The Anti-Fragile Playbook – Détails, épisodes et analyse

As shared in prior podcasts; the Anti-Fragile approach begins with a virtual community as a low-cost, light-weight method for establishing a beachhead, and leverages revenues generated as well as community engagement to accelerate the acquisition of any physical amenities that the community may define as necessary to community growth.

And consistent with Anti-Fragile best practices: community engagement itself is accelerated through activation of various forms of soft capital (as briefly illustrated in this short video), inclusive to time, attention, relationship, and trust capitals, which reduces the necessity to secure upfront hard capital to “buy” people’s time and engagement.

The result is a low-cost entry that begins virtually, designed to reach those who are in a state of outrage, so they might transition into lasting stewardship, through step-by-step action.

Kent Dahlgren (of 214 Alpha) created this brief introductory video about Bene Esse to share the story, we also discuss it on the most recent podcast and in this Medium article written by Kent. An added bonus is that both Ruth Glendinning's company (Future Story Lab) and 214 Alpha have developed a 'copy and paste' franchise model that can be customized to the land owner's existing revenue streams, as illustrated in this brief “behind the scenes” video.

Existing landowners stand to gain the following benefits:

• Recurring revenue with minimal liability
• Mobile and portable; a minimal dependency upon fixed infrastructure
• Reduction in costs (such as tax breaks)
• Greater power autonomy and improved soil quality
• Creating a legacy of opportunity for others

In this manner, a small disciplined team of community activists might negotiate with existing landowners to address the root conditions of generational poverty and trauma by delivering upon a mutually-beneficial model designed to both elevate the value of existing land while creating the basis of growing generational wealth, which strengthens our connections to our roots.

The reason for creating this very podcast is to discuss the creation of a playbook that would help people apply Anti-Fragile principles to community design, so they might realize benefits in a manner inversely proportional to declining conditions.

The worse things become, the more an Anti-Fragile solution realizes benefit.

The book is centered around the creation and launch of a living laboratory in the same community where Ruth Glendinning and Kent Dahlgren reside, and that community is calibrated to the local watershed, which is named Tannehill.

The team has used the Community Activation and Launch Methodology on themselves, and the team have navigated the first six steps, which has brought them to "launch."

And so as the Tannehill living laboratory begins socializing its vision and its plan, as well as enlisting participants, the Anti-Fragile team has been able to pivot to discussing how anti-fragile principles might be of benefit to related domains.

In this podcast Ruth and Kent discuss a product Ruth designed called S.P.R.O.U.T., as well as a application of the S.P.R.O.U.T. product called "Bene Esse," which is Latin for "well being."

The S.P.R.O.U.T. Anti-Fragile plan for real estate ownership aspires to deliver benefit to the property owner, relative to declining economic and ecological conditions, consistent with the principles of Anti-Fragility.

Sound product design follows this same framework:

• Who is the target?
• Why does this matter to them?
• What is the solution?
• How does it work?
  

In this podcast Ruth and Kent discuss "who" might be interested in this plan (property owners and public policymakers), and "why" it matters to them.

They introduced a few key performance indicators (KPIs) which would help quantify and qualify their progress, as well as "what" elements are critical to the plan, and they follow up with a couple of high-level examples of "how" the plan works, which will be elaborated upon further in a future episode.

With a respectful tip of the hat in honor of activist Zilphia Horton, the title of this episode speaks to how one might harness an ember's kinetic potential, use its heat to rekindle the hearth, and its light to serve as a beacon, so others might find a way home, within a spirit of forgiveness and redemption.

While the original hymn proclaimed "this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!," within this anti-fragile model, the "me" is transformed into "we."

Ruth and Kent are creating an Anti-Fragile Playbook; a step-by-step guide for those seeking to deliver a self-funded economic revival that addresses the root causes of generational poverty and trauma.

