SCHOUTEN, Joost
THOMISON, Tom
SEUHS-SCHOELLER, Christiane

Title of contribution:

Building Blocks of the PowerShift Economy

Where & when:

Building Blocks of the PowerShift Economy

First Tom Thomison, Founding Member of encode.org, will talk about how now even more than just a few months ago, we see how our economic systems have outlived their usefulness. They are taking their toll on people and the planet. Humanity’s consciousness is evolving – a deep yearning for collaboration calls for a shift from “power over” to “power with”, for being powerful together in service of the greater whole. But what is that power shift? And which role does the economy play in all this? Learn which 3 foundational building blocks – when put together – form a broader, power shifted economy: Power shifted legal and capital structures: moving from subservient entitlement as an employee to earning a living through ownership and the investment of energy, time and talent in purposes people are aligned with and care about. Power shifted organizational structures: organizing purpose-oriented work with distributed authority and dynamic steering; holarchic, autonomous and transparent. Power shifted people structures: encouraging and supporting independent agents of purpose to find and engage with purposes they care about and catalyzing the economies of scale with the groups of purpose agents’ purchasing power for social benefits, insurance and investment programs, training programs and much more.

Following this, Joost Schouten, Founding Member of PowerShift Capital, will look into how current investment and capitalization structures are incapable of supporting today’s necessary shift in our economical system. He will be pointing out how our commercial organisations are capable of tremendous impact, yet this impact often is not a reflection of the values and needs of those working in the organisation or those impacted by the organisation. More often than not the impact is experienced as decremental to the societies they function in. This is a symptom of mismatched incentive structures. The incentives of a few owners of the organisation and their ability to drive its course versus the incentives of all those contributing to and affected by the organisation.

In this session Joost will explore these incentives and some solutions around how to align these opposing forces. And how we can harness the tremendous ability to impact our societies with commercial organisations in a way that is reflective of its collective needs. He will invite participants to explore how funding organisations can be a catalyst for a purpose and value driven society.

Names of co-contributors: Christiane Seuhs-Schoeller

Bringing three decades of entrepreneurial experience and pioneering new ways of organizing, Christiane today is deeply engaged in finding practical applications for human endeavors to serve people and planet equally. As a partner of Evolution at Work and encode.org, her work is driven by the intention to support the ongoing universal shift of consciousness through co-creating new ways for enterprises to follow self- organizing principles, thus shifting power from “power over” to “power with”.

Names of co-contributors: Tom Thomison

A seasoned entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience, Tom Thomison is a recognized leader in self-organization methods and practices. In 2007, he co-founded HolacracyOne to further develop and mature Holacracy®, a replacement for conventional management hierarchies. Today Tom is a Founding-Member and Partner at encode.org, an organization focused on the creation of necessary structures to further support self-organization and the power shift needed for the new world of work.

About Joost Schouten:

I aim to create a work environment where we can all contribute to organisations that align with our personal values and do so in social structures where we can show up without anxiety. I do this by helping organisations self organise around a clear purpose as a Holacracy Coach at Energized.org, build software supporting organisations in this transition as a partner at SlashMe.com and help Purpose Driven organisations scale through funding as a partner at PowerShift Capital.