Arie de Geus, author of The Living Company and a pioneer of the organizational learning movement, says that the twentieth century witnessed an emergence of a new species on earth: large institutions, notably, global corporations. This is a historic development. Prior to the last 100 years, there were few examples of globe-spanning institutions. But today, global institutions are proliferating seemingly without bound, along with the global infrastructures for finance, distribution and supply, and communication they create.

The expansion of this new species is affecting life for almost all other species on the planet. Historically, no individual, tribe, or even nation could possibly alter the global climate, destroy thousands of species, or shift the chemical balance of the atmosphere. Yet that is exactly what is happening today, as our individual actions are mediated and magnified through the growing network of global institutions. That network determines what technologies are developed and how they are applied. It shapes political agendas as national governments respond to the priorities of global business, international trade, and economic development. It is reshaping social realities as it divides the world between those who benefit from the new global economy and those who do not. And it is propagating a global culture of instant communication, individualism, and material acquisition that threatens traditional family, religious, and social structures. In short, the emergence of global institutions represents a dramatic shift in the conditions for life on the planet.”¹

Despite the similarities, there are a few key differences. Other circles represent actual levels of natural (“requisite”) holarchy that have emerged within the organization. This holds for the most focused circle all the way up to the general circle, which represents the broadest holon currently in existence. The board circle thus does not represent an actual level of scale within the company—the general circle already transcends and includes the entire existing organization. Instead, the board serves a unique purpose: to help uncover and manifest the organization’s evolutionary impulse—to act as the voice of the organization’s “higher self,” and to spur the organization toward its unique telos, or “purpose in life.”

With Holacracy, the board includes roles representing the different needs of the broader environment the organization exists within. The exact roles depend largely on the nature of the organization; they may include a role representing the social environment, another representing the industry the organization works within, perhaps another representing the local community or geography it serves, and another representing the economic environment (including investors’ needs, although this is now just one component of uncovering the organization’s path, not the sole driving force). Whatever other roles may exist, there is also always the elected representative from the general circle to the board, there to represent what the organization is right now, including its role as a home of sorts to the people who work within it.

With all of these varied roles in place, the board’s process becomes one of continually integrating needs and goals from each of these contexts, to find what the world needs the organization to become—to unleash the organization’s own free will.

No longer is it relevant to talk about the “owners” of an organization, no more than it is relevant to discuss who owns you or me—we certainly do have economic responsibilities to the various financial institutions we do business with, but we are not owned by them, bound by their sole autocratic decree. And nor would they want us to be; history has shown that relying on slavery is not as economically advantageous as using a mutually beneficial contract with a free individual.

With Holacracy in place, the organization is freed to govern itself, to find and follow its own unique purpose and higher calling—and to generate economic returns for those who provide needed resources along the way.

From the root “holarchy,” taken literally, Holacracy means governance by the organizational holarchy itself—not governance by the people within the organization or by those who “own” the organization, but by the entity itself, by its own “free will.” As alluded to earlier, Holacracy seems to facilitate the emergence of a natural consciousness for the organization, allowing it to govern itself, steering toward its own natural telos and shaping around its own natural order. This organizational “will” feels clearly different from the will of the people associated with the organization—just as the organization persists even as individuals come and go, so too does this consciousness. Its subtle voice usually is concealed by a cacophony of human ego, although it can be heard sometimes when people come together in a transpersonal space—a space beyond ego, beyond fear, beyond hope, and beyond desire—to sense and facilitate the emergence of whatever needs to emerge now. When practiced well, Holacracy allows this transpersonal space to arise often and easily within organizations.

Accountabilities, roles, and circles are holons within our organizational holarchy, and these all refer to holons that are independent from and structurally unrelated to the humans who may happen to connect into them. And when referencing these accountabilities, roles, and circles, not in the sense of the explicit advertised structure but of the “requisite” structure underneath (which may or may not match the explicit structure), these are naturally emerging individual holons, not just artifacts of human design. Because these requisite structural elements are all nested together in a holarchy that has emerged over time, there now exists a natural individual holarchy in its own right, independent from its role as a social group for humans. (For readers familiar with the integral³ movement and associated models, in integral-speak these are the two upper quadrants for the individual organization, which serve as a container for—but are not the same as—the lower two quadrants of the human experience.)