An anti-fragile system benefits from hardship and stress, which means the model improves even as things become worse, and in this podcast series it's been discussed how a step-by-step plan has been defined (following the Community Activation and Launch Methodology as a baseline framework) for igniting a rooted community activation that thrives in the context of difficulty.

Examples include:

- intentionally source and activate existing local leadership (rather than rely upon "experts" from outside the community)

- educate community members as "kitchen table capitalists" or "household entrepreneurs," optimizing productive capacity to tapping into existing fonts of great creative potential

- identify and activate soft capitals like time, attention, relationship, trust and wisdom for stronger communities - the foundation of any thriving gift economy)

- promote a philosophy of inclusivity for all, such as the economically disadvantaged, explicitly the houseless, single parents and the racially diverse, through a philosophy of otherhood to brotherhood

- promoting locally-sourced food and nutritional educational opportunities for expanding health as wealth

Because the authors of the AntiFragile Playbook are using themselves as test subjects, (igniting and launching a pilot community), the Anti-Fragile Playbook is continuing its continued evolution and improvement, and consistent with the Anti-Fragile Playbook: one activist became two, and soon afterwards were joined by a third to create a sustained grass-roots advocacy.

As the three (Ruth, Trudy, and Kent) continued to synthesize the model, they found that they've irresistibly attracted two additional persons (as well as a growing number of client communities), and so the "administrative committee" now numbers five, all serving as peers.

In this discussion, Ruth Glendinning and Kent Dahlgren share their direct experience with this "point of inflection" (from three to five), referencing various pertinent examples from adjacent domains, such as activism, parenting, management, and mentorship.

Ruth and Kent discuss how to curate an authentic sense of ownership, shared attribution, and stewardship, through a nuanced and subtle application of wisdom, and provide examples of why Ruth, Trudy, and Kent invest so deeply in broadening and deepening an investment among those typically described as the elderly: the value of wisdom capital is transcendent to that of ordinary money.

The Gordian Knot is a legend associated with Alexander the Great, and is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem solved by finding an approach to the problem that renders moot the problem's perceived constraints.

Legend holds that Alexander the Great "solved" the knot by simply using his sword to cut it, and for generations and as it pertains to execution, the use of kinetic violence has passed for wisdom, typically the bigger the better.

But what if there were such a thing as a knot made of a material that resists cutting?

And what if the knot itself were contrived in such a manner that attempts to sever its cords through violent means only made it stronger?

Finally, how do we solve this "knot" while juggling all the other things in our already busy lives? Kids, families, work, personal life, etc? 

Discussed: how does one fix a truck while it continues driving, so to speak?

In this discussion, Ruth Glendinning (Founder, Future Story Lab) and Kent Dahlgren (CEO, 214 Alpha) describe a third way, rooted in real-world examples, and deliver an easy-to-remember recipe for high-functioning "holons" (small, autonomous teams), using language widely understood across industries, domains, and cultures, summarized as:

1. Create a core "holon" of three complementary personality types
2. Declare and maintain a singleness of purpose
3. Invest in the regular, ongoing creation and maintenance of a shared work product through brief "sprints" or releases
4. Philosophies and beliefs (various)

Ruth Glendinning and Kent Dahlgren have defined a novel, anti-fragile solution for community impact organizations (such as non-profits, churches, mutual aid organizations) to secure a lucrative stream of recurring revenue that deepens and roots these institutions within community.

Community impact organizations deliver a "buy and produce local" marketplace that enables "household entrepreneurs" to launch a home-based microbusiness as easily as creating a listing, and enables "kitchen table capitalists" to utilize the services of a self-funded "community impact co-op" that helps their endeavors launch, sustain, and thrive.

More to the point: the emphasis upon "anti-fragility" means the community's solution thrives in the context of increased stress.

How?

