Sharing one with nonfiXe: a brief look into Only Winners

Only Winners is difficult to summarize, because of the richness of the material. It contains an inspiring philosophy for change to a society with Only Winners, a Joint Effort Society. The book offers a working method, new conceptual framework and toolbox for practice as well.

With the help of grand masters, such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Donella Meadows, Jean Paul Sartre, Joseph Schumpeter, John Stuart Mill, John Keanes and many others, the writers developed a philosophy for sustainable development that is hard to oppose, since all win.

Ecology is the new bottom-line for wellbeing, peace and economical growth. Man has to partner with nature, and with other men. Man has to learn to dance with systems, as well. For one never knows the side-effect when interfering in a complexity. Agility, flexibility and being connected can work for a sustainable development. Especially when the grass-root is supported by the top and vice verse. The behaviour of one person, the freedom and responsibility of all, rooted in a true democracy – of which the Harvard Mutual Gains Approach is one exponent - and innovations in production, services and communication together do the trick.

The heart of the matter can be found in the Only Winners Matrix that is intended to inspire and guide into new thinking and doing. The Matrix is not a fixed model, but dynamic and therefore applicable to different situations and issues.

It consists of three development stages: destruction – deconstruction – construction. These tend to occur one after the other in daily life. They root in the S-curve of economist Richard N. Foster as well as in Jacques Derrida’s thinking.

Next to the phases there are solution-finding clusters: behaviour – technology (including procedures) – decision-making.

The development phases and the solution-finding clusters are set on two axes and form a matrix, the Only Winners Matrix. This matrix is loaded with concepts. These concepts are changeable, even for new concepts, as long as they obey seven criteria – of which four are based on the Natural Step Approach.

You can read more on Only Winners at www.ecolutie.nl in English and Dutch. There a different summary can be found as well, in English, Spanish, German and Dutch.

Image: Barend van Hoek, pencil on paper, 2012. From: Allemaal Winnen, naar een andere wereld. Auteur: Frank van Empel. Publisher: Studio nonfiXe

This article originally appeared on www.nonfixe.nl

Allemaal Winnen, ISBN 978.94.90665.043 / e-versie, ISBN 978.94.90665.050

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