Regenerative Economic Systems for Tomorrow’s Partnership World with Scott Morris

From economic instability to climate disasters, our current systems often fail to meet communities’ most basic needs—but it doesn’t have to be this way. In this episode of The Power of Partnership Podcast, regenerative economics expert Scott Morris shares how place-based, partnership-driven economic systems can help communities create safety nets, strengthen resilience, and thrive beyond crisis. Drawing from years of global work in community currencies, mutual aid, and decentralized finance, Scott offers practical tools like the Value Flow Compass and the Agile Impact Model to help local leaders design transparent, collaborative systems that keep resources circulating where they’re needed most.  

SHOWNOTES:
SUPPORT THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP PODCAST (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2207697/support)

Prefer to watch? You can also view all episodes of The Power of Partnership Podcast on the Center for Partnership Systems YouTube channel

Scott Morris (https://thetokenjedi.com/)

The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics, Riane Eisler (https://centerforpartnership.org/resources/books/the-real-wealth-of-nations-creating-a-caring-economics/)

Bernard Lietaer (https://bernard-lietaer.org/)

Shareable: Share More, Live Better (Shareable.net)

The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future, Riane Eisler (https://centerforpartnership.org/resources/books/the-chalice-and-the-blade-our-history-our-future/)

The Power of Partnership: Seven Relationships that will Change Your Life, Riane Eisler (https://centerforpartnership.org/resources/books/the-power-of-partnership/)

Center for Partnership Systems (https://centerforpartnership.org/)

center@partnershipway.org

Center for Partnership "Join Us" email link  

Resilience, Rising Appalachia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx17RvPMaQ8

Transcript

00;00;20;22 - 00;00;24;07
Welcome
to the Power of Partnership podcast.

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I’m Riane Eisler, President of the Center
for Partnership Systems.

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This podcast brings you voices

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from the partnership movement,

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people using partnership practices

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to build a world that values caring

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nature and shared prosperity.

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The Power of Partnership podcast

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is hosted by Cherri Jacobs Pruitt,

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a Health Policy and Partnership scholar.

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Today Cherri interviews Scott Morris,

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a proud graduate of our very first Caring

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Economics Leadership Program co-hort

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who has since become, quote,

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The Token Jedi, end of quote

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a globally recognized expert

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in regenerative economic systems

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to create more caring and resilient

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communities across the world.

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And now on to today's PoP podcast.

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Well, welcome,
Scott, to the Power of Partnership podcast

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on behalf of Riane Eisler and the entire
Center for Partnership Systems team,

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we want to thank you for joining our show
and sharing your information today

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about the power that placed-based
regenerative economic systems have on

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helping communities across the world build

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prosperity and resilience.

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So, before we start with my asking you
to share a bit about your journey

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leading you to become known
internationally as the Token Jedi,

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can you share a little bit
with our audience about what

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what are place-based regenerative
economic systems and why is this

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such a critically important conversation
for us to be having today?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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So place-based
regeneration is something that we're,

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you know, most people
just call common sense, to be honest.

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You know, we we live in a very globalized,

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and fragile economic system.

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And a lot of people are realizing that,
you know,

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trusting the legacy systems
that have created

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a lot of these preconditions
and globalized supply chains, etc.,

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just can't be trusted with caring

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about us in times of need.

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So what got me on this kick in

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the first place
was the great financial crisis in 2008.

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My family was hit pretty hard by that.

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We lost our family business,
we lost our home.

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And this is just as I'm,

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you know, graduating from college
and going to grad school.

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And, I had found myself,

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looking at, you know, the global
financial system and global

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financial institutions
and, realizing that

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they weren't what I was taught,

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you know, on face value as a child.

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And, that when emergencies hit,

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they left a lot to be desired

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as far as taking care of regular
people's needs.

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And so I wanted to know,
what are the systems that we can

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organize and work
with, to provide that safety

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and security for ourselves
in those emergency conditions, especially.

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And so that got me into a field
known as community currencies.

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This is it's funny
to be doing this interview with you and,

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the Center for Partnership Studies now,
because I was at the very beginning

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of my trajectory
when I did the Caring Economy

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Leadership Program
course with Riane back in 2010.

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And so that was while I was organizing
my very first community currency pilot.

