By Lia Aurami for Enlivening Edge Magazine
The famous Mahatma Gandhi said that every movement needs a newsletter. He knew a thing or two about movements that successfully reinvent entire societies. After all, he helped free India from British rule through a non-violent movement.
Gandhi knew that a social movement is composed of individual people and groups. Nowadays we might think of a movement as a collective brain, with individuals and groups as neurons. We know that the more neurons a brain has, and the more connections and communications those neurons have with each other, the more intelligent the brain is. A more intelligent brain’s chosen actions in the world are likely to be more powerful in their effect.
Gandhi knew there were scattered, isolated groups and individuals who were in fact yearning for and working towards much the same changes, but unaware of each other.
He envisioned a newsletter as a channel for them to first discover each other. Then, to learn about each other, to share stories, to become inspired by another’s passions, to learn from their experience. Then to actually contact each other and begin communicating which would in turn lead to collaborating, cooperating, and synergy.
When this happens, such individuals and groups increase the connectivity in the collective “brain” they are forming.
Gandhi also sensed that such connectivity would lead to social change on a massive scale, beyond what any individuals or groups (or even networks) could affect on their own. This change would occur naturally, through an inevitable sequence of connectivity at increasing scales and with increasing social effects. And it would unavoidably amplify collective intelligence and empowerment.
And that brings me to you, dear reader. I am sure you already care deeply about improving society through acting “locally,” in your organization. So, why should you care about what others like you are doing far away?
Because you care about having an impact larger than your organization?
Imagine a global newsletter for societal changemakers who want to connect with like-minded and like-hearted others yearning to reinvent work, business, and organizations. This is what sparked the creation of Enlivening Edge’s four main expressions of our Evolutionary Purpose: EE Magazine, EE Community Conversations, EE Facebook Community, and EE’s Event Calendar. (Update 2023 the Community Conversations are in the new Community Hub, and the Calendar is discontinued.) We are purposed to offer ongoing opportunities for individuals and groups to form connections. You might say we regard ourselves as weavers.
This is what gets us up in the mornings. This is why we spend time pouring our passion into this newsletter-becoming-magazine-becoming-connectivity-hub of “the Enlivening Edge.” This, in addition to everything else we do in our lives!
Since November, we’ve been especially focused on connecting our far-flung fellow (r)evolutionaries. Look over the articles about China, Brazil, and Venezuela now or in our Magazine Highlights when it’s published on our site. That focus will continue through February. Follow us as we invite, gather, and share stories from “the rest of the world.”
”The rest of the world?”
Most of the readers and contributors to EE Magazine, as well as people who participate in EE Community Conversations and Facebook Group, are from Europe and North America. It’s easy for such folks to feel a subtle arrogance, as though we have a mission to bring the rest of the world up to our level.
What if we have a
lot to learn from others? What if more is happening elsewhere than meets the eye? Wouldn’t you want to know?
Here at EE we feel a urgency to invite, gather, and share the stories of organizational changemakers in every corner of the globe. To help you become aware of each other. To help you connect, communicate, collaborate, and synergize your way into a more intelligent, coherent force for better lives for everyone everywhere.
Yes, you. We’re calling you.
Get in touch and send us your story, especially if you are in “the rest of the world,” in Africa, Asia, Australia, or South America.
What groups or initiatives do you know in these places? Tell them about us. Invite them to contact us and share their own stories.
While our invitation is open forever, if you RSVP early in January, you will contribute to our 22nd Magazine cycle, which ends in February.
Oh, and we’re also inviting you, if you feel inspired, to co-create global connections through EE. The movement not only needs you, but it also provides you with rich opportunities to accelerate your own development, as you help Enlivening Edge to enliven more people, organizations, and social systems. Delightful colleagues and meaningful work, await you!
You can immediately co-create increasing connectivity through donations, and through sharing links for our articles to your friends and colleagues. We’d also deeply appreciate your comments on articles you love here. Connecting readers with authors is the name of the game for EE Magazine!
Lia Aurami: Within Enlivening Edge, I energize a variety of roles to express my sacred life mission: to amplify our human capacity for living, working, and relating within shared higher consciousness. That optimizes the chances of success of transformative changes, by operationalizing collective and spiritual intelligence to help organizations be efficient and effective. I delight in creating and amplifying synergistic connections toward all that!