This insight helps to illustrate that an organization’s purpose or telos is neither explicitly created by its members nor is it a collection of the members’ own individual purposes. In a healthy organization, in many ways the members are really just along for the ride as the organizational entity itself strives to embody its own purpose. (More often in today’s world, one or more members dominate the organization’s own will, completely obscuring it in the process.) Sensing an organization’s will is very subtle business, but under the right circumstances, it can be directly and tangibly perceived by those with a developed sense for it, and it can be verified by qualified peers.

Aside from this being the best interpretation based on practitioners’ experiences, this interpretation is also extremely practical. It diminishes the likelihood of getting paralyzed by the purely relative consensus-seeking trap that results when the members decide that the organization’s vision really should be some form of the sum of the members’ personal visions. It also circumvents the domination and ego trap that results from thinking that a subset of the members or just one individual should decide on or instill the organization’s vision. And this is not just paralysis or domination of the members. Freeing the organization’s own will from paralysis and domination opens the door to many more possibilities. Perhaps it generates an entirely new tier of organization.

As these organizations of organizations emerge, individual companies can become members and tangibly connect into them to help steer their governance and operations, and they can help the individual company align with their needs and goals. This happens via a cross-organization double link, where the board of the individual company connects with an appropriately focused circle within the broader entity. No longer will the individual company’s board circle need to appoint members itself—instead, it will simply establish a double link with a broader organization representing its industry, another representing its specific social purpose, and so on. Each broader organization will appoint one of its members to sit on the individual organization’s board, forming half of the double link. The board in turn will elect one of its members—perhaps the CEO—to carry the voice of the company’s context into the broader organization’s decision-making, completing the double link. The board becomes a focal point for integrating the needs and goals of all of the major environments in which the company operates. Now it is extremely tangible, and the addition of a representative link provides a conduit for feedback that barely exists in today’s world.

Better still, this worldwide holarchic meshwork is built on top of the governments and legal systems that already exist. For that reason, it can emerge incrementally, in its time, until a new integrative governance web spans the world, with every holon at every level of scale honored and accorded appropriate rights and responsibilities. What this might mean for the individuals who live and work within these holarchies is also quite profound. All in all, the potential for both individual and social transformation on a global scale is truly staggering.

One thing is certain: As the Holacracy movement gains momentum and spreads beyond single organizations, the pioneers at the forefront of this next sociocultural evolution will face new challenges and tough problems, ones for which answers do not yet exist. Fortunately, all the answers are not needed in advance. What is needed is to hold the question and stay present in mind, body, and spirit. Then it is not a matter of creating the right answers but rather just listening to what they already are. It is amazing what emerges once we get out of our own way and truly start listening.

Yet some people seem to have an uncanny knack for knowing what is going to happen before it unfolds. They are able to create new rules for the game instead of following the rules everyone else follows. They are able to plan a strategy that seems absurd to most people at first and is later called brilliant when it is successful. They are a part of an unusual breed of leaders called Edgewalkers.

An Edgewalker is someone who walks between two worlds. In ancient cultures, each tribe or village had a shaman, or medicine man. This was the person who walked into the invisible world to get information, guidance, and healing for members of the tribe. This role was one of the most important in the village. Without a shaman, the tribe would be at the mercy of unseen gods and spirits, the vagaries of the cosmos. The skill of walking between the worlds has not died out. In fact, it is even more relevant today. Organizations that will thrive in the twenty-first century will embrace and nurture Edgewalkers. Because of their unique skills, they are the bridge-builders linking and facilitating different approaches, strategies, and techniques.

These five skills can be taught. However, the leaders who tend to learn best strongly value their own personal development and have low control needs.

If you feel that you are an Edgewalker, here are some suggestions for monitoring your actions:

If you feel blocked at every turn by people committed to the status quo, consider finding a different organization to work for or even going out on your own. Being an Edgewalker can feel very lonely. Connect with other Edgewalkers for support and inspiration.

Organizations created for a greater purpose seem to naturally embrace a systems approach. Many of the skills essential to running a holistic organization are a natural feature of these companies. This section introduces five Edgewalkers who embrace a holistic approach to business with the hope of doing well by doing good.

