6 Degrees Of Integration

Where does your created value goes? Who’s the real beneficiary of your work? Ever wonder how this world is carrying your value to the final destination? It’s more and more obvious that the traditional way of spreading value is outdated. More and more people are losing jobs, more and more companies are going bankrupt, more and more standards are challenged. A worldwide crisis is starting to unveil a reality that we’re not yet ready to accept.

Lost In Translation

The huge structure created for spreading value – and that would be what we call “the economy” – is starting to decay. All those elaborated structures like “business”, “banks” or “stock markets” are breaking one after another under a huge pressure. The world economy is crashing. Somewhere, somehow, there is a deep crack in the model.

And the main problem with this outdated model is that your value does not reach the final beneficiary anymore. Before reaching out, your value is translated into money, stock options or shares. Between you and the beneficiary is a long line of frozen structures which are filtering away everything, except profit. Those structures are limiting your value. You might be an honest individual, a skilled person or a talented worker, but somehow, the mechanism in which you are performing is broken, and the object of your work is not reaching out the way it should be. Your value is lost in translation.

A Web Of Opportunities

The actual economical structures are imbalanced, that’s obvious. This is a linear model: a business, with a set of products / services, sold to potential clients and maintained by a hierarchical structure. If you look carefully will see that the most threatened organizations by the crisis are also the most hierarchically frozen: banks, stock markets. Every falling organization has a fixed structure. But the problem is the world is not on a fixed structure anymore. Things are going too fast and in such an unpredictable manner that a linear model cannot describe it anymore.

If we could take the hierarchy out of the model and instead of focusing on positions would focus on genuine delivered value, maybe the things will change. Maybe if we could create a model of interposed webs of relationships,  instead of a fixed business chart, our value will reach the beneficiary faster and untampered. Maybe if we could focus on value and not on hierarchy, on actual needs and not on profit the economy will change for good. For our good, of course.

6 Degrees Of Integration

You know the axiom of 6 degrees of separation? It says that on this planet, between you and the most distant person you can imagine are only 6 links. You could reach to anybody on Planet Earth just by making 6 connections, no more. If this is true, why not create a paradigm of 6 degrees of integration? A blueprint for delivering results in only 6 steps? A model in which you will deliver value totally different than before, in only 6 connections?

How would a paradigm like this will look?

1. You

The center of your value creation process should be you. You should do things that are empowering you, things that are making you happy and joyful. No guilt, no fear, no scarcity. Build different skills, get healthier, enjoy your life. Don’t compromise your true values for your boss or for your job. Start with you, because only when you’re complete and balanced you can start helping others.

2. Family

By family I understand your close relationship, as in a couple and/or your kids. The next step after you’ve balanced yourself is to reach to your closest ones and support. Or even enhance: train them, help them, give advice. Make them the second beneficiaries of your created value. They are the closest layer of social interaction to you, make that interaction valuable.

3. Friends

Have you ever tried to really support your friends, not just ask stuff for them? If not, try it once, it will turn out it’s a fulfilling experience. Spread your talents, your knowledge and experience in your circle of friends. Let them enjoy the benefits of having you around. Create the best value you can and share it freely with your friends.

4. Professional Community

You can have a series of skills that can make you part of a bigger community. Go there and share. You’re a programmer, a teacher, a healer; whatever you are, go spread your skills in your community first. Let them know you’re there and you’re available. Soon, the value you carry will be recognized and you’ll be associated with it. It’s a process called personal branding.

5. Clients

If you sell your value directly to the clients, that’s the layer in which you are making the actual exchange. That’s the layer in which you provide your product and you receive the associated value. This is the place where you are prepared to start a mutually profitable exchange. You don’t really need a business as a structure, but you need somebody who needs your service: your clients.

6. World

After the clients, world can be your playground. World is another word here for “everybody else”. And I mean it: after your value has reached the intended beneficiaries, you can actually interact with everybody else on this planet, and share your value. 20 years ago interacting with anybody on the planet would have been called a utopian scenario (and I’m aware that this 6 degrees of integration post is a somehow utopian scenario today) but after the Internet explosion you can actually interact with basically anybody.

Asking For More

Such a model could not exist if there is no demand for it. If there’s one rule that would survive any economical crisis this is the offer and demand rule. In order to start a new economical model you must start acting in a certain way. You must starting make a demand for that. Act like you need things in a certain way and you will see the web of relationships reorganizing to meet your demands.

