In creating the pages of this website I’ve used everyday language wherever possible, avoiding dispiriting words and phases such as ideation, employee engagement and delivering change. The Now-to-New practitioner’s glossary consists of terms that may be unfamiliar or obscure. In those cases where I’ve repurposed an existing term or invented a new one, I’ve tagged the entry with the ♥ symbol.
A synthesis of the activating powers of Groundedness (1), Faith (4) and Openness (7) that awakens organic imagination. See also Transcend the Mundane.
Anti-value ♥
The degenerative counterpart of value. Anti-value is more than dissatisfaction. It manifests as an experience of physical pain or emotional upset arising from a poorly designed or malfunctioning value generator, or from the denial of previously received and possibly taken for granted value. Anti-value generation may be deliberate or unintended.
Read more here: What is value and how is it generated?
If goodwill is an asset, then badwill is a liability. Badwill comes about when customers or other beneficiaries (past, present and potential) make public their experience of anti-value generated by the enterprise. Badwill can play out in the form of decreased revenue, loss of clients or suppliers, loss of market share, or damaged reputation—sometimes so great that it brings about the demise of the enterprise.
Beneficiary
A person, group or enterprise gaining some sort of value by virtue of an enterprise’s existence, its activities or the value generators (products, services, facilities etc.) it produces. See also Stakeholder.
Beneficiary group ♥
A cluster of entities that gain value from an enterprise in the same way, such as customers, suppliers or investors.
Read more about beneficiaries, beneficiary groups and beneficiary sets
The complete set of beneficiary groups for a given enterprise.
Read more about beneficiaries, beneficiary groups and beneficiary sets
The means available to an individual, group or enterprise for undertaking a specified course of action or for achieving a desired outcome. Based on Wikipedia.
Related article: How capabilities can unleash business performance, by John Hagel, John Seely Brown, and Maggie Wooll, on Deloitte Insights.
Capability and capacity should not be used interchangeably. See Capacity vs. Capability: What’s the Difference? by Caroline Kealey.
See also Potential.
See Meeting, co-creation.
Concept
An elaborated or fully-formed idea.
Create vs. generate
An enterprise creates a value generator (such as a product or a service) which generates value when the beneficiary interacts with it. An enterprise cannot create value — it can only create value generators.
Creative power
The fire in the belly of a Now-to-New practitioner.
Degenerative
Geared toward generating anti-value or thwarting value generation, either deliberately or unintentionally. See also Generative.
Downstream
Distant from the source. Happening later in a sequence of activities. See also Upstream.
Faith
In its secular form, faith is “a critical but curious mind’s readiness to adopt a reality model (even if provisionally) for which there is less than absolute, empirical proof” (Jay B. Gaskill). As one of the Now-to-New practitioner’s seven creative powers, Faith is an existential commitment of the heart to transcending the mundane, creating the new and enriching the world with value, meaning and joy.
Read about the difference between trust and faith
View a collection of quotes about faith
Is a good fit with the project’s demands and dynamics. Meets the design specification. The key fits the lock. View lock-and-key graphic
Fullness ♥
From growth, fruitfulness and maturation to a state of completeness in which the creation exists in all its glory, being all it can be. Value generation potential fully realised.
Generate vs. create
See Create vs. generate.
Generative
Geared toward generating value, meaning and joy. Seeking to create that which improves people’s lives and makes the world a better place. World-enriching. There are two main levels of generative action. Level 1 is action aimed at generating value for others (let someone borrow your bike). Level 2 is action aimed at creating that which generates value for others, again and again (let them keep your bike). See also Degenerative.
Hill, Napoleon
Napoleon Hill was an American author best known for his book Think and Grow Rich! (1937) — among the best-selling self-help books of all time.
Read more about Napoleon Hill and Think and Grow Rich!Riches cannot always be measured in money!
Money and material things are essential for freedom of body and mind, but there are some who will feel that the greatest of all riches can be evaluated only in terms of lasting friendships, harmonious family relationships, sympathy and understanding between business associates, and introspective harmony which brings one peace of mind measurable only in spiritual values!
Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich! 1938 edition published by The Ralston Society, Meriden, Conn., USA
Holistic
A credible definition of holism must itself be holistic, but the limitations of language make this impossible. Holistic is the converse of reductionist. See also Reductionism; Wholeness. Read the article What does holistic mean?
Idea
In contrast to a concept, an idea is the initial spark; a raw thought, notion, proposition, suggestion or plan, often prompted by a tacit or explicit question. An idea can be conceived at several levels of abstraction. Here are examples in response to the question “How might we bring Now-to-New to people’s attention?”
- Website (level = general).
- Social networking website (intermediate).
- Social networking website built on BuddyBoss Platform (specific).
An idea that is both potent (it displays the potential to generate extensive or exceptional value) and fitting (it’s a good fit with the project’s demands and dynamics, and it meets the design specification).