After discussions with the National Highway Safety Administration and experts in the industry, a number of breakthroughs enabled Freeman to design a more practical and cost-effective roadworthy solar vehicle. The breakthroughs included:

Freeman has filed a second patent to capture these ideas. He feels that its widespread use would significantly mitigate climate change and the coming global oil crisis. He is currently working with top government officials and industry executives to bring his design into reality.

Slated to go to medical school as part of his admission into Brown University, Vainius began exploring human potential by studying the necessary sciences to create a dynamic framework for integrating the arts: performance, visual, somatic, spiritual, and culinary. With various degrees from academic, healing, culinary, and arts institutions, he studied both on and off campus, refining this dynamic framework that could accommodate the multidimensional spectrum of human potential.

Experience with his own life-threatening illness allows him to be an invaluable resource to people who want to heal and create an empowering and transformative context in which to see themselves and their lives. He has taken advantage of these experiences to get very intimate with the body’s unending drive for wholeness. And he uses these timeless principles as the blueprint for all his commercial enterprises. As a healer, entrepreneur, consultant and writer, Vainius co-creates his companies with the intention of cultivating and harnessing the innate and infinite capacity of the human being’s ability to grow, learn, and evolve.

Next, Vainius shares about how he brings his gifts to the corporate world.

From this perspective, the world looks very different. Many conversations and corresponding frameworks need to be reconsidered. For example, how is value defined—our own and others? How do we understand compensation, currency, and exchange of energy, money, time, knowledge, etc.? What is insurance in terms of its value, purpose, and function? gRAWnola is a manifestation of our commitment to create an empowered way of doing business, adapting traditional corporate structures in service of our mission to educate, inspire, and nourish, as well as create an environment where we as humans can explore and embody our ever-evolving potential using ancient wisdom and modern technologies. Similarly, we integrate modern food technology and ancient food preparation methods to increase the value of our ingredients, creating nourishment that can be the fuel for this type of evolutionary transformation.

At a time when there is so much confusion about health and nutrition, conditions such as obesity, increasing food sensitivities, and other chronic health complaints show that people are struggling to find foods that truly nourish them. Many ingredients are synthesized, modified, and grown in artificial environments. Foods are being processed in ways that prolong their shelf life but inhibit their nutrient availability and usability. These wondrous yet unrefined industrial developments need to be acknowledged for their ability to produce a tremendous volume of food. Unfortunately, these same technologies often destroy the foods’ vitality, leading to a loss of our own body’s vitality and potential.

These mass-production methods cannot honor the subtler properties of food. So many of the health benefits, including the recently identified, crucial healing nutrients, are missing. Perhaps most important is the energizing experience of true pleasure that comes from our simple enjoyment of a fragrant, sun-ripened peach. Those healing moments are deep affirmations of the life and vitality within us.

Bringing awareness to the various steps of this process can begin to reveal the gaps that exist in our current food system, as well as bring awareness to our process and how to honor and address those gaps. Having mastered the quantity issue, the quality of the food needs to be brought into greater resonance with the more subtle needs of the body for us as a civilization to experience true well-being.

One part of our educational mission is to help people reconnect with pleasure, and loosen its connection to that which is unhealthy and unsustaining. Being truly nourished offers the eater such an experience. It is an innocent opportunity to reconsider the possibility that pleasure indeed has a very important place in our learning, evolution, and well-being. In fact, I personally believe that true pleasure is one of our internal guidance systems whose awakening is a foundation of our internal culture.

Through our commitment to deliver true nourishment, we seek to inspire and nurture these awakened moments of pleasure. Our edutainment-focused marketing playfully invites the eater to begin to trust the innate goodness of our food—and in time, the people and the world. Our tag line—“So good it feeds the imagination”—embodies an invitation, connects nutrition with possibility and potential, and invites people to dream again. By understanding the increased value of the product, achieved by integrating ancient and modern food preparation techniques, the appeal of our foods is based on sound knowledge instead of compulsion, addiction, or manipulation.

