The Anti-Fragile Playbook
Government
The Anti-Fragile Neighborhood Wealth Production model is designed to bring forward the hidden wealth of neighborhoods, creating an accessible, inclusive story of the future for all, no exceptions. "The world outside our homes is changing faster than anyone could have imagined, and what we really need is a blueprint for a way forward, a codex for communities rooted in wisdom, and written by the people who are going to live out the story of a shared future." ~ Ruth Glendinning, Founder, FutureStory Labs
Location:
United States
Description:
The Anti-Fragile Neighborhood Wealth Production model is designed to bring forward the hidden wealth of neighborhoods, creating an accessible, inclusive story of the future for all, no exceptions. "The world outside our homes is changing faster than anyone could have imagined, and what we really need is a blueprint for a way forward, a codex for communities rooted in wisdom, and written by the people who are going to live out the story of a shared future." ~ Ruth Glendinning, Founder, FutureStory Labs
Language:
English
Episodes
Bene Esse - Behind the Scenes (Corporate, Governance, Regulatory Compliance, and Activated Soft Capital)
7/30/2022
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...
Duration:00:54:28
"Bene Esse" a S.P.R.O.U.T. Product, Featuring Anti-Fragile Principles for Property Ownership (Intro)
5/21/2022
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...
Duration:01:06:24
A Post-Holiday Review of "Living Laboratory" Volunteer Activation, and a Pre-Launch Preview
2/17/2022
This podcast discusses how the activists responsible for the Anti-Fragile “living laboratory” (the Austin-based “Tannehill Marketville Collective”) were able to make significant progress through the holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas/Chanukah, and New Years, and without funding, through the daily stresses of financial challenges, COVID illness, and attrition from within the team.
It’s now mid-February, and the small, unfunded activist committee responsible for delivering the Anti-Fragile...
Duration:00:50:33
Anti-Fragile Playbook: examples of activated soft capital (Burnside and Community Renaissance Market)
12/20/2021
Imagine a pop-up market that funds hyper-local self-governance.
Imagine a self-funded, hyper-local, self-governing committee that breaks the cycles of generational trauma.
Anticipating a retreat in formal government that will leave the vulnerable behind, Ruth Glendinning and Kent Dahlgren have partnered to create an Anti-Fragile Playbook that will guide people through the steps necessary to launch and sustain their own renegade “pop-up” market that funds their community’s...
Duration:00:58:43
An Investment in Anti-Fragile Operations Pays Dividends
11/23/2021
Satisfied that the administrative team for the local "Anti-Fragile living laboratory" was up and running, one of core members did something healthy by saying:
"I need to press pause and take a break."
Again, this is healthy; activists cannot be expected to run non-stop for an extended period, because overwork leads to burnout, and this team member in particular had been running non-stop for years in support of a large network of "buy nothing" communities.
She took the time to document her...
Duration:00:56:43
Start Small, Build Trust, Change Everything: a Report on Progress Within Three Communities
11/11/2021
In this episode, Ruth Glendinning and Kent Dahlgren report upon progress within three representative 214 Alpha communities, including activities within the Anti-Fragile "living laboratory," calibrated to a local watershed, in Austin, Texas.
Ruth and Kent discuss outreach at a farmers market (validating solution statements defined by community activists to address root conditions of outrage), as well as the first meaty governance discussions within a recent in-person community meeting.
From...
Duration:01:09:08
The Legacy of Opportunity
9/3/2021
In this podcast, Ruth Glendinning and Kent Dahlgren discuss not only how they learned how to recognize opportunity where others see chaos, but how (and why) they invest in leaving a legacy of opportunity which might encourage others to do so as well.
There's plenty of reason to feel an authentic sense of optimism.
Podcast began at 10:10, and ended at precisely 11:11.
Duration:01:01:19
Our Shared River of Story: How the Network Effect Informs Disruptive Innovation
8/19/2021
Think about a well, used to provide water.
Did you know that the word "well" was once used to quantify the beneficial "halo effect" provided by access to safe drinking water? The size of a community was limited to the number of those the community's well could serve - a great example of a "commons."
Additionally, the well (west Saxon: wielle) is the root of the word "welcome," which sounds very cozy when one thinks about the word printed on a welcome mat, but in fact: water will find its...
Duration:01:04:42
Anti-Fragile Strikes Again! The Launch of Two Pilots (Seemingly in Spite of Hardship and Stress)
7/17/2021
It's the funniest thing: each time Ruth, Trudy, and Kent experience hardship, the Anti-Fragile Playbook project plan advances beyond that which should otherwise make sense.
This same thing happened during the snowstorm of 2/14, where the project accelerated seemingly in response to historic power outages and hardship.
As you may recall, an anti-fragile system is one that thrives in the context of stress and hardship, and once again this serves as an example of what happens when one...
Duration:01:11:09
Refining the Vision and Engaging New Activists Through Rapid, Low-Fidelity Prototyping
6/4/2021
Imagine a product in a store named "Seed," which will:
What's in the box?
But "Seed" is not an actual product.
"Seed" is the product of a single day's collaboration, using less than $3 in materials (cardboard box, printouts from the Internet, no more than 50 words, and ordinary Scotch tape).
In this podcast, Ruth Glendinning and Kent Dahlgren discuss the use of low-fidelity prototyping tools (such as hypothetical retail products like the imagined "Seed") to secure and retain the...
Duration:01:48:49
This Little Light of Ours, We're Gonna Let it Shine
5/27/2021
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...
Duration:01:36:11
Execution: Solving the Gordian Knot with Subtlety, and Without a Blade
5/5/2021
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...
Duration:01:23:28
Quantifying Anti-Fragile: the Return on Investment (ROI)
4/1/2021
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...
Duration:01:09:53
The Maturity Model: an Introduction to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Executive Reporting
3/11/2021
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:
Imagine that as an activist you are called upon to define a "neighborhood revival...
Duration:01:07:00
Spotlight: M. Renée Orth - Vision and Execution in Support of a Vision
3/3/2021
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...
Duration:01:34:17
Snow Storm Update: the Neighborhood Collective Demonstrates the Benefits of Anti-Fragility
2/19/2021
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...
Duration:01:12:21
Country Club Co-Ops: Income, Education, Healthcare, Childcare, and Basic Income
2/7/2021
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:
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...
Duration:01:33:11
Lighting the Lantern: Using Outrage to Light the Way
1/28/2021
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...
Duration:01:18:30
"Say Cheese!" An interview with Sandy Burky
1/24/2021
In our latest Podcast – “Just Say Cheese" - Ruth Glendinning and Kent Dahlgren have a special guest: Sandy Burky of Helvetia West Virginia.
This small community is located in the verdant mountains of West Virginia, where it was established by Sandy’s ancestors in 1869. In the midst of the huge extractive coal and timber industries, Helvetia has kept its cultural identity alive through the Helvetia Thriving organization and Mountain Roots Markets, developed to provide local markets offering...
Duration:01:08:21
Placeholder to Place-maker: Alternative & Complementary Currencies 201
1/16/2021
Money isn't always the answer - at least not as it's normally recognized (hard capital).
However, full-spectrum capital plays a central role in the Anti-Fragile Wealth Production Engine, which acknowledges and quantifies other forms of capital necessary for community revival.
The discussion opens with a story about how Ed Daniel's investment in attention capital helped a locally-focused advocacy effort rapidly blossom.
Eddie Daniels, a bus operator for a West Virginia school district,...
Duration:01:12:52