In a post-capitalist world we will still create, collaborate, and navigate conflict. But how? The Embodied Operations Framework is a living, breathing, and evolving framework that seeks to answer that question. It is one contribution living amongst many wondrous alternatives.

INVESTIGATE: CREATING THE CONDITIONS FOR CHANGE + IMPACT

PRACTICE I: In his books Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Education for Critical Consciousness, Paulo Freire defines critical consciousness as “the ability to intervene in reality in order to change it.” When we intentionally practice “reading the world” we can identify our unique social, historical, and political entry point to participate in co-creating a more democratic, just, and caring society.

PRACTICE II: Increasing somatic spaciousness—the practice of being with multiple truths, experiences, thoughts—is key for creating the conditions for change and impact. The goal isn’t necessarily to change our somatic experience, but rather it’s to nourish ourselves and our businesses/creative endeavors with what already feels resourced so that more spaciousness is created to tend to what feels less resourced.

PRACTICE III: We investigate possibilities for shared enoughness by stimulating a post-capitalist imagination and creating soulful soultions for enoughness across all creative endeavors. (Drawing from Dayna Lynn Nuckolls's definition of Abundance as “the experience of shared enoughness—everything else is theft or hoarding.”)

INTEGRATE: SUSTAINING THE CONDITIONS FOR CHANGE + IMPACT

PRACTICE I: We enact practical processes when we eliminate drudgery and implement Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), supportive automations, project management systems, and clearly identify team roles + responsibilities.

PRACTICE II: We engage in interdependent innovations when we flatten hierarchies, trust each other and our expertise, root into our unique responsibilities, and prioritize collaboration over competition.

PRACTICE III: “Change is constant. You can’t stop change, control change, or perfectly plan change. You can ride the waves of change, partner with change, and shape change.” - adrienne maree brown, Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation

Intentional Adaptation is a response practice. How will we hold change? How will we partner with change to sustain the conditions for impact in our lives and businesses? How will we practice flexibility? How will we expand our capacity to experience and practice embodied responses?

INITIATE: PARTICIPATING IN COLLECTIVE CHANGE + IMPACT

PRACTICE I: Nothing is worse than creating a strategy that your mind-body-spirit doesn’t fuck with. I teach and create Sensuous Strategies which combines the ethics of new economies, your unique essence, and (operational) essentials.

PRACTICE II: One of the values of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy is scarcity. When we believe and embody the lie that there isn’t enough time or resources then we inadvertently set sail on an individualistic journey to satisfy this insatiable feeling of inherent not enoughness. I’m offering that Aligned Action—tuning in to the aliveness in ourselves and the collective and responding accordingly—is one of the ways we reset this paradigm.

PRACTICE III: Initiating Degrowth Disciplines means that we divest from the harmful and exploitative practices of perpetual growth, we prioritize stewardship over ownership, and we engage in seasonal alignment practices as best as we can (through strategically planning for sabbaticals, no-marketing months, etc.). Degrowth Disciplines is inspired by the book Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World by Jason Hickel.

Last updated September 2022, because I’m forever learning, unlearning, and applying in real time.