One of our products, which is deliberately seasonally available, and has all fully ripened, ideally local ingredients, gives the eater the opportunity to experience the simultaneous benefit of pleasure and nutrition. This product further expands the definition of properly prepared foods by acknowledging the impact of the natural ripening process on the development of vital and fragile nutrients that yield enormous anti-aging, anti-oxidant, and phytochemical benefits, and boosting overall energy levels. These critical nutrients augment the nurturing pleasure that properly prepared foods offer.

Consciously connecting the energy coming from these properly prepared foods with the arising pleasure honors and trusts the body as our invaluable resource. Within our enterprise, we practice honoring and trusting the body as a way of powerfully engaging with reality so that we as a “corporation” can do the same.

Creating a business driven by embodied transformation seems especially poignant and timely given the intense disconnect with the body that many humans experience. Within our corporate environment, there is a specific intention to heal this disconnect. The practice of being present and fully “in-body-ed” allows for this disconnect to integrate and heal. When one feels whole and empowered, a desire to contribute and make a difference in the world automatically arises.

With this as our “field,” we want to make this powerful, inspiring and almost magical food available to everyone, and with it teach people how to feed themselves. Because when you are truly fed, it is easy to be inspired and get down to the business of making your dreams happen—restoring the cycle of creativity and true power.

Many of the people who sought out Castagnini’s help had experienced sexual assault. One by one, he assisted them in becoming grateful for the growth and access to inner strength that emerged as a result of these experiences. These victims of sexual assault shed tears of gratitude as they were able to say, “Thank God I was raped.”

This insight led Castagnini to the deep understanding that the underlying concept of gratitude for everything that we experience is the greatest wisdom we can have and the greatest skill we can learn. This was the genesis of his book Thank God I Was Raped, from which grew the Thank God I . . .™ book series. It was Castagnini’s realization that collecting the inspiring stories would help not only the people who reached an epiphany through telling their stories and feeling gratitude but also countless others who would read these stories in the book.

He realized that one incredible value of the Thank God I . . . series was that anyone, regardless of their life challenges, be it rape, addiction, or some other turning point, can learn from these inspiring stories. Castagnini’s professional background and innate compassion stirred this mission to bring the message of gratitude and inspiration to every person on the planet.

As a result, the inspiring and heart-opening Thank God I . . . movement, focusing on a message of gratitude, was born. John and his team offer the Thank God I . . . book series and online Community of Gratitude, as a system for discovering the magical and miraculous healing power of gratitude. The Thank God I . . . series, seminars, and workshops platform focuses on teaching people how to gain this essential understanding.

Next Castagnini shares his thoughts about his process.

Life’s most important answers are found in pursuing life’s most important questions. All of us have this opportunity. Art shared, in whatever form, stems from the union of mind, body, and soul in order to understand and share divinity. When we access this divinity and give ourselves permission to shine, we become more able to share our gifts. I am truly grateful for a lifetime of sharing, through Thank God I. . . .

The richness of GLI comes from its focus on design, the practice that each person experiences along with the true evaluation of the impact of each participant as a leader/facilitator. For these reasons, the Group Leadership Intensive is not for the faint of heart. Instead, it is for those who wish to examine their current impact as a leader and practice a new set of skills and a new way of thinking. It is a powerful tool for leaders who want to learn to empower groups to achieve their highest potential.

For example, one of my clients was depressed for 20 years every summer resulting from a rape in her home on a hot summer night. After six sessions using CLEAR, she was free of her depression. Another example is a client who had posttraumatic stress syndrome and was on medications for anxiety and insomnia. After one session, he went off of all of his medications because he was no longer anxious and could sleep easily. Results are often this dramatic and permanent unless the individual is retraumatized.

CLEAR integrates a number of energy psychology methods. It uses acupressure point therapy, bilateral stimulation, somatic experiencing, clearing of blocking beliefs, and muscle testing. Each of these techniques is explained next.

Levine surmised that because humans think, we avoid this processing. We do not want to experience the feelings and sensations that usually accompany a trauma, because they are unpleasant. We think, “I don’t want to feel that; I don’t like that feeling, it is unpleasant and I won’t be happy if I feel that. I want to get away from that feeling.” Our resistance to feeling is what causes the trauma to get stuck. Using somatic experiencing, we are present in the body and “allow” feelings and sensations so that the trauma can “reprocess” and thus be freed.

