[Recently, some organizational leaders reached out to us about learning from our design process for a new product/service they're launching. Few of us were on the call, and in response to a question on "giftivism", below are Parag's short but insightful comments.]
For "giftivism" to flourish, from my local experience with various projects, I've noticed that you need a few core ingredients.
Community: this is the first core ingredient. When any group of people come together for a shared purpose, it really helps set the foundation. Closer that the purpose is to compassion, stronger the essence that is greater than sum of the individuals.
Context: sometimes we are focused on the content of a particular product or service, but our core intention is what builds the context. If I ask you what you experienced when you came to a ServiceSpace retreat, you may not remember the content -- but you'll remember the feeling. In giftivism, wrapping matters as much as the gift. :)
Commitment: because the feedback loops of generosity are unpredictable, and often long, we need to have the lasting power -- to offer our service without thinking of an exit strategy.
Conditions: whatever we do, we will have to face challenges and fail. Our projects are always affected by forces beyond the field of our control, and it will not always go where we want it to go. So we have to learn to accept, adapt and learn how to dance with emergence.
This is what I've learned from our experiments with generosity.
For "giftivism" to flourish, from my local experience with various projects, I've noticed that you need a few core ingredients.
Community: this is the first core ingredient. When any group of people come together for a shared purpose, it really helps set the foundation. Closer that the purpose is to compassion, stronger the essence that is greater than sum of the individuals.
Context: sometimes we are focused on the content of a particular product or service, but our core intention is what builds the context. If I ask you what you experienced when you came to a ServiceSpace retreat, you may not remember the content -- but you'll remember the feeling. In giftivism, wrapping matters as much as the gift. :)
Commitment: because the feedback loops of generosity are unpredictable, and often long, we need to have the lasting power -- to offer our service without thinking of an exit strategy.
Conditions: whatever we do, we will have to face challenges and fail. Our projects are always affected by forces beyond the field of our control, and it will not always go where we want it to go. So we have to learn to accept, adapt and learn how to dance with emergence.
This is what I've learned from our experiments with generosity.
Reflections
Share your thoughts or questions