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So we're, like, really
bookending my career here in this space.

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So it was really about,

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okay, what are the real things
that we need to take care of, right?

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People need to eat.

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People need to, you know, have shelter.

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And, you know, kids need to be educated.

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All of our basic needs are right there.

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And typically, we're capable of providing
for those things ourselves.

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But the the system gets in the way, right?

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And, especially in these emergency
conditions, and a financial crash.

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The way that is working is not normal.

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And we can't rely on it
to even meet those needs.

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And we can see this in real time, right.

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As of the time of this recording.

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We've just had Hurricane Helene
go and rip a hole through the southeast

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of the country, right.

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That you can see from space.

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In terms of all of the power
outages and whatnot.

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You know, not to mention
the other disasters that are

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going on around the country
and around the world.

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And so it's really important
to give consideration to what are,

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our safety nets.

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Right, for when things get really bad.

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And that's what kind of got me into
placed-based regeneration, right?

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That really just means working together
at the community level

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to ensure that we're going to be able

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to take care of our own
needs in times of emergency.

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But also, you know,

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in times that we would normally consider
like normal or fine

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we can all feel the weight of capitalism
pressing down on us.

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And wouldn't it be nice
if we had real alternatives, right.

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That could help us meet our
needs and go beyond that

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even while that system continues
to collapse, right?

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From when I first

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came into contact with Riane’s
work to now,

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it has gotten worlds worse
than you know we could have ever dreamt.

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You know, here we may sit very well
on the precipice of World War three.

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Who knows?

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It's, it's,
unfortunately interesting times, right?

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In a very literal sense.

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So that that, you know,

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what it means in
other terminology is like mutual aid.

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Time banking, community currencies, 
all kinds of, like,

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economic support networks,

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like child care networks, etc..

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That we that
that we tend to invent out of necessity

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in communities all around the world.

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And you can see these things
already there.

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And so what I've found myself
doing is just kind of cataloging

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what are the different kinds
of these things,

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and then creating that in a more of a menu

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format for organizers on the ground,
so that, you know, when you cause

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when you realize,  you kind of
wake up out of the matrix, if you will.

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You know, like, oh, wow.

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Yeah.

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Like this system that we're relying
on, like it is, it is not meeting

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our needs whatsoever.

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It leads it leads us to even greater

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realms of neglect and destruction.

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We need to have backup systems, right?

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And other ways
of coordinating our resources.

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So, yeah,

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I think that was one of the things
that was missing from my early

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experience as an activist in this space
was just knowing what the options are,

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you know, and knowing how to organize
those things most effectively.

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And not to fall into the trap of,
you know, what I like to call silver

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bullet thinking.

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This is not a silver bullet situation.

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We need the whole silver arsenal.

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So what's that look like?

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So I assume then what earned you the 
title of Token Jedi

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as an international expert.

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I love that, though. It's beautiful.

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And so I assume that's because you're
helping bring models of success.

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Models that are ways that we can create
that safety net at the community level.

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So can you talk about what

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some of those that work has been
and what those models may be?

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Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

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And in fact, I'm just surfacing
one that I've been holding on to

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for a few years
now that I'm calling the Value Flow

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Compass, that I'd be happy to talk
a little bit about.

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But, yeah, you know, the, the

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the term Token Jedi emerged in 2017.

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I actually had
an opportunity to participate in something

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pretty historic, both for crypto

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and for all of global finance.

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Back in 2017, I was connected to Bancor.

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They had originally approached me
with a marketplace app that supported

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community currencies,

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and that was the work that I was doing
at the time in Ithaca,

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New York, where I had taken over
for a local currency there.

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That was quite famous.

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It's called Ithaca Hours.

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It's known by people
who look into this kind of stuff

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from all over the world.

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And so what they created

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was the crypto economic mechanism

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that became what we know
as decentralized finance, or DeFi.

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And this, was a genuine, like,

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technological and financial innovation

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because it created a new way
for people to exchange assets

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besides having to go through exchanges
and really lowered the barrier

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to people creating new kinds of,
you know, financial tools that can power

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communities and connecting those in ways
that just weren’t possible before.

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While I was working in their office
in Tel Aviv

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they asked me for like, what

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will your job title be?