The pilot program in Nigeria was a success. The participants saw CLEAR as very helpful—they said it helped them to feel calmer and more positive about their situations and that they would use it in the future. I have been working with WFWI headquarters (located in Washington, DC) to add CLEAR to their manual. More facilitator trainings will occur in the spring of 2009. After the manual and facilitator trainings are finished, WFWI facilitators in 10 countries will use CLEAR to help victims of war recover from their trauma.

PPPF teaches MORE (Modular Organic Regenerative Environment) farming, a style that allows farmers to perpetually stay on the same few acres. Small-farm families are now able to sustain a good income on the same land while building the soil and strengthening the environment. The Adopt-a-Family program is 100 percent funded from the sale of used athletic shoes. We at Adopt-a-Family are asking for American athletic shoes that will spend years in a closet, and then 100 years in a landfill.

The contribution of 600 pairs of shoes enables an adopted family to enjoy 12 months of training in regenerative farming practice. Then they receive the tools and resources they need to earn a perpetual living on one acre or less. We also provide a wide range of services, including medical assistance for adopted families, protecting them against malaria and other diseases.

Organic. MORE systems leave no negative footprint and require almost no energy import. “Organic” means no chemicals of any kind nor genetically modified seeds. All organic fertilizers and pesticides are locally sourced. Solar power eliminates the need for fossil fuels. Farm-produced biofuels will sustain expansion.

Regenerative. The whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts on a developed MORE farm. Biodiversity enhancement strengthens, builds, and protects natural resources. MORE farms offer accelerated permaculture by utilizing natural resources with a vertically integrated approach.

Environment. A MORE farm is an integrated expandable sustainable ecoloop natural living system. MORE systems are small-business microfarm environments. Each modular system within each MORE farm enhances the overall environment. Each MORE farm assists in the healing of the natural and global environment. The MORE systematic approach mimics nature.

The second hurdle is to make available appropriate seeds, livestock, and technology combined with the proper training in organic regenerative agricultural practice. PPPF solves this problem in two ways:

The PPP Adopt-a-Family Program provides the family with:

The poorest countries will be the hardest hit by climate change. Rainy seasons are becoming unpredictable, and droughts are increasingly frequent. It is forecasted that annual precipitation in the tropics will diminish gradually in the coming decades, forcing massive migration and/or starvation. Future policy will be defined by environmental needs as climate stresses increase.

MORE systems address this main issue with the highest water conservation possible combined with amazing levels of small-farm productivity. Sufficient food production can be sustained even in increasingly harsh climates with MORE. Few other proven models directly address the core issues of world hunger.

MORE farms are highly profitable free enterprise models that work within the parameters of the natural world. There will never be an equitable distribution of fossil fuel, and mechanized agriculture cannot feed the emerging economies of the world. Small decentralized farms strengthen natural biodiversity, which is vital to environmental health and economic growth.

The basis formula is to simplify, clarify, and duplicate a modular small-farm “cookie cutter.” We offer MORE as a combination of tried and proven techniques and technologies designed to permanently resolve poverty for the small farmer. With hundreds of families enjoying the benefits of the MORE system, there will be instantaneous adoption by potentially millions.

With entire nations witnessing the benefits offered by the MORE system, a tipping point will be reached, quickly resulting in a paradigm shift in small-farm practice. Dozens of economic models will be designed to accelerate the transition to perpetual prosperity. Thus far we have learned that everyone wants to do less and accomplish MORE.

With over 300 million pairs of athletic shoes headed for the landfill annually, it is possible to collect 1,000 pair a day. At our current rate of expansion, this level of collection will be reached by 2010. Given 1,000 pairs a day, we will be able to expand MORE training across Africa. The World Bank and other organizations have expressed interest in funding MORE systems on a large scale once our first 100 families have become established.

Fortunately, the skills and competencies that are critical for success in a knowledge-based, global economy are innately geared toward serving the greater good. Over the next few years, we will reach a tipping point.

Our hope is that by learning new competencies and embracing business practices that increase our chances for success while nurturing cooperation and collaboration, we can have a positive impact on the world.