This July I will be offering a course on how we might start to undertand the real new economy - not the buzz words but the underlying systems that are taking us to a more natural metaphor.
I believe that the "New Economy" is not merely a new set of technology bolted onto the old but will be eventually be based on an entirely new doctrine - a new set of rules about the role of business, power and organization.
We will see that a new set of rules is eroding the power of centralization, corporatization, dehumanization and gigantism which are the last gasps of the old business model. We will see how the new rules, based on the network, the small the human and the dispersed, are going to provide the returns that a business requires and the power to transform society and the planet.
The course will contain a set of new rules and assumptions that will show us how we can have an economy that will enhance the natural world rather than over exploit it. We will see how we can end the perceived conflict between jobs or the planet. We will see how we can have both.
The Course is full but if you would like to see how this course might work please have a look at the extension.
Normally I offer my online courses via WebCT but this summer I will be experimenting with a blog based tool that will be custom built for me by my pals at Good Basic
482W Understanding the Real New Economy
The "New Economy" is not merely a new set of technology bolted onto the old but will be eventually be based on an entirely new doctrine - a new set of rules about the role of business, power and organization.
We will see that a new set of rules is eroding the power of centralization, corporatization, dehumanization and gigantism which are the last gasps of the old business model. We will see how the new rules, based on the network, the small the human and the dispersed, are going to provide the returns that a business requires and the power to transform society and the planet.
The course will contain a set of new rules and assumptions that will show us how we can have an economy that will enhance the natural world rather than over exploit it. We will see how we can end the perceived conflict between jobs or the planet. We will see how we can have both.
The course will be based primarily on Paul Hawken's book ( Co Authored by Amory and L. Hunter Lovins) "Natural Capitalism - Creating the next industrial revolution". The material will introduce you to where business will go in the next 20 years.
The book is also available online
Course Objectives
To prepare you to be among the first to see the new rules clearly and to gain the advantage of seeing the events of our time in the right context.
Specific objectives
Some of the ideas that we will explore will include
1. The new rules. We will examine the difference in the two models - traditional capitalism and a capitalism that includes the natural world. We will see how our old rules forced our will upon the natural world and has taken its ability to support us and life to the limit. We will see how we can design a viable business model that works with nature and enhances its ability to support life and the human. We will explore the shift in underpinning metaphor from machine to cell and the shift in our own mindset from being above nature to being part of it.
2. How the new technology will transform society: where we live, power and society just as the car transformed us in the 20th century. We will look at some examples of new technologies that will transform society just as the car did in the 20th century.
3. How to see waste differently. We will see the costs of waste in the current system and change our perception from seeing waste as a cost to seeing waste as feedstock. We will look deeply into our processes and see the difference between linear systems, which create waste, to closed loop systems that value waste and use it all and so capture the full value of the inputs.
4. How we will use energy differently. We will examine how we will shift from using energy derived from the Sun’s Capital (Oil and Coal) to energy produced by the Sun’s income ( Wind Solar and Biomass). We will see that we have no energy crisis only a false dependency on oil. We will see how shifting to self-sufficiency will reduce costs and dependency, empower the small and the community and take away the power of the current energy cartels.
5. How we will revolutionize manufacturing. We will examine how the old model of the ever larger and ever more centralized plant will be replaced by the ever smaller, more flexible and more dispersed way of manufacturing. We will see how such a move empowers the small and the locally owned and weakens the large and the corporate.
6. How design will change the nature and use of buildings and materials. Designers are starting to look at structures in a new way – to fit them into the landscape and to nature. New materials are being developed that will enable us to build structures that would be as novel to us and a steam engine would be to a medieval knight. We will look at the new revolution in the design of buildings and materials that will reduce our need for energy and that will reduce our costs upstream.
7. How nature itself will be the main source of new ideas for materials, machines and processes We will look at the idea of “Biomimicry” or copying nature to make new machines or processes. Man has tended to use heat and pressure to make new things. Nature uses much cheaper enzymes, water and room temperatures. We will see how by shifting to nature’s processes, we can avoid the pollution and the costs of our current approach.
8. How we will measure the world differently. We will get a glimpse of the new accounting system that will include the costs that we currently externalize to society.
9. How nature will provide us with a new organizational model. Our traditional command and control model doesn’t work for complex organizations. We will examine the best thinking on new organic models that are derived from an understanding of the new physics and biology.
