Jean Russell Talks About Thrivability

Wild and Precious Conversations

Invited to have a conversation about the book “The Dawn of Everything”, Jean Russell did her level best to stay on topic. :) I did not help, mostly because her life’s work on Thrivability is so compelling.

A brief introduction of Jean: She has been passionate about co-creating a more thrivable world since 2007. <= How cool is that?!?

What I find intriguing is that she works as a social technologist and innovator.

Here, from her official bio, is what that kind of looks like: “Organizational development and operations in numerous startups and social enterprises. For example, Jean acted as project lead for the *Holo* ICO, which raised 30,000 ETH (valued at $22M at that time).”And here: “In 2016 with Herman Wagter, she published *Cultivating Flows: How Ideas Become Thriving Organizations*, which explored, with leading edge practitioners, what patterns enable healthy emergence. In 2013, Jean published *Thrivability: Breaking Through to a World That Works*, also with Triarchy Press.”

She has received appropriate accolades for her work and has been highlighted in places such as The Economist, Harvard Business Review, and Stanford Social Innovation Review.And also she is a lot of fun.

2:30 — I mention the idea of compost, which kind of bookends our conversation.

8:39 — Evolution is discussed, including the Open Tree of Life which I failed to get right in the podcast but just looked it up… and Jean mentions the book, “The Survival of the Friendliest”

13:10 — How do we go from survival to thriving?

18:54 — The idea of coherence is entered into…

22:15 — The creativity of humans

26:22 — The Three human rights mentioned in The Dawn of Everything

29:30 — We’re stuck…how did we get stuck.

33:29 — Back to compost.

Notes:

Jean’s LinkedIn

Underbelly Website

Underbelly Project began in November 2019 when, frustrated by certain aspects of modern culture, I began to daydream a world I wanted to be a part of. And, as one does (does one?), I began searching domain names that expressed my intention.

{Quick Note: domain names are like poetry, aren’t they?}

Underbel.li was born — literally from my underbelly. My deepest, most vulnerable, unspoken desire for what I want to see more of in the world.

Because these desires answer the question Mary Oliver asked: “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” I began naming the stuff that was born from Underbelly “Wild + Precious”

Visit the project at Underbel.li

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