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And I'm just like, I'm your Jedi on call.

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That was the creation of it.

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And eventually that became Token Jedi

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just because tokens
are the tools of the trade

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And so it's a little playful.

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It's cool.

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It tells people about who I am

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in this journey, 
and the kind of things that I stand for.

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Generally
try to be a force for good in the world.

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So do you want to share about,

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the Value Flow Compass that you mentioned.

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So, I've been sharing
this is a very early iteration

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here, but, it's something that
I'm willing to stand behind

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is something
called the Value Flow Compass.

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And it is basically, 
a business model canvas

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for, you know, humans
who want to be organized more effectively.

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The business model canvas was something
that, I first encountered, like 2012,

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and it just, you know, provides
a single page that has kind of

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all the questions that you need
to consider and have decently good answers

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for in order to have a potentially viable
business plan.

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Well out here in kind of the new world,
if you will, where

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we're much more interested in distributed,
you know, systems

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and having our, our own agency
and organizations,

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and transparent accountants,

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accounting
and governance of these systems.

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It made sense to have a new kind
of mapping environment

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where we can surface,
like what is this ecosystem like,

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where are all the places
that I can touch it or interact with it?

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And when

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you're out there building
these kinds of systems, it's very easy

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to like spin up all these different tools
and profiles in different places

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of, you know, oh, we get we do this thing
over there and there's this bit over here

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and we vote over here, and we've got 40
different chat groups, right.

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But like,
how are you supposed to find stuff across

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all of that, much less have,
a decent system for managing it all?

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And when you're operating in something
like a DAO,

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a distributed autonomous organization,
hypothetically speaking,

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the DAO should kind of exist outside
of all of us, right?

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It's like this, you know, facility
that can operate

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independent of any one party
or group of parties.

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I think that's still kind
of aspirational, but,

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that's kind of the, the,
the idea of the thing anyway.

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And so, the Value Flow
Compass is designed to surface

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those different touch points in terms of

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like who are the collaborators
that are making things happen?

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What are the offerings
that they're co-producing together?

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That's the first quadrant.

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Then who are the audiences
that we're producing things for?

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How are we getting getting our offerings
to them?

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That's the second quadrant.

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And then what are we asking for in turn?

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What are the things that they're

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ready to give us?
That could be non-monetary things as well,

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like membership applications
and governance proposals.

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But clearly, you know, if we’re trying
to have a financially viable operation,

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we want to be tracking what we're getting
paid in and how we're getting paid.

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And then where do those things
end up? Right.

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Where are the like, accounts
or resource bases?

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That are servicing this ecosystem.

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And then great.

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How do we manage those resources?

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Right. Costs and surplus.

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So it's basically
just a four quadrant approach

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with different kind of fields
to surface these different elements.

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And then you can explore

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the interconnections
between them and start to kind of see,

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 those support systems
in the contexts right for where they,

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come to life in that ecosystem.

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And my hypothesis with this
and what I've seen from early testing,

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is that it's,

00;14;41;34 - 00;14;45;32
it's fundamentally like partnership
oriented and more collaborative

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because it breaks down
those silos of information

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that, can feed domination dynamics.

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So, like,

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if I'm the executive and I'm the only one
with the bird's eye view, right?

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I'm able to kind of leverage
that information asymmetry over people

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in you know Department X,

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but if everything is out on the table,
right, and we're able to see more of,

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you know, who's here, who has, you know,
what roles,

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and what special permissions
in the ecosystem.

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And like, what context there are,
what ways there are for me to contribute.

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And how,
you know, value is being generated.

00;15;31;08 - 00;15;33;19
And I can see how we're

00;15;34;17 - 00;15;35;05
getting value

00;15;35;05 - 00;15;38;43
back and what's happening with that
in a more transparent way.

00;15;38;59 - 00;15;42;49
It becomes a lot more difficult
for an extractive actor.

00;15;43;05 - 00;15;46;52
Like a VC to just be,
you know, making off with,

00;15;46;54 - 00;15;48;42
you know, the majority of the proceeds

00;15;48;42 - 00;15;51;54
while leaving the people who are doing
the real work with some crumbs.

