By Lia Aurami for Enlivening Edge Magazine
This is our 50th Editorial! We have completed 100 months of continuous publishing! High fives with all of the dozens of wonderful people who were and are dedicated to bringing you news from the r-evolution in organizations happening worldwide since the 2014 publication of Frederic Laloux’s book Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations from the Next Stage of Human Consciousness. It has now been translated into 19 languages, sold over 800,000 copies worldwide, and is available in many formats, including multiple translations of the Illustrated (simpler) version.
We at Enlivening Edge see the whole planet as experiencing an evolution in consciousness. It’s a wave of expanded awareness and care showing up in all arenas of life, including organizations. Ultimately, we are in service to that wave.
Forgive the switch in metaphor from water to fire, but Laloux’s book fell like a spark on dry leaves, igniting a bonfire of “YES to this NEW” in many hearts, minds, lives, organizations, and countries. Enlivening Edge was created to connect those sparks into an even larger fire that would warm and fuel those ready to evolve. Our DNA is to increase connectivity among consciousness-innovators in organizations.
Here in this 50th Editorial we celebrate our other numbers:
- 1398 articles starting in July 2015, from 42 countries
- 200 authors of original articles for Enlivening Edge Magazine
- Our latest offering of a space to connect: Enlivening Edge Community Hub, a full-featured online community
- 164 semi-monthly Community Conversations via Zoom (now renamed Deepening Our Resonance Conversations, now for Hub members only) since that offering began in November 2016, sparked by Will Van Inwagen, including 53 invited storytellers of their own next-stage journey
- 1 book Adventures in Reinventing Work: Tales of Pioneers from Around the World co-created with a team from Teal Around the World Conference in 2021
- 3 in a new series of Special Collections of articles, curated lists on special topics. We have tags, and the Special Collections are on broad topics not represented by tags. Special Collections make the riches of knowledge in our article archives more easily visible and usable.
- 2 conference tracks curated on Teal Organizations for the 2016 and the 2018 Integral European Conference
How Enlivening Edge has matured in eight years
We celebrate our internal maturing: The continual evolution of our internal systems, including our practices of Holacracy (since September 2015) and of walking our talk on the never-ending journey of maturing as a Teal organization such as making plenty of internal space for sharing our wholeness.
We also evolved our statement of Evolutionary Purpose, a long and complex process that matured us internally through the self-examination involved. Perhaps that’s the most significant way we matured. Our direction for what’s next for us comes from discovering who we are, who we are not, and what is and is not ours to do in contributing to a better world
It’s easy to perceive Enlivening Edge as fundamentally having an educational function: helping innovators discover new ways of working, and become smarter, even become living examples of a new consciousness. And in fact we do those things through our Magazine authors, so we are somewhat like those consultants, teachers, coaches, mentors who are abundantly available for the innovators within organizations.
Far more deeply, however, who we are and what is ours to do, is increasing the connectedness of individuals and groups within the budding ecosystem of next-stage organizational innovators, wiring up the global brain, we might say. We especially recommend Special Collection #2, Editor’s Favorite Editorials, which helps in understanding our unique Evolutionary Purpose, as well as pointing to our most meaning-rich, often-quoted, or original-thinking Editorials.
Rather than directly be a resource for organizational innovators, our function is to enable them to become resources for each other.
From the first Editorial through many others, we have reiterated this self-awareness of Enlivening Edge. The temptation to do what is not ours to do has been strong through the years, both from internal and external pressures. It has taken a strong will to stay on course, and we rejoice in our success!
As a result, what is ours to do going forward, as Enlivening Edge, is a function of our ecosystem and thus is co-created to meet your needs for increasing connections, leading to synergistic relationships.
We celebrate our “social” maturing: more and more friendships and synergistic partnerships with other organizations and groups in the still-budding social ecosystem. One of our most significant Editorials was our description of what a next-stage inter-organizational partnership is like, how it’s different from mutual benefit and even from co-creation. The vision from our friends at Sociocracy for All is quite aligned with our description.)
We celebrate our financial and legal maturing: For over 6 years we functioned as a group of friends who all worked as volunteers, relying on donations to pay the bills. It took us several years invent a new version of LLC legal structure for ourselves and officially launch Enlivening Edge LLC in June 2021. Now we have embarked on our first revenue-producing offering: the Enlivening Edge Community Hub. Not only is the community functioning, it is a living example of the three Teal-organization breakthroughs (wholeness, Evolutionary Purpose, and self-management.)
We celebrate the maturing of our impact in the world: many current influential innovators tell us they have been inspired, supported, strengthened, and made collectively wiser and more intelligent, through what EE has provided them. Some of today’s leaders say they “grew up with” Enlivening Edge Magazine as their source of learning from others, inspiration, and valuable relationships. Our maturation has been their maturation, also.
What Bold Future Are We Creating?
As one of our best Editorials notes, the only “new normal” for what’s next is change itself. Riding the planetary wave of increasing consciousness, we remain dedicated, even consecrated, to fostering changes that are evolutionary advances, for humans and for our planet. That includes very importantly helping you and us learn more effective ways to leverage change into evolution.
Our joy is serving you and thus the world. We operate in an “Indra’s Net” of mutual supportive flow. We regard our work as sacred. It’s a time on Planet Earth now when each and every person is being called to boldly step into the reality of their own highest vision for their life, which will benefit all. For us at Enlivening Edge, that would include
- With eager partners from many countries, co-creating the actual formation and functioning of a global social ecosystem of organizations, endeavors, and networks operating in “the next stage of human consciousness”
- Publishing our magazine bubbling with meaningful, generative interactions of authors and readers
- Stewarding and co-creating our Community Hub where ever-increasing numbers of next-stage organizational innovators discover each other. It’s an inspiring, supportive place that generates collaborative, co-creative, and synergistic relationships
- Finding one or two perfect-for-us Partners for whom Enlivening Edge is the perfect place to express their life purpose, abundantly supported by financial and other resources flowing in ever-increasing amounts
- Enjoying and co-creating ever-deepening particular friendships with other organizations with whom we engage in impactful specific projects for the benefit of all
We’d love to hear what is YOUR “Highest Commitment,” YOUR boldest vision. There’s a group in the Hub for members to do that, or leave a comment below. Let’s fuel our selves and one another, with this milestone celebration!
How could you co-create our ability to support you? Here are some ways:
- Call our attention to articles we can republish, or write an article
- Subscribe to our Magazine and share the articles around to support your colleagues
- Become an active co-creative member of Enlivening Edge Community Hub. Give yourself the incredible benefit of this always-open space. You can interact in a variety of ways and generate high-quality relationships, with peers as dedicated as you are.
- As a Hub member, experience our “magical belonging space” of Community Conversations now called Deepening Our Resonance Conversations.
- Tell your audience, network, friends, and colleagues who might not have heard of us. Share what value you find in EE’s offerings. At eight years old, we’re still a “best kept secret.”
Sparkler Photo by Oskars Sylwan on Unsplash
Child Photo by 童 彤 on Unsplash
Network Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Featured Image Photo by Kendall Scott on Unsplash