Imagination, organic
Organic imagination is associated with the brain’s right hemisphere and primal world. It is natural, spontaneous and inspired, and presents compelling possibilities for world enrichment, together with an intuitive sense of how these possibilities might be actualised.
Imagination, synthetic
Synthetic imagination is associated with the brain’s left hemisphere and mundane world. It is mechanical, laboured and derivative, recalling and repurposing buried thoughts, connecting disparate notions, and combining existing ideas into new ones
— an approach known as combinatorial creativity. Synthetic imagination is deployed when elaborating a high potential idea or bundle of ideas into a fleshed out concept. The term synthetic imagination was originated by Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich!
Read more about the synthetic and organic forms of imagination
Impulse
Something that causes something to happen or happen more quickly; an impetus. View source
An impelling force or motion. View source
Intent
Intent is a world-enriching purpose, an unwavering desire to be of service and to enrich the world, or a piece of it, with value, meaning and joy. Intent can also refer to the creative impulse, the invisible but palpable force concerned with creating the new and bringing it to fullness.
Aligning with the creative impulse of the universe
Iain McGilchrist in conversation with Niall McKeever, The Weekend University
Running time 1:06:01
Intervention
A shrewdly-designed action or set of actions taken in order to bring about a shift from Now (the current state of affairs) to New (the desired state). Read more about Now-to-New
Joy
Read more about joyLearn this:
There is only one certainty, and that is joy.
Everything can be explained: joy has no explanation.
We cannot explain why we are joyful.
Joy is our task.
What you receive is a source of joy for the joyless.Source: Talking with Angels; oral text by Hanna Dallos; transcription and commentary by Gitta Mallasz
Laity, the ♥
That part of the economy in which individuals or groups are engaged in Now-to-New projects on their own account and not under the auspices of an employer organisation. Here are some examples of such projects: establishing a YouTube channel, seeking to reopen a local train station or railway line, setting up a community radio station, revitalising a struggling community, and starting a business or nonprofit organisation.
Manifest, the
The universe and all it contains. Everything that exists. The created world. The manifest is dimensioned (located in spacetime), describable and knowable. Sometimes referred to as the material realm. See also the Unmanifest.
McGilchrist, Iain
Dr Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher, philosopher and literary scholar, best known for his work on the differences between the left and right hemispheres of the brain and their impact on our perception of and interaction with the world. He is the author of several books, notably The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World and The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World.
Read more about Iain McGilchrist and his hypothesis of brain hemisphere differences
That which makes life and work truly worthwhile. Source: Edward Matchett.
A felt connection to self, others and the world. Source: Kaleb, founder of the Kompendium Project.
Read more about meaning
Meeting, co-creation ♥
A collaborative gathering taking place over half a day, an entire day or several days, and usually forming part of a broader programme of work aimed at solving a pressing problem, effecting a desired change or bringing into being something new that will generate value for customers or users and other beneficiaries. Such a meeting brings together diverse stakeholders, often in large numbers (the upper limit being constrained only by the capacity of the preferred venue) and with widely-differing agendas and perspectives, in order to discuss issues of heartfelt concern, share ideas, pool knowledge, explore possibilities and devise plans for sustained collaborative action.
Read more about co-creation meetings
A meta generator 1 is a producer of value generators (products, services etc.) — typically an enterprise. A meta generator 2 is a producer of meta generators, such as an entrepreneur. View graphic
Mundane, Transcend the
Transcend the Mundane is a superpower formed of three of the seven powers: Faith, Openness and Groundedness. Transcending the mundane means breaking free from the confines of mundane world, entering primal world and activating the four creative powers, one of which is organic imagination.
See also Mundane world; Primal world, 147.
The everyday world, a default reality where people spend most of their waking lives. A world of descriptions. If something can be named, described and explained, it’s part of mundane world. Mundane world is the sum total of everything we know and everything the rational mind can imagine. Situated in primal world, we experience life in the raw — visceral, untamed, unfiltered, uncodified and unconceptualised — but in mundane world, we experience only a representation of reality, a video that we mistake for the live performance.
Read more about mundane worldThe first attention basically consists of everything that ordinary man considers it means to be human. It is the reality that has been constructed and developed in order to deal with the daily world and encompasses an awareness restricted to the physical body.
Lorraine Voss, Female Warrior (view)
See also Primal world; Transcend the Mundane.
A person employing the Now-to-New way of.transcending the mundane, imagining what could be, bringing it into being and realising its value generation potential.
Now-to-New ♥
Now-to-New refers to a shift from the present situation (Now) to what is needed instead (New).
There are seven kinds of Now-to-New work, which are are neither mutually exclusive nor collectively exhaustive:
- Creating products, services, facilities, enterprises, work practices, anything.
- Transforming a problematic situation into a non-problematic one..
- Changing the current situation into what is needed instead.
- Surmounting a tough challenge.
- Responding to a request or demand.