00;15;52;42 - 00;15;55;55
You know,
so I, I hope that people will also find

00;15;56;16 - 00;15;59;20
that using this tool will enable them

00;15;59;20 - 00;16;02;24
to keep more of the wealth
they generate for themselves.

00;16;02;24 - 00;16;05;42
Rather than allowing that to be extracted
by various parties.

00;16;06;21 - 00;16;08;34
Along the way. Nice.

00;16;08;34 - 00;16;09;48
Thank you.

00;16;09;48 - 00;16;12;48
You are listening
to the Power of Partnership podcast.

00;16;12;59 - 00;16;16;34
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00;16;16;34 - 00;16;19;02
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00;16;19;02 - 00;16;21;54
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00;16;21;54 - 00;16;25;52
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00;16;26;19 - 00;16;30;43
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00;16;31;37 - 00;16;33;57
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00;16;33;57 - 00;16;36;57
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00;16;37;22 - 00;16;41;14
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at center@partnershipway.org.

00;16;41;57 - 00;16;44;52
And now back to today's episode.

00;16;44;53 - 00;16;47;35
So can we talk a bit more about

00;16;47;35 - 00;16;51;22
domination that shows up in these systems?

00;16;51;22 - 00;16;56;37
So the hope is for people listening
to this podcast to become more familiar

00;16;56;37 - 00;17;02;24
with the terms regenerative systems,
place-based, community currencies.

00;17;03;00 - 00;17;06;20
What do we need to be looking out
for when people

00;17;06;20 - 00;17;10;40
are exploring those to ensure
that we're really coming at it

00;17;10;40 - 00;17;15;50
from a truly partnership based focus
that is really to sustain communities

00;17;15;52 - 00;17;19;38
and really hone in on that safety
net component that you've talked about.

00;17;20;16 - 00;17;21;27
Yeah, absolutely.

00;17;21;27 - 00;17;26;25
This is something that, a theme
that was coming up in Bernard

00;17;26;25 - 00;17;29;24
Lietaer’s writings
towards the end of his life.

00;17;30;01 - 00;17;32;36
He, you know, was a,

00;17;34;25 - 00;17;37;26
a monetary systems thinker and designer.

00;17;37;29 - 00;17;42;10
He was very prolific in this space.

00;17;42;33 - 00;17;45;14
You know, thinking about, 
financial system design.

00;17;45;14 - 00;17;49;02
And he,
especially with regards to systemic

00;17;49;18 - 00;17;52;18
sustainability and resilience.

00;17;53;55 - 00;17;56;39
And he was writing more

00;17;56;39 - 00;18;00;35
about the esoteric nature of, you know,

00;18;00;35 - 00;18;04;54
this is about energy
and balance and mutualistic dynamics.

00;18;06;34 - 00;18;08;17
And, you know, there's been others

00;18;08;17 - 00;18;11;17
that have acknowledged that, even

00;18;12;23 - 00;18;15;05
heading into the monetary space, right?

00;18;15;05 - 00;18;18;12
Monetizing something, financializing
something.

00;18;18;38 - 00;18;21;15
Accounting

00;18;21;15 - 00;18;24;06
is pretty masculine

00;18;24;06 - 00;18;27;44
of a thing to do
because it's very much about control.

00;18;28;59 - 00;18;31;16
If not control, then
 at least visibility,

00;18;31;16 - 00;18;34;16
which kind of implies
the potential of control, etc..

00;18;34;21 - 00;18;40;41
So the question first has to be is this
the right way to deal with this problem?

00;18;41;18 - 00;18;43;22
When we're faced with a given challenge.

00;18;43;22 - 00;18;46;22
You know, is this the appropriate use of,

00;18;46;31 - 00;18;50;05
you know, a monetization
or a financialization strategy?

00;18;50;41 - 00;18;54;24
So before we even kind of jump
into deeper systems design thinking

00;18;54;24 - 00;19;00;12
that has to be
contemplated and kind of validated

00;19;01;30 - 00;19;06;27
then, and I can speak somewhat
from personal experience

00;19;06;48 - 00;19;12;16
based on my work
in, Iowa and then, Ithaca, New York.

00;19;12;48 - 00;19;15;48
You can design a good

00;19;16;33 - 00;19;20;59
monetary system or a credit system
or a regenerative economy

00;19;21;19 - 00;19;22;35
in isolation.