1. You

If you will receive more from yourself, be ready to receive it. Want more. Ask more. Expect more from yourself. Challenge yourself and enjoy the results. Modesty is a healthy reaction but it can become a very boring lifestyle. Be proud of yourself and set higher standards. Every day.

2. Family

Ask things from those close to you. Interact and ask for things. They cannot start to deliver value to you if there’s no demand for it. Create that demand and make them understand they are able to give that value to you. They are the ones, not somebody else.

3. Friends

Expect that your friends will provide you stuff and appreciate them for that. Make them not only feel important for the services they are providing to you, but treat them as reliable persons. Expect that they can rely on you and that you can rely on them. Build stronger expectations.

4. Professional Community

Ask for advice. Reach out, promote yourself, let the others know that you are there. Share your experience and create a need for other doing the same thing. Involve and get involved, keep that community shaped and ready to respond to your needs. And be ready to respond in kind.

5. Clients

Reach out and look for clients. Don’t wait for fixed structures to grow between you and your potential clients. Let them know you’re there and you can provide. Be present, be available. Start identifying your clients and start meeting their needs. It’s not that complicated.

6. World

Participate in social networks. Make new friends. See new places and search for new experiences. Travel and look for opportunities. Don’t stay in a fixed place, let yourself flowing and trust your flow. Interact with new persons and let them know you exist. Be there.

***

Those 6 degrees of integration may change the way we deliver value to the world. A model based on that will be at least centered on humans and not on profits. And there’s no need for a full replacement of the actual value propagation model. I’m pretty sure they can coexist on the same universe for the beginning, only on parallel vibrations.

Imagine now what would be like to lose your job in a model like this. You can’t imagine, of course, because there is no job. But there is value, there is interaction and there is growth. There will be no structures to fall down and no walls between you and the ones who need your value. A dynamic web of relationships will always be more flexible than any linear and fixed model.

The only thing we need in order to start something like this is just a little more awareness. A little bit of honesty and courage. And trust in the others and in ourselves. Considering that the alternative would be to look at the macabre show of our falling economic structures, I think it’s better to start something new.

It’s up to us. 🙂




8 thoughts on “6 Degrees Of Integration”

  1. Thank you for this very interesting post, i agree with Angela, we all need plenty of encouragement at the moment & positive attitude in order to get through these difficult times.

    Reply
  2. Thank you for the practical, useful and thoughtful post. We all need encouragement these days! Make best use of what is available – sounds like Surfing the Tao to me.

    Angela’s last blog post..The White House Organic Garden: Helpful or Hypocrisy?

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  3. @BunnygotBlog Thanks for your kind words, I don’t think I have the physical time to write as much as I would want to. I chose to have a life too, besides this blog, and that’s time consuming. Well, most of the time 🙂 You’re right, it’s all about attitude and attitude can change structures. One thing is for sure: value will not be propagated the way it was until today.

    Reply
  4. @Jonathan thanks for sharing the same vibration here. Yes, I think we assist to a very big change in the world of economics and as strange or as utopian as they might sound right now, those possibilities can become reality sooner or later.

    Reply
  5. You are having a hot streak with your writing this week. This is another wonderful article that points out the importance of how to balance or establish harmony in your life.

    A change is definitely in order but often change takes time. The fact remains you must make the change to establish a better life and atmosphere.

    I feel that here in the US, a gradual change has started to improve the economy. Only time will tell how fast and solid the changes will be.

    The company I worked at a few years back have had many lay-offs and are planing to have more. The fact remains turning this situation into a positive opportunity instead of the end of the world as you have known it, is the attitude one has to take.

    Cheers

    BunnygotBlog’s last blog post..Listen To Your Gut, Part 3 – Edith Luchins

    Reply
  6. When any social structure decays it is replaced with a new variation. The replacement is usually based on values and principals ignored or forgotten by its predecessors. Let’s look at what we know. The current system is based on a method of exchange that serves the few at the expense of the many. The current system is crumbling. Something has got to change. When caring people look for ways to create positive change amazing things can happen. Now, more than any other time in history, individuals have the means to be heard. This post is a good example of the possibilities that are waiting to be explored. Nice job Dragos.

    Jonathan – Advanced Life Skills’s last blog post..There is No Overnight Success

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