Bramble is growing
As the European summer unfolds, the evidence of natural growth and abundance is everywhere. It's a heady and liberating time after the long winter. But for all its beauty and extravagance, we know it’s finite, and that’s partly why we appreciate it.
Inspired by nature, we at Bramble are working to create an organisation that also follows a seasonal pattern and that gives and receives value in healthy reciprocity with those around it.
The question we posed in our last post gets to the nub of it:
“What would it look like to be a company whose primary goal is to promote the flourishing of the larger system of which it is a part?”
The arrival this month of Julian and Tim as co-founding Partners, in addition to our growing pool of fantastic Associates, means we have more minds on the challenge. So by way of introduction we gave them a go at answering this and other questions.
Q: What does it mean for Bramble to ‘promote the flourishing of the larger system of which it is a part?’ What are your assumptions and what are your hopes?
Julian: Like all living things, organisations necessarily carry a primary concern with their own survival. But too often I’ve found that as they mature organisations of all stripes can get so fixated on growth for its own sake that they lose touch with what made them successful in the first place: a true dedication to achieving something worthwhile, in a way that truly benefits those around them. Our system heavily incentivises short-termism so it’s understandable. But that doesn’t make it useful or tenable over the longer term.
This matters so much now because, like many others, I feel that we are already experiencing the unravelling of the interconnected ecological, energy, food, information and industrial systems on which we all depend. And at the same time, we’ve eroded our social and political ability to collectively recognise this, let alone coordinate an effective response.
This response will only happen if we have enough vibrant, purpose-driven organisations out there who are committed to act together in the long-term interests of whole systems of life, both human and non-human. Our goal is to make Bramble one of those ‘beacon’ organisations, and in doing so find antidotes to the pathologies we have experienced first-hand in organisational life.
For example, we are developing practices to ensure we share generously and reciprocally with organisations and individuals that share our goals, and implementing models of ownership, reward and accountability that distribute rather than concentrate power.
Q: What does the world need that you believe we can provide?
Tim: I feel that as a society we have become too polarised, separated and disconnected from communities and the ecosystems we are part of (and from ourselves). To make the leaps in progress we need towards a more equitable and sustainable world, we will need a much more integral approach to development and work: one that embodies a healthy reciprocity with our ecological and human systems. This will mean creating more corridors (or sanctuaries even) that allow people to step out of structures that no longer truly serve us and experience of new ways of being, working and creating.
My experience has shown me that by helping people to 'step out and look back’ they will return with greater flexibility and receptivity to change, deeper capacity to imagine things as they might be, and with greater clarity of purpose. I believe this ‘purposeful flexibility’ is an important element for healthy development, and a first step in bridging the dehumanising divides between those with power and those without, those with money and those that need it. This is also the first step in ‘taking the blinkers off’ for individuals and for helping organisations to better sense and regenerate the systems they’re a part of.
I see us helping to steward and cultivate the next generation of decision-makers, working at deeper levels of inner and outer leadership with those seeking to positively disrupt the status quo, and quickening the adaptive capacity of incumbents to respond effectively to the major transitions and crises unfolding before our eyes. Over the next season Bramble will be working with a diverse range of leaders from school kids and impact entrepreneurs to future and current CEOs.
Q: What book or podcast has inspired you most over the last six months?
Julian: This is going to sound predictable but my single greatest (and ongoing) source of inspiration has been the grit, sacrifice, solidarity and cohesion of the Ukrainian people in resisting a truly barbaric invasion. I have a perhaps unhealthy addiction to podcasts which help me follow the twists and turns of their struggle as they show us just how possible it is to unify in the face of an existential threat.
And on the wider crisis, the Great Simplification podcast by Nate Hagens has had a big effect on me. Particularly his series of conversations with Daniel Schmactenberger. I love the generosity and curiosity he embodies in his interviewing, the mixture of guests and the mixture of the scientific and humanistic forms of inquiry. As for books, I’ve had a few disappointments lately! But I am enjoying “How Minds Change” by David McRaney, and the podcast of the same name. It gives me hope that we can all alter our worldview if the conditions are ripe.
Tim: I’m really interested in how the mind works and the neuroscience behind it. Linked to this I have a personal interest in neurodiversity and believe that it plays a vital and beautiful role in the rich diversity needed to help us evolve well as a species. My most recent inspirations have come from reading about the frontiers in plant medicine. ‘How To Change Your Mind’ by Michael Pollan and ‘Entangled Life’ by Merlin Sheldrake were total game changers for me. I was compelled by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s spoken essay about the Serviceberry - a beautiful metaphor for the potential and power of a gift economy which I would love to explore with the work we do.
Q: In a resource-conscious world focused on wellbeing rather than GDP, what material items would you still most need to stay happy?
Tim: My paddle board, the ability to make and listen to music, books, and the people I love and admire most within reach (they’re material if you get biological about it…).
Julian: If I could weather the major cold turkey from losing telly and phone addiction, I think I could be happy as long as I had a supply of good books, a musical instrument to learn and some running shoes. And I might have to insist on some tea bags.
Q: Lastly, as new Partners who have worked together before Bramble, what do you appreciate about each other and what are you most likely to fall out over?
Julian: In my experience Tim, Saya and James all have rather special superpowers, which is why I had to take this plunge with them. These become apparent to anyone who works with them. I won’t unmask their mild-mannered alter egos individually now, but one of many things they have in common is that they are able to hold their own fierce integrity whilst being flexible and open enough to truly co-create things in a humble and curious way.
I suspect we may end up arguing about which particular metaphors or framing ideas best does justice to our emerging theory of change, and how we should express this externally. We’re not there yet but as we are all metaphor-lovers I can see it coming!
Tim: Most importantly I love them all, for different reasons, in hundreds of ways. I feel enormously lucky to be surrounded by such fine individuals, every day. I hugely appreciate the diversity and challenge that the others bring to the table, really bold progressive ideas which are hard to answer but have potential for huge impact. We have a shared purpose and beliefs but bring really different approaches to things.
We’re trying to create a more equitable economic model, looking at ways to share opportunity and resource with those we work most closely with, and the ecosystems we inhabit. That will quite a bit of letting go of old patterns and relationships to wealth and power, which we’ve all grown up and worked in. So I would expect some healthy conflict and divergence of opinions on that as we find our way to a more just way. I definitely have a lot to learn!