Required text & Recommended Reading
• The required course book is available at the UPEI Bookshop and is called, “Natural Capitalism – Creating the Next Industrial Revolution” by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins. The cost is $37.95 Cdn. It is published by Little Brown and Company. The ISBN is 0-316-35316-7
• You can read the book online
My website is in effect a text book online. It is designed to help you see the nature of the shift in world view from things to information. We will be using this site to look at a number of supplementary aspects not covered in the main text, such as organizational design and to add to key areas such as agriculture and biomimicry
• Recommended reading. For those that wish to deepen their knowledge
o Leadership and the New Science, Discovering Order in a Chaotic World by Margaret Wheatley. Simply the best book there is on the new approach to organization and how this new model is derived from the new science. ISBN 1-57675-055-8, Berrett Koehler
o “Biomimicry – Innovation Inspired by Nature” by Janine Benyus – Pauls’ main source on this topic and the current best book on the topic. ISBN 0-688-16099-9. Quill William Morrow
o The Ingenuity Gap How can we solve the problems of the Future? By Thomas (Tad) Homer Dixon. A compelling book showing the type of thinking required to break out of our predicament where we appear to be overwhelmed with complexity. Shows how to think in a systems way. To address many of our most challenging problems. ISBN 0-676-97148-2 Knopf Canada and for a synopsis go too
“The Great Wave - Price Revolutions and the Rhythms of History” by David Hackett Fischer. Sounds dull but is enthralling and gives you a sense of the deep patterns and structures that ebb and flow through history. Shows us why we are at the point that we are now, where we have been in the past and the pattern for the change that we are living through. ISBN 0-19-505377-x. Oxford A Review
o Out of Control The Rise of Neo-Biological Civilization by Kevin Kelly. This amazing book shows a vision of how machines will become more like living things. The complete book is online
Course requirements and structure
The course will last for 6 weeks and will have three assignments – ie specific written papers. The key to the course is a “Learning Conversation” which takes place in the Bulletin Board. 40% of the marks will be for regular participation in the bulletin board. It is mandatory that you participate regularly in the bulletin board.
The assignments will be valued at 15% for the first 2 and 30% for the final paper. The assignments will be set from a menu of topics – the course is very broad. I want to offer you enough choice to enable you to find topics that especially interest you.
Evaluation plan
• Participation 40% of the total mark
o The bulletin board is at the heart of the course. Dive in and have fun.
o I am looking for Quality and Quantity.
Quality is defined by introducing novel insights and by building well on the ideas of other.
Quantity is defined by participating 3-6 times a week
If you participate less than 3 times a week without just cause, you will fail the course immediately
• Assignments 60% of the total mark.
o Papers that simply deal with the question and repeat the class thinking will be marked in the 60-75% range
o Papers that show original thought as well as having the covered the material will be marked in the 75-85% range
o Exceptional Papers that should be published will be marked in the 85-95% range
Course Schedule
Week 1 ( July 3-10)
Reading. Please read Chapters 1-4 and “Going Home” in my website www.renew.com
In this introductory week we will explore the main differences between the current set of rules, that we all know so well that we don’t think about them, and an entirely new set of rules. You will see how the new rules are in fact in opposition to the old. In the first chapter you will be introduced to many new concepts that are expanded on later.
Here are some suggestions for beginning our dialogue on the bulletin board.
• Compare the conventional rules to the new rules
• What would be the impact of the hypercar on how and where we live?
• Discuss the role of feedback in governing natural systems and why our current systems don’t work very well
• What is the essential difference between the traditional and the new design rules?
• Tell us about a major waste opportunity that you know about?
• If we could manufacture most things locally, what might be the result on our economy and society?
Week 2 ( July 10-July 17)
Reading. Please read Chapters 5-9)
Here we will begin to go into the detail of how the new rules can be applied. We will look at the design of buildings and communities.
In particular we will see how the new rules and influence design. We will answer the question of whether the energy crisis really about focusing on finding new oil and increasing capacity? Many of the ideas in this book are about “Upstream” savings where you use design to prevent the costs from the outset. One of the myths of the old economy is that only by being efficient can you reduce costs. We will explore how much greater savings can be found by thinking organically.
We will be introduced to the power of Natural Capital. We will see how the economy depends completely on the viability of natural systems and we will begin to see how we can replace oil based fibres with fibres that are derived from solar income – plants to you and me.
The first assignment will be due on July 17. You can choose between one of the following topics:
• Choose a traditional business that sells a product and tell us in 1,000 words how it would work by using the principles of “Service”. Build on the Carrier “Coolth” idea. Find an example that we can all relate to and which could be used by the firm if they had you present your idea.
• Tell us in 1,000 words how if you were the Minister of Finance you would change the current approach to business by using taxation in your jurisdiction to bring about the right kind of behaviour. I am looking for a few good points that, when put together, will have a transforming power. So don’t give me a list but suggest a workable framework.
• If packaging is a serious problem, tell me in 1,000 words how your ideal retailer and producer would go about presenting its goods in new way.
Suggested Bulletin Discussion Topics
• Describe either your home or your place of work in the context of the new rules. How well does it fit or not?
• What would be your ideal downtown be like?
• How would you reduce your own costs at home by 50% by using the ideas in the book?
• What would a power system on PEI look like that used the principles in the book?