00;19;22;35 - 00;19;26;09
You can you could come up
with the perfect model if you want to.

00;19;26;40 - 00;19;30;39
When you think about it, that hard,
you can do it right.

00;19;30;39 - 00;19;32;33
Because the principles are there.

00;19;32;33 - 00;19;34;17
But that's not what

00;19;34;17 - 00;19;35;34
that is not what

00;19;35;34 - 00;19;39;12
making something happen requires.
Making something happen

00;19;39;12 - 00;19;42;44
and getting a community to engage
and really utilize

00;19;43;13 - 00;19;46;59
these kinds of systems requires
that you do this in partnership.

00;19;47;37 - 00;19;50;15
And that means rather than going off

00;19;50;15 - 00;19;53;15
in isolation
and coming up with the perfect system,

00;19;53;37 - 00;19;57;14
you have to work with everybody else
that is involved

00;19;57;43 - 00;20;01;06
to co-discover and co-design

00;20;01;39 - 00;20;04;55
the system and that can only happen over

00;20;05;25 - 00;20;08;11
the span of a good amount of time

00;20;09;15 - 00;20;14;03
and with a foundation of trust.

00;20;14;44 - 00;20;19;34
And so that is one of the things that
I try to emphasize especially when I'm

00;20;20;13 - 00;20;25;10
doing things like earlier in the year
we did an incubator. In Refi DAO

00;20;25;43 - 00;20;28;37
we have what are called local nodes.

00;20;28;37 - 00;20;32;02
And that's basically just, you know,
an organizer on the ground and a community

00;20;32;23 - 00;20;35;17
is trying to make regenerative cool stuff
happen

00;20;35;17 - 00;20;38;17
specifically using,
you know, Web3 tools and,

00;20;38;33 - 00;20;41;47
you know,
regenerative financial mechanisms, etc..

00;20;42;35 - 00;20;46;39
But we've been providing support
to those kinds of local organizers.

00;20;46;39 - 00;20;47;40
And this is like one of the things

00;20;47;40 - 00;20;50;40
I was really stressing with them is like,
it's really about,

00;20;50;42 - 00;20;53;36
you know, one,
knowing what you're after. Two

00;20;53;36 - 00;20;58;18
knowing who is involved with that,
and three, engaging them

00;20;58;18 - 00;21;02;38
in a co-design process around
what this system, you know, like

00;21;03;14 - 00;21;06;37
what is it that's going on now
and what do we need to shift about it?

00;21;07;27 - 00;21;10;45
And this can seem this can very much turn
into kind of a tech

00;21;10;45 - 00;21;14;19
bro approach
where it's about requirements gathering.

00;21;14;49 - 00;21;17;19
But the soft side of it

00;21;17;19 - 00;21;20;20
is still very much relational
and partnership oriented.

00;21;21;00 - 00;21;23;21
What is Web3 space?

00;21;23;21 - 00;21;23;48
What is that. 

00;21;23;48 - 00;21;26;24
Web3 is like the blockchain.

00;21;26;24 - 00;21;28;56
Web one was,

00;21;29;14 - 00;21;30;41
somebody

00;21;30;41 - 00;21;34;16
will have
a much better rendition of this.

00;21;34;16 - 00;21;37;16
Okay. But like, web
one is we're just, like,

00;21;37;16 - 00;21;40;05
connecting and, like,
publishing web pages.

00;21;40;05 - 00;21;43;39
Web two is we have social media,
so it becomes interactive.

00;21;43;58 - 00;21;48;05
Web3 is now we have a financial layer

00;21;48;05 - 00;21;50;15
there
that we're able to build on and work with.

00;21;50;15 - 00;21;55;48
So people use Web3 as a synonym
for blockchain quite frequently.

00;21;56;29 - 00;22;01;48
So, so I, I'm joining you know,
I live in beautiful Lafayette, Colorado

00;22;01;48 - 00;22;02;52
in the United States.

00;22;02;52 - 00;22;06;19
And so if there was a node
in my community, what would that be

00;22;06;19 - 00;22;09;19
looking like for me?

00;22;09;37 - 00;22;11;16
Well, that's a great question.

