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How ServiceSpace Responded -- And Questions It RaisesPosted by Nipun Mehta on Apr 23, 2020
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What patterns do we sense collectively, that we can't sense individually?

How do we lead with emergence, well beyond emergencies?

What are our practices to embrace uncertainty?
All our content portals went into full-throttle mode from the very early indications. Pavi’s DailyGood team started running stories like Kindness from Wuhan, old classics like We Were Made for These Times, and new gems like This is Not a Rehearsal by a Palestinian American poet. Yoo-mi and the KarmaTube crew were featuring videos like Connected, and What Insect Teach Us About Stress. Plus Nimo's latest premiere: Prayer. Somik featured Lynn Ungar poem, Lockdown, on Awakin website before it went viral. Preeta and the Awakin Calls crew started reframing their conversations with thought leaders. Our jammin' social media team experimented with different ways to spread patterns of positive deviance. Millions of ripples, all around.

Is this a war or a love story?
Speed of love is a real thing. Perhaps most dramatically, at some point in mid-March, we doubled down on that narrative by launching an entirely new portal of people responding with compassion: KarunaVirus. It went from an idea to launch in two days. TWO days. Right away, we got dozens of people wanting to volunteer. In two weeks, we had oriented and built a team of 31 active volunteers, who were cranking out close to 100 inspiring stories per week. We didn’t even need to activate our compassion bot. :) Everyday, we hear about what the site means to people. Just this morning, a reader named Susan wrote: "These stories are a light in the dark. Thank you for transforming 'news' and spreading love. Movements like this just might save humanity."

As the mainstream machinery consolidates power to return us to “normal”, what designs will allow a thousand flowers to bloom?

How do we midwife the new that is being born, while also hospicing the old that is dying?

What starts with a simple thought or a conversation, just keeps on going and going and going -- because our design principles strip away so many of the roadblocks, and because we work with an ecosystem.
Few days ago, I spoke at the Mayor’s Interfaith breakfast in Lincoln, Nebraska. By itself, a talk can only do so much. But if a cocoon of laddership contains our small act, an entirely different possibility unfolds. In this case, Preeta’s *laddership* turned ripples into waves. Post-event, D’arcy wrote about someone who took four pages of notes to apply the principles locally, Alyssa is collecting beautiful stories of kindness that people are submitting, one local religious leader wants to start Karma Coffee, and the Mayor’s ServiceSpace-inspired speech on compassion and networks will soon find itself on DailyGood. Today’s press coverage announced a partnership of four organizations to launch NeighborLink -- a new initiative connecting elders with volunteers around deep listening. A city-wide 21-day challenge is in the works, alongside KarunaVirus Lincoln Edition. It’s a cascading domino effect, that likely will continue on and on. At the follow-up press conference, Preeta articulated an insightful corollary:
The virus is teaching us how it spreads via: (a) our external connections to others, (b) our internal immunity, and (c) the contagious factor of the pathogen (often known as R-nought value). ServiceSpace, through its various inner and outer platforms, does the opposite: (a) boosts our external connections, (b) lowers our immunity (resistance) to the signals of the heart, and (c) inserts drops of virtue (with high R-naught factors) into the network.
More fundamentally, a pandemic reminds us that everything is connected. And in a many-to-many way. Yet, while a virus inspires us to cooperate to preserve our Self, can such action emerge while dissolving the Self? That's at the core of the ServiceSpace inquiry. Covid-19 is surely contagious, but our hypothesis is that compassion is even more contagious. Such times of collective suffering make virtue visible, and even if the light stays on momentarily, we can't unsee the good that we saw.
It’s time to get to work.
P.S. Few ServiceSpace anchors are having a brainstorming call this Sunday: Responding to Emergence, Designing for Uncertainty Anyone is welcome to join and listen-in.
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Comments (16)
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Fran Faraz wrote ...
It's nice to have you back Nipun! Loved reading this recap of things happening around the world. I'm inspired by all these stories.
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jon madian wrote ...
What a fine synthesis--what we've all come to expect from Nipun. What he summarizes reminds me that Service Space may be one of the best examples on the planet of what Adrienne Marie Brown calls "Emergent Systems"... in which people join together to solve shared problems based on sensitivity and intelligence in decentralized and deeply democratic processes. Nipun, thank you for the incredible clarity and bottom up leadership that has made Service Space a model of so many virtues.
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Rajalakshmi Sriram wrote ...
What a wonderful and succinct summary. Feeling connected and happy to read this. Love and best wishes to all
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Grace Dammann wrote ...
Thank you so much, Nipun, and thank you to all the busy workers whose efforts have been involved. I sent it off to many because it makes me so happy to be alive and so grateful.
Deeply bowingðŸ™
Grace -
Janessa Wilder wrote ...
All the good takes my breath away...gratitude to all those selfless leaders holding the space for this speed-of-love emergence...
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Bonnie Rose wrote ...
This is one of the most inspiring things I've ever read. Thank you so much, ServiceSpace, for all you do, but also for stretching me into new ways of thinking and being. I'm going to print this and read it every day -- then aspire to "live like the Truth is True." Blessings. xo
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Somik Raha wrote ...
Inspiring to read this, Nipun! Thank you!
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Joserra G. wrote ...
Beautiful to see the blurry boundaries between ServiceSpace and an emergent culture and society! I just love how these values are spreading more and more and integrating into so many spaces naturally! And definitely the COVID is helping us reconnect with these greater inner service spaces, the space in our hearts :). Selfless self-organizing of Love!
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tom charles osher wrote ...
We want to hit the ground running once the quarantine is lifted to insure that we go in the direction where love is the bottom line and not profit. We have real strategies and ideas to help make this happen. Everyone is welcome to participate with us, as it requires many to help steer this ship we are all on in the opposite direction that it has been going, to restructure the way we govern ourselves (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO2hJXpK-N4&feature=youtu.be). Please visit utopiacornucopia.org and we are looking for bot builders (not chatbots).
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Arun Wakhlu wrote ...
Thank you Nipun for that lovely overview of the glorious emergence that is happening. Feeling so happy ,and grateful to all in the ecosystem. Much Love ~ Arun
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Saket Kumar wrote ...
Thank you Nipun for sharing this inspiring story to us. Thank you for bringing all this amazing stories across the globe.
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Jane Smith wrote ...
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Taylor wrote ...
I really appreciate this man! Accurate! party bus rental orange county
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Jelai wrote ...
Thank you Nipun for sharing this inspiring story.. professional photography services
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em wrote ...
Thank you Nipun for posting this recap of what happened. Glad to have someone that is as sturdy as a timber that we can rely on.
Nilam Chauhan wrote ...
Thank you Nipun for bringing all the amazing stories from all over the globe to us and keeping us connected with lovely kind people, in the time of isolation ðŸ™