Enough!
Enough of the imbalance that is destroying our democracies, our planet, and ourselves. We require a form of radical renewal unprecedented in the human experience.We have to leave behind the divisive politics of left versus right, to realize that a healthy society balances a public sector of respected governments with a private sector of responsible businesses and a plural sector of robust communities.
from Rebalancing Society: Radical Renewal, Beyond Left, Right and Center
by Henry Mintzberg
CoachingOurselves offers free, interactive public events to engage you in Rebalancing Society. Change begins not with “them” but with each of us and all of us. We need to collectively create constructive practices in the organizations where we work and the communities where we live.
This is an incredible opportunity to meet others from around the world, share ideas, and generate energy for action. While our challenges are many, the possibilities are endless, so let’s get started.
These are free (2hr+) interactive events on Zoom with Henry Mintzberg. Meet participants from around the world and reflect on what you can do, individually and together, to move us towards balance. Please register for the next free event:
How does a Rebalancing Society event work?
After a brief introduction and group orientation, you will spend 90 minutes with a small group of participants (4-5) from around the globe in a Zoom breakout room. We provide groups with a CoachingOurselves discussion guide on Rebalancing Society written by Henry Mintzberg introducing Henry’s model of how to create change across five levels of society, from personal to planet.
Henry joins for the latter part of the session to continue the discussion and reflections with the larger group. After the session our team analyzes the ideas generated. We compare the ideas generated with those generated during previous sessions and share these insights with participants.
To learn more about the Rebalancing Society vision please visit https://rebalancingsociety.org/ and follow on Instagram: @RebalancingSociety
Below: The Google Jamboard introduction page of people who participated in the August, 2020 Rebalancing Society event. This event was sponsored by N2NHub and Corporate Rebels, and was in support of the Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation in Vietnam. This charitable foundation rescues children from sex trafficking, forced labor, and slavery and then provides shelter, education and employment.
We look forward to seeing you at the next event. Please be sure to share this with any friends or colleagues who may be interested. Let’s start a movement!
If you would like information about running a Rebalancing Society event in your organization so your people can reflect on the role your organization could play towards rebalancing society, contact us at info@coachingourselves.com
The Declaration of our Interdependence
For two centuries, the American Declaration of Independence served as the model to grow democracy. Now our world has reached the limits of growth driven by the pursuit of individual rights at the expense of shared responsibilities. Faced with the threats of warming, weapons, waste, and the lopsided distribution of wealth, we must declare our interdependence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created dependent—on each other, our earth, and its climate—endowed with the inalienable responsibility to maintain justice, liberty, and affiliation for all. Thus our societies must sustain balance across public sector governments that are respected, private sector businesses that are responsible, and plural sector communities that are robust.
Resolution 1: Balance begins when each of us decides how we shall become part of the solution. By doing nothing, we remain part of the problem.
Resolution 2: We advance to action in our communities, networked to consolidate a global movement for peaceful reformation.
Resolution 3: We commit to the ideals of social conscience, fair trade, and good government, to replace the dogma of imbalance—that greed is good, markets are sufficient, and governments are suspect. We explore our human resourcefulness by resisting our exploitation as human resources.
Resolution 4: We build worthy institutions in all three sectors of society—departments in government, enterprises in business, associations in communities—from the ground up, with widespread engagement that carries individual leadership into collective communityship.
Resolution 5: At the tables of public policy, we strive to replace the compromises of self-interest with the coalescing of common interest.
Resolution 6: We challenge the rampant corruption that is legal as vigorously as we expect our governments to prosecute the overt corruption that is criminal.
Resolution 7: Sustainable global balance requires substantial global government. We call on all democratic nations to rally for lasting peace, by containing any power that aims to dominate while holding economic globalization in its place, namely the marketplace.
These resolutions require concerted action, not by centrally orchestrated planning so much as through a groundswell of initiatives by concerned citizens the world over, to restrain our worst tendencies while encouraging our best. For the future of our planet and our progeny, this is the time to get our collective act together.
As one people indivisible under one big sky, we pledge to defend balance in this priceless world.
