A zebra chasing bubbles, a pony drumming, horses helping people heal, leaders listening from within, a herd running free - just another day at Pebble Ledge Ranch. Meet Toby, grazing in the field. If you look closely, you'll see Holly, the zebra, in the background of the photo above! The herd at Pebble Ledge Ranch shifts and changes with the cycle of the moment, the cycle of life, the cycle of nature. These horses are not kept [...]
Over the past several months, Plexus Catalyst Mike Taylor engaged a diverse network of individuals, institutions and groups representing four continents and a variety of professional talents to support further development of our newest project “The Commons.” The next step is to create the strategy for a feasibility study which will seek funding and the launch of a pilot. By engaging large groups of people in a self-organized process, The Commons platform will allow participants to see the direct impact of individual and collective choices on [...]
Scientists keep discovering important traits in animals that were once considered exclusively human. So when you hear references to bird brains, think about how our behavioral connection to parrots offers insights into addressing large scale social and environmental issues. A New York Times story by Natalie Angier reports researchers who study parrots report these birds rival great apes and dolphins in intellect and resourcefulness, and may be the only creatures, other than humans, capable of dancing to a beat. Parrots belong [...]
This article was written by Plexus Network member Nancy Dixon, whose work focuses on the people side of knowledge management. "Our most effective knowledge sharing tool is conversation. The words we choose, the questions we ask, and the metaphors we use to explain ourselves, are what determine our success in creating new knowledge, as well as sharing that knowledge with each other." Like many others, I have been sorely troubled by the level of disrespect in our public conversations. For that [...]
"The health of a honey bee is based on the health of the hive, not the individual bee. Collective action is necessary for growth and expansion. Humans are the same way, although we rarely act like it. Many of the issues we face today are not divided by borders. In fact, bee health or pollination issues are more likely to be solved by transcending them." Matthew Willey When Melissa Stephenson, a Plexus Catalyst shared information about the New Hampshire Honey [...]
Bees and humans have been closely associated for a millennia. We have been fascinated by bees ever since our ancient ancestors tasted honey. Scientists have a wealth of knowledge about bees, their behavior and their extraordinary social organization, but mysteries remain. Researchers believe the mapping of the bee genome may hold clues to how inborn and environmental factors interact to influence what genes actually do in the brain to regulate behavior. In December 2004, Gene Robinson, wrote a compelling New [...]
It’s not only humans who derive symbolic meaning from dance. Honeybees use dance to tell each other about flowers and nectar and the best places to find them. In an extraordinary ritual known as the “waggle dance”, a scout bee finds a rich flower patch, sips some nectar, and then flies home. She (and it’s always a she) lights on the vertical surface of the honeycomb, near the nest entrance where she will have an audience, and dances a repeated [...]
How does your organization address the threat of “disruption”? This question has become a mainstay of most strategic conversations, in large part because the conditions for entire industries, social, economic and certainly business systems are being broken apart, thrown into disorder and prevented from functioning as they always have. In Michael Arena’s new book Adaptive Space: How GM and Other Companies are Positively Disrupting Themselves and Transforming into Agile Organizations the former Plexus Board Chair shares insights and practical applications [...]
Do most innovators and creative thinkers relish the freedom to let their imaginations run wild? Or can their "creativity" flourish with the discipline of constraints? If your immediate answer is constraints limit creativity and innovation, consider how constraints, like simple rules serve the function of supporting creativity in the self-organizing of a complex system. What if we looked beyond the "Theory of Constraints" as simply a tool for finding practical, effective solutions to business problem? What if constraints were viewed as necessary [...]
Plexus launches a high engagement, experiential online learning series called Drawn to Connect with the first four week workshop. DRAWN to CONNECT, will be held online from June 3 - June 29, 2018. Online course opens on June 3rd and continues through June 29, 2018 -the course platform that will provide resources, assignments and continuous opportunities for participation. Live course sessions are held on Tuesdays, June 5, 12, 19, 26 from 12 - 1.30 pm. Weekly live open engagement sessions will be scheduled based [...]
At pivotal moments throughout history, technological innovation triggers massive social and cultural transformation. Apparently unrelated developments, which had been gradually unfolding for years, suddenly converge to create changes that are as disruptive as they are creative. We are currently living in a moment of extraordinary complexity when systems and structures that have long organized life are changing at an unprecedented rate. Such rapid and pervasive change creates the need to develop new ways of understanding the world and of interpreting [...]
Artists. Hearing the word artist conjures a myriad of ideas, assumptions and perspectives about artists. Each of us has our own understanding of what an artist is and does based on our experiences, education and feelings. Part of why people have many perspectives on what artists do, how they do it and ultimately who they are is because artists have the capacity to hold tension (opposing views) since they are taught to see differing perspectives in a non-judgemental way - [...]