In this podcast episode, Ruth and Kent discuss how they've quantified the following attributes of community anti-fragility within their own community pilot, as well as how these same attributes are being embraced within other communities:

• The solution sources and activates existing local leadership
• It educates community members as kitchen table capitalists or household entrepreneurs, optimizing household productive capacity
• It identifies and activates forms of soft capital such as: (investing) time, (paying) attention, (building) relationships, (earning) trust and (tapping into) wisdom for stronger and more rooted communities
• The solution explicitly declares an inclusivity for all, such as the economically disadvantaged, the houseless, single parents and the racially diverse, through a philosophy of otherhood to brotherhood
• And the anti-fragile methodology promotes locally-sourced food and nutritional educational opportunities for expanding health as wealth

In one noteworthy example, Kent and Ruth discuss Cloud Room Botanicals, which serves as an excellent example of creative, household-based entrepreneurship.

Finally, they discuss the Community Activation and Launch Methodology, which steps local activists from outrage to stewardship, through action.

A basket cannot be woven but from the bottom-up. So it is with our communities, rooted inside the home, for if we lose the home, we lose the community.

Thus begins a discussion opening with a reference to 'Braiding Sweetgrass' by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and seamlessly merges with guidance on how to define and maintain a management-friendly report card that quantifies progress, through the following three lenses:

• Economic justice (create opportunities for every person to have a dignified, productive and creative life that extends beyond simple economics)
• Social justice (the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society)
• Restorative justice (a system of criminal justice that focuses on the rehabilitation of offenders through reconciliation with victims and their community)

Imagine that as an activist you are called upon to define a "neighborhood revival plan," and are expected to provide quantitative reporting regarding current state, projected priorities, and project status to an executive-level governing body.

In our model for anti-fragility, the neighborhoods of a city or town would be split into discrete communities numbering no more than 1,000-1,200 citizens, inclusive to those who are houseless. Over the course of 12 months, they progress through three phases:

• Buy local first
• Stimulate local producers
• Source inventory from within the community

Leveraging best practices from private industry, inclusive to the manufacturing and security industries, Ruth Glendinning and Kent Dahlgren introduce the use of a maturity model for triaging a community's evolving state, through the lens of aspired anti-fragility, and describe how the maturity model could serve as a lens for connecting high-level to "in the streets" project management reporting.

A maturity model is a tool that aids in the assessment of a community’s current state of effectiveness and the determination of which capabilities they need to improve, and in their design, this three-lens maturity model helps community activists rapidly evaluate, report upon, and prioritize services.

Visual aid: this illustration is referenced during this podcast episode.

About a decade ago "attorney, alchemist, and activist" M. Renée Orth was seized with the conviction of rightness as she received a vision: how to optimize capitalism such that it can be leveraged as a tool (rather than a weapon) to transform the present exploitive and extractive system to one rooted in the sacredness of life.

With substantially applicable legal experience under her belt, Renée first set out to deliver her vision by authoring a book - Conspiracy of Dreamers: Capitalism at the Service of Humanity. Kent will tell you it's a worthy investment and an engaging read.

In the decade hence, Renée has been busy putting her words into action, which reveals her vision as nearly prescient, considering the current economic and cultural conditions.

Renée has helped launch the Stone Soup Collective, whose mission is to “align the efforts of the Lowcountry to nourish our community through a buy one, give one plant-based soup collective.” Additionally, she is in the midst of launching Chrysalis Forest - an eco-monastery which aspires to "emphasize a gifting economy rather than a transactional, commodified one, contributing our unique gifts to the creation of a more just, sustainable and vital world and supporting others to do the same, and achieving a higher understanding of others through conscious empathy, humanism, and rejection of simplistic attributions."

Clearly, Renée is all about execution in alignment of her vision, and in this episode, Ruth Glendinning and Kent Dahlgren listen as she describes her journey, her values, her inspirations, and her intended path forward.

Ruth Glendinning, Kent Dahlgren, and Trudy Martinez are bringing forth an Anti-Fragile Playbook; a step-by-step guide for those seeking to deliver a self-funded economic revival that addresses the root causes of generational poverty and trauma, and are concurrently launching a "living laboratory" launched within their own neighborhood.