• What would be the impact of the new type of lease on your car where in the end the manufacturer had to take it back for final disassembly?
• In the context of the heavy subsidies for the oil and auto industry, what are the barriers to shifting to solar?
Week 3 (July 17-24)
Reading. Please read chapters 10-12. Please also go to www.renew.com and follow the links to Food
Here we will start to look at the foundations of our economy our food systems and our water systems. We will explore how vulnerable we have become and look at ways of restoring the vitality and sustainability of these keys to life.
Suggested Bulletin Topics
• How important is agriculture really?
• If there is a gradient from “OK” to “Big Trouble” in food systems where are we now?
• What is the relationship between our current system and urbanization?
• How important is accessibility to fresh water and where are we now on the gradient?
• What could you do at home about your own water use?
Week 4 (July 24-July 31)
Reading. Chapters 12-13
Here we look at two major systems, our climate and markets. We will examine the impact of our current system on climate and deal with how to get from where we are today to a new approach to energy and materials that will stabilize our relationship as a species with the biosphere. We will examine what has to be changed in our market systems to include the information needed to make allocation decisions that fit the natural world rather than, as they do today, merely export costs to the biosphere and to society.
The second assignment will be due July 31. You can choose between one of the following:
• You are the minister of Agriculture. Tell us in a 1,000 words your policy direction for agriculture in your community for the next 10 years. Provide me again not with a list per se but with a coherent policy framework that will lead us to a new type of agriculture
• You are the the minister for Energy for PEI. Tell us in 1,000 words your policy framework to get PEI out of its energy jam.
• You have just inherited $50 million dollars! Tell us in 1,00 words what kind of companies you will invest in. Use real examples where ever you can. I am looking for your investment philosophy based on the reading of this book.
Suggested Bulletin Topics
• What do you feel about global warming? How might it affect you in 30 years time?
• President Bush feels that what is needed is more oil based energy. What do you think?
• What do you feel about markets today? What do they reward and ignore?
• Critics of Kyoto say that it will cost too much to be sustainable – cost in money and jobs. Your comments please.
Week 5 ( July 31 – August 7)
Reading Chapters 14-15
Here we will examine a case study of how many of the new ideas were put into action in a community Curitiba in Brazil. We go beyond ideas to practice. We end by looking at the choices that each one of us will have to face in the next 20 years as we enter the time of crisis and opportunity.
Final Assignment will be due on August 15th. Describe two scenarios of Prince Edward Island, or your own community, in 2050 as if you were a journalist as if
• Scenario 1 - nothing has changed and we simply allow ourselves to bumble along (1,000 words) AND
• Scenario 2 - we had taken note of the opportunity and had made some key steps to adopt the new rules (1,000)
Suggested Bulletin Topics
• What are the 3 most important things that I have learned from this book?
• What do I not agree with in the book
• What has surprised me in the book?
Week 6 (August 7- August 15)
Reading This article describes the new rules of organization. Just as important as the new rules for business will be how they apply to how we organize to get work done and to get the resources that we need.
This article will show you the critical difference between the traditional and the new networked organization. Please look at the links to Dee Hock and to Margaret Wheatley for additional insight on the origins and forms of the new organization.
Suggested Bulletin Topics
• How does my current organization work?
• What kind of work conditions are important to me?
You will find the course evaluation below. Please fill it in and send it to Mollie Cooke at the Dean’s Office at [email protected]
This is the end of our course. I hope that it has been rewarding for you.
Thanks
Rob
Evaluation
COURSE EVALUATION (Web)
Part I - Course Evaluation
INSTRUCTIONS: For each of the following statements, rate the course by circling yes or no, and/or by writing a brief comment in the available space.
COURSE AND CONTENT:
1. The required textbook was useful. Yes No
Comment:
2. Assignments were useful in learning subject matter. Yes No
Comment:
3. My interest in this subject area has been stimulated by this course. Yes No
Comment:
4. Given the course content, this course was very worthwhile. Yes No
Comment:
5. The course was easy to access on any computer. Yes No
Comment:
6. The course was user-friendly. Yes No
Comment:
7. The questions used for discussion were easy to understand and complete. Yes No
Comment:
8. Course topics and concepts are examined well in each module of the course. Yes No
Comment:
Part II - Instructor Evaluation
The role of the instructor for an on-line course is somewhat different than a live classroom atmosphere. The instructor’s role in an on-line course is to facilitate discussion, answer questions and evaluate your performance. Keeping this in mind, please complete the next set of questions.
THE INSTRUCTOR:
1. Displays a thorough understanding of the course topics. Yes No
Comment:
2. Facilitated the practice and application of the management skills covered
in the course. Yes No
Comment:
3. Respects students as persons. Yes No
Comment:
4. Communicates ideas effectively. Yes No
Comment:
5. Were you able to easily contact the professor? Yes No
Comment:
