Richard D. Bartlett - Meaningful work, social fabric, and flourishing

We find ourselves in a world that feels incongruent and unfamiliar, changing socially and technologically at paces that expose conventional explanations as inadequate. Climate change, pandemics, political unrest have punctuated this new century and feel like clarion calls for new ways of being and being together. Enter Richard D. Bartlett — someone who has been a pioneer in thinking about these new modes.

Richard brings these new modes to the world in rich ways - perhaps first in 2012 when he co-founded Loomio, a digital tool for deliberation and decision-making for groups from a few to a few hundred. He applied his philosophies to the management of groups in 2016 through the Hum, which helps guide management practices for decentralized organizations. 

There’s a through line to Richard’s work in helping people help each other do meaningful work and to create meaningful change in this world. He’s a long time member and Director of the inspiring Enspiral network, which is a role model for these changes. 

Over the past decade Richard has become a thought-leader in decentralized organizations and proliferated the Enspiral model through the affecting Microsolidarity movement and he writes prolifically, most recently through his book Patterns of Decentralized Organization. 

I’ve long wanted to hear Richard’s story and learn the patterns of his path through the world and his time on Origins Podcast does not disappoint.