And this week, a "once a generation snowstorm" demonstrated the merit of the anti-fragile model, accelerating the project dramatically, thanks to an explicit embrace and investment in various forms of soft capital.

Let's elaborate upon this just a little, because it's important.

The Anti-Fragile Wealth Production Model delivers a self-funded economic stimulus, using money that normally remains "under the table," and activating locally-sourced leadership to eventually deliver social services ordinarily expected from centralized governments, inclusive to:

• Childcare (co-op)
• Health care (co-op)
• Basic income (co-op)
• Earn and learn vocational education 
• Assistance launching and sustaining home-based business

But close to the ground, where it's of greatest value and addressing the greatest need, utilizing a model that dramatically offsets operating expenses, using an innovative micro-economy that rewards the community for buying and producing locally.

There's a reason we've chosen to invest in a foundation of anti-fragility, vs mere resiliency: resilient systems maintain current state, but an anti-fragile system is one that profits from external and internal stresses that would bring an insufficiently resilient system to its knees.

It's for this reason Ruth and Kent have invested so deeply in an explicit embrace of various forms of soft capital, which boasts a value transcendent of forms of hard capital (normally known as money).

Therefore, when the system came to a standstill, and a deterioration of top-down services resulted in a humanitarian disaster, the anti-fragile "living laboratory" evolved quickly.

Is this communism?

No, as discussed in a prior podcast, and detailed in an accompanying article.

This podcast challenges you to rethink the co-op. 

It's not just some hippy thing, and within the Anti-Fragile Wealth Production Engine, it's not the same as "the REI Co-op," which is little more than a marketing program which biases rewards to the most loyal customers.

Imagine a neighborhood co-op where benefits might include:

• assistance launching and sustaining a home-based microbusiness that could help generate $400/month in additional revenue
• vocational educational services designed to help these same microbusinesses expand their operations (and revenue)
• access to local and high-trust child care
• access to low-cost and high-quality health care (1/3 the cost of ACA, without the need to disclose pre-existing conditions)
• basic income (for those in need)

Imagine: instead of making a living, you can make a life.

Wait, is this communism?

As discussed in this Podcast, and detailed in this article: no, it is not.

In this episode, Ruth Glendinning and Kent Dahlgren describe how private-sector best practices, existing technology, and currently-available wisdom capital can activate some extremely innovative solutions that will reinvigorate our communities, from the ground-up.

There’s plenty of reasons to be upset, but remaining in a state of outrage isn’t going to change a thing, and while it's important to eventually move out of outrage towards a solution, don't forget your roots! 

Because remember: the deeper you root, the higher you rise!

Ruth Glendinning, Kent Dahlgren, and Trudy Martinez are creating an Anti-Fragile Wealth Production pilot within their own neighborhood, and this week expanded their small circle to a fourth: a receptive neighbor. 

As discussed in this episode; the results were impressive, electrifying, and infectious, laying the foundation towards the second step of the Community Activation and Launch Methodology (C.A.L.M.): Vision.

As you move out of planning and begin to socialize your vision with others, it's important to use your outrage to light the way to root the solution in why your vision is important, which unlocks the "keystone capitals" of:

• Attention capital 
• Relationship capital
• Time capital
• Trust capital
• Wisdom capital

These five keystone capitals were discussed in a prior podcast episode, and unlocking these forms of soft capital will bring forward unexpected complexity that enriches your investment in neighborhood economics.

What are "keystone capitals?" 

Well, think about keystone species within an ecosystem: "a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend, such that if it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically." 

For example, squirrels spend the entire summer and fall burying nuts and seeds in preparation for the winter months, but they don't actually keep track or remember precisely where they've buried the food; their survival strategy is contingent upon how much food is buried.

There are obviously a broad variety of inadvertent beneficiaries: the squirrels not only feed a large number of other species, they also plant seeds necessary to ensure new tree growth, as alluded to in a recent article by Ruth.

So too it is within our communities, our neighborhoods, and our own households.