Transforming how we work to build beloved economies
The research behind Beloved Economies took place over nearly eight years and involved more than one hundred contributors, including organizational leaders, practitioners, researchers, and evaluators.
Co-authors Jess Rimington and Joanna Levitt Cea began the research in 2015 as visiting scholars at Stanford University, exploring how enterprises across the U.S. were working in ways that departed from business as usual to embrace power-sharing. As the research evolved, they invited organizational leaders into a co-learning community—a group of over sixty that shared experiences, insights, and analysis to inform and shape the research.
Through interviews, case studies, and collaborative learning, the research identified and refined a set of seven core practices that connect to stand-out success and innovation through sharing power. Over forty individuals contributed as research associates, evaluators, reviewers, interviewers, expert interviewees, and more. The findings were validated through independent evaluation, published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and later expanded through collaboration with Biomimicry for Social Innovation to explore connections between the practices and patterns in nature.
This multi-year inquiry offered longitudinal analysis of practices that support “breakout innovation” —and how such practices can create ripple effects within and beyond the enterprises, including affecting broader economic systems over time.
What the research tells us:
Business as usual is profoundly undemocratic.
At the heart of this research is a key finding: most businesses unknowingly weaken both democracy and their own potential for innovation by replicating outdated practices that concentrate what we call the “rights to design” — the authority to imagine, decide, and shape how work gets done.
Skillfully redistributing rights to design unlocks success.
Businesses, organizations, and teams that depart from the status quo to work in ways that widely distribute rights to design achieve a unique form of success: breakout innovation. They outperform industry standards and achieve results that are deeply imaginative and high-value for those they serve.
There are seven practices that underpin this success.
Groups that achieve this success through sharing power follow a common pattern: They work in ways that embody seven specific practices. Regardless of industry or type of organization, these practices underpin groups’ ability to successfully channel the potential of broadly distributed rights to design.
The seven practices echo dynamics of healthy, living ecosystems:
The seven practices echo core principles from a foundational body of work in biomimicry called Life’s Principles, which distills overarching patterns embodied by nearly all living organisms and ecological systems on our planet. The similarities illuminate ways of operating together that support life.
Re-designing how businesses operate can shift the economy overall:
When groups work in ways aligned with the seven practices and achieve forms of breakout success, doing so creates powerful ripple effects: It can shift norms within a sector or industry; spark change across a geographic area; and inspire new policy.
Transforming how we work is a powerful lever of broader economic change.
We are grateful.
To the philanthropic support, the pro-bono contributions, the generosity of spirit, and profound insight shared by so many people to make this collaborative learning effort possible.
Pictured: Members of the Beloved Economy co-learning communities. Learn more in the book.