How to play well together

Social Narrative

If you and the other participants in your group have managed to relatively unscathed
get from point A to point B, you have a social narrative.
A social narrative is the contextually relevant agreed upon stories and artefacts,
that helps us make sense both individually, as well as relate, work and play well,
with others.

Roadmap for succesful conversation

It usually begins with a conversation, here defined as a good conversation about
things that matter. Ideas and concepts, can be seen as emerging out of the conversation,
leading to viable knowledge. This knowledge is often embedded in stories.
These stories when told over and over forms actant networks, and through these
networks, an ongoing flow of practicing principles. This ongoing flow shapes how
we perceive and envision things, how we produce and maintain an ongoing balance
between continuity and change.

Transactions
Within this continuity there is an ongoing flow of transactions, these can be in the
shape of goods, services, intangibles and/or knowledge. Out of these flows emerges,
whether formally or informally, a set of agreed upon guidelines. This flow also
produces a stream of data, and the transactions establishes which of all the data
is relevant.

Living documents
Some of this relevant data is captured in documents: agreements, standards,
indices, contracts etc. These documents each according to value, importance and
relevance, is the foundation of societies.
One could say, that a society is a set of agreed upon purposes and characteristics.
A society is often also providing an established context for specific agreed upon
ways to solve problems and manage creativity, ie in the shape of law and education.

Creation of wealth
In order to understand these contexts, there is merit in now and then conducting a
historical analysis. This analysis then can serve as the framework for what to keep,
what to discard, and what to evolve, in the perspective of how to best anchor this
with the agreed upon purposes, essentials and fundamentals.Such an ongoing,
stable, yet also evolving framework, enables its participants, members and
stakeholders to create and share wealth.
This sharing optimally includes and builds upon stakeholder dialogue and
organisational reflection. The essential quality for this dialogue and reflection is a
deep, sincere, respectful and intentional listening. Through listening well together,
there is a foundation for creation of value, out of the flow and exchange of knowledge
between the stakeholders.

Value networks
It is also of great benefit, in terms of sufficient and necessary conditions for the
emergent flow of knowledge as well as creation of value, that there is both room
and opportunity for people adept in modelling systemic consequences, mapping
all the relevant nodes, links and flows, as well as provide insights wrt to both
bottlenecks and points of leverage.
These systemic examinations also serves to improve the quality of the decisionmaking,
and the establishing of sound policies. In addition, these frameworks, models and
roadmaps also serves to improve the quality of implementation.

Practical, sustainable & actionable
These implementations are in the shape of infrastructures when tangible, and
as social narratives otherwise. Both infrastructures and social narratives can be
seen as sets of agreed upon, contexts, networks, nodes, links and flows.
They serve to anchor our endeavours down to a practical, sustainable and
actionable level. That said, almost no matter how carefully and well we've crafted
these infrastructures, how well we've cocreated these narratives, there is usually
something new to discover in the implementation, and when we begin to use them.
These discoveries are very valuable, since they inform us of the particular
knowledge we need in order to further evolve the process.

Economy
Broadly speaking, these discoveries can be sorted in three domains: practical
wisdom, scientific knowledge and technology. Taken together, in the context of
a particular region and society as outlined above, they form the basis of the
economy. One could say, that an economy is a set of agreed upon procedures,
aiming at allocating goods, services, intangibles and knowledge.
Furthering the economy, is all actors, which to the best of their abilities, make
good use of their knowledge, the available information, business cases, knowhow's
and howto's, manuals as well as more generally applicable education, basically
anything that serves the stakeholders in understanding the principles and the
operations of the economy, as well as allowing them to participate.

Muddling through & designing as managing
Since this is by necessity, an ongoing diverse process, there needs to be allowance
for, understanding for, and recognition of, the need for ongoing situated learning,
as well as realizing that much of the vibrancy and richness of the interaction,
can be characterised as a muddling through, through the friction and asymmetries
of information, and the overlap of different frameworks.
Here is where design can be of great use, both in the design of affordances so as
to enable as many as possible to be engaged in the processes, but also, interaction
design in its widest possible ramifications, as a way to enable as many and as
many diverse participants as possible, to be heard, acknowledged and valued.
This greatly increases the availability of novel information, ie the information that
makes a difference, the information that matters.

Iteration capital
Which leads us back to the beginning, in a continuous cycle of ongoing conversation
and progress through the creation of value and meaning.

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