pecking away at the old shells, too brittle now to hold the flex and flow needed to nurture City 2.0.

The new economics is being created from the bottom up and the top down at the same time. We are growing a whole new metabolic system for City 2.0.  Christian Arnsperger’s Eco-Transitions describes an eco-system with processes for exchange that are more reasonable, more ecologically viable  and more socially equitable. Long a visionary voice for the invisible economy and the champion of an ecologically balanced and socially responsible economy Hazel Henderson has been developing systems, investment vehicles and metrics for the new economy for decades. Other economic voices like MacLeod and even the Euro’s ”father” Bernard Litaer are dialoguing with regional experts like Gwendolyn Hallsmith  call for multiple currencies that can co-exist in cities for different purposes and different markets. Values-based economic pioneers like Said Dawlabani  recognizes that “memenomics” explains the natural stratification of wealth that emerges along with the values systems (Vmemes) of societies.

Actually new wealth is emerging because people are inventing not just new economies but ecologies of economies that break open the hard shells created by the old banking systems, national governments and organizational oligarchies.

As Integral City 2.0 emerges a lot of light is breaking through. City 2.0 is going to have to accustom itself to the glare and learn how to dance in it.

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Cities as Innovation EcoSystems Key to Growing Gaia’s Reflective Capacity

Posted in A. Contexting Intelligences, B. Individual Intelligences, C. Collective Intelligences, D. Strategic Intelligences, E. Evolutionary Intelligences, Master Intelligence, tagged , , , , , , , on February 16, 2011 | 3 Comments »


This was the keynote speech delivered by Dr. Marilyn Hamilton at Globe Forum, Dublin
November 17, 2010

Thank you for this invitation to share what I am learning about cities as innovation ecosystems.

James Lovelock – innovator of the Gaia hypothesis – says that humans are Gaia’s most reflective organ. That means that evolution has purpose-built us to grow our reflective capacity – our consciousness. And therefore innovation is a necessity for survival.

According to Lovelock, Gaia will look after her own survival , but we need to take responsibility for our survival as a species. And that means calling forth from exactly the government, student and entrepreneurial organs in this room the commitment to create a legacy that has never before been possible.  Because before now, we have not had more than 50% of humanity living in cities. And cities are really Gaia’s Reflective Organs.  Right now we have the power to align strategies for leaders, organizations and governments to transform entire cities from stagnant backwaters to flowing eco-systems, from  fragmented heaps to flexible wholes, from ordinary settlements to extraordinary habitats ,  from mediocre exurbias to exceptional centres, from resistant holdouts to resilient human hives.

Let me tell you the story of the human hive. I adapted it from the story of the honey bee, told by Howard Bloom — he discovered that the honey bee developed a strategy for individual adaptation, hive innovation and species resilience. 

 Do you know that the Honey Bee (apis mellifera) is 100 million years old?  That is 10 to 100 times the age of our species. The Honey Bee is also the most advanced species of the branch of the Tree of Life called the invertebrates. We are supposed to be the most advanced species  of the branch called the vertebrates. So I with those credentials I wonder if the Honey Bee species has something to teach the human species?

A bee hive has about 50,000 bees in it – about the size of a small city. And since many if not most of you work to performance goals, do you realize that a honey beehive also has a goal? It must produce a certain amount of honey per year in order to survive — about 40 pounds per year.

So a beehive has a clear sustainability objective for the hive, measured in terms of energy production.

How do bees obtain the raw materials to produce honey? They do this by creating 5 roles within the hive – not the usual suspects most of us are familiar with like drones and queens. No, no these roles have much more purpose and innovation to them:

About 90% of the hive are Conformity Enforcers (CE). Their job is to fly to flower patches and harvest as much nectar and pollen as they can. They use the “waggle dance” form of communication to let sister bees know where to find the resources. When 90% of the hive is doing the same dance – it’s like a Rock & Roll rave — the energy produced attracts a lot of attention and reinforces successful finds.

About 5% of the hive are Diversity Generators (DG). Their job is to fly to different flower beds than the Conformity Enforcer’s. As a result their waggle dance contains different information – more like an Irish Jig than Rock & Roll??. When the Conformity Enforcer’s are at peak performance the Diversity Generator’s are not noticed because their communication is drowned out by the Conformity Enforcer “rave”.

However — a small per cent of the hive are Resource Allocators (RA). Their job  is to reward the performance of Conformity Enforcer and Diversity Generator bees. When Conformity Enforcer performance lags (after depleting the resources in one flower patch), Resource Allocator’s withhold rewards until the point that Conformity Enforcer bees are not only de-energized — they become downright depressed. You can imagine them walking around completely bummed out – the party is over – btw, they can measure depression in bees by measuring their pheromones.  Eventually when the Conformity Enforcer’s energy is lowest, they finally take note of the Diversity Generator Irish Jig (communication) and switch their resourcing flights to new locations.

An even smaller per cent of the hive are Inner Judges (IJ). Some say this is even a hive intelligence. The Inner Judge’s work with Resource Allocator’s to assess and reward performance, so that the hive can achieve its sustainability goals.

The fifth role is a whole hive role – it is created through Inter-group Tournaments (IT). This role actually emerges from the competition between hives within the bee’s eco-region; i.e. the territory they share with other hives competing for the same resources.

These five roles create a resilience strategy that depends on performance and innovation to support the hive and the species. But the bees have taken their sustainability strategy beyond the hive to scale at the regional level of resilience.  Because of course as they gather resources for themselves, they pollinate their eco-region, thereby creating energy renewal for next year. This means the bees have developed a double sustainability loop that supports hive survival AND regenerates the energy resources in their eco-region. The Inter-group tournaments operate at the level of species survival – ensuring any hive that gets an edge in the innovation and evolution curve is the one most likely to survive and pass on its learning.

In terms of sustainability, I wonder when homo sapiens sapiens will innovate sustainability strategies that will embrace performance goals and replenish the resources we use to sustain our human hive and thereby add value to the earth? Perhaps it will come from the Globe Sustainable City Award Candidates?

If we are looking for innovation strategies for leaders, organizations and governments to transform entire cites from apathetic to innovative, we do not need to look further than the finalists for the Globe Sustainable City Award. These cities have individually developed frameworks and practical approaches that not only meet the Awards Criteria — but if we applied everything they have innovated in separate cities to one city, we would come close to matching the resilience strategy of the bees. Let me tell you about five candidates who are leading the way.

1. For Diversity Generator’s & Conformity Enforcer’s I offer Curitiba, Brazil. This city demonstrates an ability to develop individual capacity and organizational capital that aligns operations and amplifies innovation. How?  Over the last twenty years it has demonstrated the willingness to  move vision into action – such as their widely copied bus-only corridors public transportation system . Another great example is their biocity initiatives which converts recycling collectors into Ecocitizens as they collect cooking oil, tires and even fallen leaves.

2. For Resource Allocator’s I offer Sydney, Australia. This city has developed Sustainability and Resilience strategies for the whole city. How? It created The Sustainable Sydney 2030 Vision  for a Green, Global, and Connected City. It developed anticipatory and evolutionary optimization by identifying 10 targets and  five big moves embracing the city centre, transportation network, green corridors, community hubs and energy and water infrastructure.

3. For Inner Judge’s & Conformity Enforcer’s I offer Metro Vancouver, Canada This city leverages community engagement and dynamic decision making. How? Through its Sustainable Region Initiative it coalesces authority, power and influence, from through monthly breakfast meetings with citizens across 21 municipalities. They are anchoring three imperatives: regard for both local and global consequences and long-term impacts of decisions; recognizing and reflecting the interconnectedness and interdependence of systems; and being collaborative.

4. For Inner Judge’s I offer Songpa, South Korea . This city demonstrates the necessity of Context mapping that integrates Place, Priorities, People and Planet. How? Songpa decided to bring the environment back into the city by completely removing a major freeway that bisected the city and fully restored the river that now has become the ecological and cultural centre of its urban life. It has no doubt added value to human systems and eco-regional ecology.

5. For Inter-group Tournament’s I offer Murcia, Spain. This city applies navigational dashboards that monitor vital signs of wellbeing across all city systems. How?  It integrates KSF’s across city initiatives and objectives with multiple stakeholders. These measures include everything from reduction of energy consumption to school use of photo-voltaics to citizen awareness, especially immigrants, women, seniors and students.

The competition of the Globe Sustainable City Award is a global Intergroup Tournament that challenges cities to show us how to evolve innovation eco-systems. These cities (and 30 more like them in 2010) have challenged the organizations and leaders in this room – the brightest and most advanced leaders on this planet – to do the same.

What these Integral Cities are proving, is that we can not only capitalize on the innovation eco-systems they are nurturing, but we can become part of a multi-stakeholder meshworking brain-trust . We can get together with the government, organization and student leaders in each and every city where we live, play and work. Together we can create the life conditions for innovation that will become a legacy to future generations like none other ever before. When we co-create habitats for innovation eco-systems in our Human Hives we will very quickly discover that:
• secure supply chains emerge in around Integral Cities
• risk is mitigated through shared values and proximate peers
• we will retain and attract high-performers
• we will create opportunities for sustainable energy efficiencies as we learn how to competitively recycle energy and effort in our eco-region;
• we can redefine value-added profitability not just for our organizations, but for the city, its eco-region and I daresay Gaia herself;
• our actions will inevitably enhance our brand reputations.

When multiple stakeholders act together, we create innovation ecosystems that become self-fulfilling – where we naturally align strategies for leaders, organizations and governments to transform entire cities into living, exceptional, human hives of resilience.

And we are all amazingly well positioned to live the Master Principle I propose in Integral City for the Human Hive: On the highest level that we are able as Gaia’s Reflective Organs, to create a legacy like no other organizations , governments and students have ever been able to do before in history:
To take care of ourselves, To take care of each other, and To take care of this place.

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Multiple Cities, One Location

Posted in Building - Structures, Emergence, Inner, Lifecycle, Panarchy, tagged , , , , on January 24, 2011 | 2 Comments »


I have just finished editing an interview I did with one of Integral City’s Advisors,  Will Varey, of Emergnc in December, 2010. It will be posted for readers’ listening pleasure on Meshcasts later today.

We had a most wide-ranging dialogue that explored cities as living systems. Will’s grounding in sustainability provided a “pingable” trampoline to explore the ecology of the city’s values, perspectives, experiences, cultures, healths and wellbeing.

We shared the discovery that a city is not just one simple location. Rather it is one location that is experienced differently by every person in the city, because each person has their own unique values, worldviews and perspectives. They may be influenced strongly by the family and ethnic culture to which they belong, but essentially, each citizen is walking around with their own distinctive inner map of the city. This is mind-boggling to consider. I imagine everyone’s  inner lives floating above and around and through each person like cartoon balloons. They are constantly bumping into each other, overlapping, dissolving, being assimilated, re-forming, shape-shifting. They are invisible fields of inform-ation that become accessible when we communicate. Is there any wonder we have such a need to communicate? Isn’t it a wonder that we can make meaning of these myriad versions of the city at all?

In fact Will pointed out a major dilemma of these multiple cities in one location is that they have to make use of one infrastructure – like a water system. The location and its outer infrastructure tend to be a singular reality on which the multiple inner cities must come to agreement on how to share. It is the job of policy developers and administrators to frame and manage such agreements. And when you paint the challenge that faces these (often faceless) managers, that they must make sense of multiple inner cities to operate a single outer city,  it ought to call forth from us a new respect for every city infrastructure manager (think water, waste, transportation, communications) who does their job well.

One of the great advantages of the Integral Model for the city, is that it helps to notice the patterns in the multiple cities that people experience and make sense of them in this one location. As you negotiate your city today, be curious about the multiple cities that surround you and appreciative of the one location (and its managers) that supports you (with a little help from its imported footprint of resources).

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