00;22;11;16 - 00;22;14;16
Basically, we have

00;22;15;09 - 00;22;18;44
like a local node profile

00;22;18;44 - 00;22;21;56
that people can
come and fill out, but the,

00;22;23;17 - 00;22;24;22
the, the reason this is so

00;22;24;22 - 00;22;28;08
hard to answer
is because it's non-deterministic.

00;22;28;21 - 00;22;28;41
Right.

00;22;28;41 - 00;22;29;26
We can say

00;22;29;26 - 00;22;32;20
generally you're going to be working
with these kinds of things

00;22;32;20 - 00;22;37;02
or on these kinds of things, but you're
not going to be doing this specific thing.

00;22;37;05 - 00;22;40;05
So I can offer up
examples of different kinds of like, local

00;22;40;16 - 00;22;43;42
 solidarity
economic systems that you can engage with.

00;22;44;07 - 00;22;48;01
You know, like as something as simple
as, like, free libraries, right?

00;22;48;01 - 00;22;51;01
Like those little libraries
that people set up like that sometimes

00;22;51;01 - 00;22;54;48
that's what people set up and do,
you know,

00;22;55;00 - 00;22;58;47
mutual aid networks around the country,
especially during Covid,

00;22;59;10 - 00;23;02;34
set up, you know, basically repurposed
those as ways of sharing food.

00;23;03;05 - 00;23;07;09
There were some places that went so far
as to have, you know, open refrigerators

00;23;07;09 - 00;23;07;40
kind of deal.

00;23;09;13 - 00;23;12;13
So and there are

00;23;13;14 - 00;23;16;19
libraries or catalogs

00;23;16;19 - 00;23;19;42
of these different kinds
of, you know, isolated interventions.

00;23;20;14 - 00;23;23;15
But what we put the node forward

00;23;23;15 - 00;23;26;47
is as a container for organizing

00;23;27;34 - 00;23;30;41
many of those together
so that they're, you know,

00;23;30;41 - 00;23;34;06
kind of mutually reinforcing
and creating more of a culture of,

00;23;34;29 - 00;23;38;44
you know, local self-care,
and mutual aid.

00;23;39;26 - 00;23;40;34
Beautiful.

00;23;40;34 - 00;23;44;01
So, Scott,
I know we're talking about community

00;23;44;01 - 00;23;47;19
currencies, place-based systems,

00;23;47;41 - 00;23;53;35
but I feel like crypto
and bitcoin is a piece of this puzzle

00;23;53;35 - 00;23;58;15
around financial insecurity
with our systems.

00;23;58;31 - 00;24;02;36
And so can you talk a bit
about how those fit in,

00;24;02;36 - 00;24;06;05
and especially your thoughts on the degree

00;24;06;05 - 00;24;09;53
that those types of systems
are coming from a domination perspective,

00;24;09;53 - 00;24;13;40
that may actually be undermining
some of the same goals that

00;24;14;38 - 00;24;15;49
your and

00;24;15;49 - 00;24;19;11
so many others are trying to address in
in your work.

00;24;19;43 - 00;24;20;48
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

00;24;20;48 - 00;24;25;12
It's it's it's,
it's really fun to work with crypto

00;24;25;12 - 00;24;29;11
and not actually be a tech bro or,
you know, a blockchain dude.

00;24;29;30 - 00;24;32;48
I, as you might recall,

00;24;33;02 - 00;24;37;03
My career
in all this began in 2009, 2010.

00;24;37;23 - 00;24;40;39
So as far as crypto is concerned,
I've been here the whole time.

00;24;41;07 - 00;24;44;07
And that makes me a pretty unique figure
in that space.

00;24;44;09 - 00;24;48;13
I mean, there's people who consider,
you know, being in crypto a long time

00;24;48;13 - 00;24;49;38
to be two years.

00;24;49;38 - 00;24;52;03
And I'm just like,

00;24;52;03 - 00;24;52;45
you know.

00;24;52;45 - 00;24;56;48
But the, the, the important thing

00;24;56;48 - 00;25;00;42
to understand about that is, again,
like to, to monetize or to financialize

00;25;00;42 - 00;25;06;00
something is a very masculine
sort of command control function.

00;25;06;20 - 00;25;09;27
So you have to be very mindful

00;25;09;27 - 00;25;12;27
of the culture that is created.

00;25;12;52 - 00;25;17;39
And, and the social dynamics,
that complement that system.

00;25;17;39 - 00;25;17;52
Right.

00;25;17;52 - 00;25;20;52
That system can only ever
be there to assist us.

00;25;21;04 - 00;25;25;20
We can't design that in a way
where it comes to to dominate us.

00;25;25;23 - 00;25;29;24
And this is something that we
have to worry about with technology

00;25;30;05 - 00;25;33;21
 writ large, especially,

00;25;33;23 - 00;25;36;04
you know, digital technology
and social networks.

00;25;36;04 - 00;25;40;58
So, I found myself, you know playing

00;25;41;41 - 00;25;45;56
a role of, just kind of rounding things

00;25;45;56 - 00;25;50;56
out of reminding people, that, you know,
technology is not going to save us.

00;25;50;57 - 00;25;53;55
We're going to save us. Technology
is there to help.

00;25;53;55 - 00;25;59;22
And then just seeing, like,
the possibilities for how to get started.

00;25;59;22 - 00;26;03;56
And, and that looks like
having a way of engaging meaningfully

00;26;03;56 - 00;26;08;56
with the community to determine
what are the highest needs.

00;26;08;56 - 00;26;11;13
Right.
Where are your greatest pain points?

00;26;11;13 - 00;26;15;51
And what do we need
to focus on and in which order?

00;26;16;51 - 00;26;18;43
So another one of the,

00;26;18;43 - 00;26;23;39
things that I was able to innovate along
the way, is a model that I call the Agile

00;26;23;39 - 00;26;28;43
Impact Model
that basically takes an Agile approach.

00;26;28;43 - 00;26;29;10
Agile.

00;26;29;10 - 00;26;31;48
And I'm sorry, I'm going a little techie
here for a second,

00;26;31;48 - 00;26;35;40
but Agile is a software
development management system.

00;26;36;07 - 00;26;36;34
Okay.

00;26;36;34 - 00;26;40;19
Where basically each problem is a ticket
that gets put on a to do list,

00;26;40;19 - 00;26;44;34
and then somebody comes and moves
that to doing, and then they do some stuff

00;26;44;34 - 00;26;46;42
and then it's in review
and okay, it's good.

00;26;46;42 - 00;26;48;31
Now it's done right.

00;26;48;31 - 00;26;51;56
Like what if we used
that kind of project management

00;26;52;16 - 00;26;55;32
structure
for making impact in our community.

00;26;55;55 - 00;26;59;42
What would it look like if everybody
had access to that at any given time?

00;27;00;07 - 00;27;01;01
And what would it look like

00;27;01;01 - 00;27;05;36
if we had a substantial portion
of our budget for that place

00;27;05;46 - 00;27;09;00
not being run through a very

00;27;10;36 - 00;27;11;21
relatively

00;27;11;21 - 00;27;14;30
easily
corruptible system of representatives.

00;27;14;50 - 00;27;17;05
And stopped putting as much emphasis

00;27;17;05 - 00;27;20;05
on voting for representatives
than we did for policy.

00;27;21;14 - 00;27;24;16
And, setting our kind of collective

00;27;24;16 - 00;27;28;55
spending priorities based on, like,
where our pain points are.

00;27;29;24 - 00;27;32;56
So starting to kind of explore
into that direction.

00;27;33;25 - 00;27;37;25
Especially when you have

00;27;37;49 - 00;27;41;34
you do have a flexible kind
of financial and technical environment

00;27;41;55 - 00;27;45;53
where, you know, a community can say,
okay, like we have a child care crisis,

00;27;45;53 - 00;27;47;55
we need to have the child care
marketplace.

00;27;47;55 - 00;27;52;53
And yeah, it would be helpful if we could
pay one another in hours of time

00;27;53;26 - 00;27;56;08
alongside cash if we wanted to,

00;27;56;08 - 00;27;59;47
you know,
so you can have a multi, monetary

00;27;59;57 - 00;28;02;45
 a monetarily pluralistic

00;28;02;56 - 00;28;07;47
marketplace and network environment, right
where these systems stop

00;28;07;47 - 00;28;12;26
being so isolated and obscure
and they start to like, I said,

00;28;12;26 - 00;28;17;43
kind of like stack up and build a critical
mass that together can, you know,

00;28;18;14 - 00;28;24;09
counterbalance the more predatory market
domination oriented economy.

00;28;25;28 - 00;28;26;23
Love that,

00;28;26;23 - 00;28;30;08
So, Scott, what is next?

00;28;30;13 - 00;28;33;56
learnings, resources,
tools that you would recommend

00;28;33;56 - 00;28;37;43
that people can start digging into
to be hopeful and really start

00;28;37;57 - 00;28;40;57
being involved in this innovation?

00;28;41;03 - 00;28;42;11
Yeah, absolutely.

00;28;42;11 - 00;28;44;14
And there's, more on the way.

00;28;44;14 - 00;28;45;56
But in the immediate term,

00;28;45;56 - 00;28;48;07
right.  Shareable.  shareable.net

00;28;48;07 - 00;28;51;07
put together a great book on

00;28;52;10 - 00;28;53;30
Sharing Cities.

00;28;53;30 - 00;28;56;44
And in that book is is a wonderful example

00;28;56;44 - 00;28;59;44
of the type of thing
that we're building now digitally.

00;28;59;53 - 00;29;04;16
Right, which is a catalog of a bunch
of these different interventions and,

00;29;04;57 - 00;29;07;57
programs, policies, etc..

00;29;10;07 - 00;29;11;20
These days I'm

00;29;11;20 - 00;29;14;42
playing a lot in,
something called the Open Civics Network.

00;29;15;16 - 00;29;19;22
They're actually celebrating one year, 
you know, kind of launching

00;29;19;38 - 00;29;20;38
and coming out there.

00;29;20;38 - 00;29;24;50
It's a couple hundred,
you know, innovators and entrepreneurs

00;29;24;50 - 00;29;29;12
and, you know, other thought leaders,
that have come together already,

00;29;29;38 - 00;29;34;52
to produce some valuable research
specifically for this purpose.

00;29;35;21 - 00;29;38;28
You know,
we recognize that we need to redesign

00;29;38;28 - 00;29;42;14
so much of, you know, civil society, even,

00;29;42;36 - 00;29;46;57
you know, just and if you want to know
why, just take a quick look around.

00;29;46;57 - 00;29;50;36
Clearly, the legacy systems
are not invested in our long term success.

00;29;51;00 - 00;29;54;39
And so that means that we need to, have

00;29;55;19 - 00;29;59;38
easier access to other options.

00;30;00;01 - 00;30;03;58
So for our listeners and viewers,
I want to make sure you know

00;30;03;58 - 00;30;06;17
that I will be putting
all of the resources

00;30;06;17 - 00;30;09;54
that Scott has referenced
during today's interview in the show notes

00;30;10;11 - 00;30;14;12
I'll also be including a link
to the Center for Partnership Systems

00;30;14;45 - 00;30;19;49
So that you can dig deeper into Riane
Eisler’s cultural transformation theory,

00;30;19;50 - 00;30;24;50
her domination partnership continuum,
and of course, her four cornerstones

00;30;24;50 - 00;30;29;43
that are at the foundations
of every society of childhood and family,

00;30;30;16 - 00;30;34;36
gender, of course,
economics and narratives and stories.

00;30;35;50 - 00;30;36;57
Scott, before we

00;30;36;57 - 00;30;40;13
close,
I wonder if you have any final words

00;30;40;13 - 00;30;43;12
that you'd like to share
with our audience.

00;30;43;27 - 00;30;43;52
Yeah.

00;30;43;52 - 00;30;46;52
I would just, 
Thank everybody for listening.

00;30;47;05 - 00;30;49;26
I'm glad that you joined us today.

00;30;49;26 - 00;30;51;03
And you know.

00;30;51;03 - 00;30;52;46
May the force be with you.

00;30;52;46 - 00;30;53;42
Nice.

00;30;53;42 - 00;30;57;01
Scott, I want to thank you again
for joining today's show.

00;30;57;02 - 00;30;59;46
This has really been
a wonderful conversation.

00;30;59;46 - 00;31;01;04
Thank you Cherri. It's been a pleasure.