- Developing — increasing value generation capability or value generation potential.
- Realising value generation potential or fully utilising value generation capability.
Organisation
A group of people who work together in an organised way for a shared purpose. Source: Cambridge Dictionary.
Possibility
What could be. A possibility is imagined in the present tense, as though the imagined scenario is current reality.
Potent
Having great power, force, influence or effect. To the Now-to-New practitioner, it means showing the potential to generate extensive (widespread) or exceptional (hard or impossible to acquire by other means) downstream value.
Potential
Possible future yield, given favourable conditions. See also Capability.
Power
Agency. “The capability of doing or accomplishing something.” – Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary via The Free Dictionary. See also Creative power; Value generation capability.
Powers, seven
Now-to-New practitioners have at their disposal seven powers, each associated with a certain part of the body.
Openness, Faith and Groundedness are activating powers.
Imagination, Materialisation, Conceptualisation and Realisation are creative powers.
Read more about the seven powers
Primal world (right hemisphere, second attention)
An indescribable place of pure perception. This world cannot be explained or proved to exist; it can only be experienced. Primal world is raw reality, untamed, unfiltered, uncodified and unconceptualised. When you are immersed in primal world, you are able to activate and deploy organic imagination. Read more about primal world. See also Mundane world.
Readiness work ♥
Readiness work enables Now-to-New practitioners to prime themselves for the appearance of a potent and fitting idea by becoming immersed in the demands and dynamics of the project and having a felt sense of the new reality in which the envisioned value will arise. Readiness work enables team or group members to activate and deploy organic imagination.
Read more about Readiness work
An attempt or tendency to explain a complex set of facts, entities, phenomena, or structures by another, simpler set. Source: American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. The converse of reductionist is holistic.
Sensemaking / sense-making
Sense-making is about understanding the world in a way that allows us to take meaningful action. Source: Dave Snowden, The Cynefin Company (formerly Cognitive Edge).
Service, unconditional
Selfless action taken for the benefit of others, motivated by a fervent desire to enrich the world. When we give unconditional service, we help others without wanting anything in return. Coming from the heart, unconditional service is unconditional love made manifest through generative action.
Speech act
Something expressed by an individual that not only presents information but performs an action as well. Source: Wikipedia — Speech act. A speech act may be an intervention: the right thing, said by the right person, to the right person, at the right moment, in the right way, such that it triggers the desired state of affairs.
Spirit
StakeholderThe animating force throughout creation. An unseen force that is life, the divine, the nagual, the light. To live a spiritual life is to identify oneself as the animator of creation, rather than as creation.
Allan Hardman, The Everything Toltec Wisdom Book | Sample 48 pages on Google Books
An individual or group that has an interest in any decision or activity of an organisation. Source: American Society for Quality. See also Beneficiary.
Strategy
Strategy is how you overcome the obstacles that stand between where you are and what you want to achieve. Source: Richard Rumelt, Why bad strategy is a ‘social contagion’, on McKinsey & Company website.
Superpowers, three
The seven powers combine to form three superpowers: Transcend the Mundane (Openness + Faith + Groundedness), Enrich the World (Imagination + Realisation), and Create the New (Conceptualisation + Materialisation). Transcend the Mundane must be activated in order to activate Enrich the World and Create the New.
Read more about the seven powers and three superpowers
“System is illusory. All systems we fancy we observe in nature are merely constructions of the observer, and the ‘interconnected web’ or ‘system’ view of the universe is no more than a fairy tale.” Source: James Wilk, unpublished manuscript, emphasis mine. See also Wholeness.A system is a whole that consists of parts — each of which can affect the system’s behaviour or properties. The parts of a system are interdependent — therefore no part or collection of parts of a system has an independent effect on it. A system is therefore a whole that cannot be divided into independent parts. The essential or defining properties of any system are properties of the whole — which none of its parts have. A system is not the sum of the behaviour of its parts — it’s a product of their interactions. If you were to select the best parts from all the models of automobile in the world, you could not assemble them into the world’s best automobile — in fact you couldn’t create an automobile at all, because the parts don’t fit together. It is foolish to seek to improve the quality of a part of the system unless the quality of the system as a whole is simultaneously improved.
Source: Russell Ackoff, If Russ Ackoff had given a TED Talk (video; 12:18). summarised by Geoff Marlow
Transcend
To rise above or go beyond the ordinary limits of.
Unmanifest, the
The source of everything that exists, has existed and could exist. Infinite possibility. The creating world. The nonmaterial realm. The unmanifest is dimensionless (not located in spacetime), indescribable and unknowable.
Upstream
Closer to the source. Happening earlier in a sequence of activities. See also Downstream. Value
Tangible or intangible benefit. The three main forms of value are economic value, conceptual value, and experienced value. On this website, I mostly talk about experienced value, which encompasses meaning and joy. Value is not delivered as if by FedEx. It is co-created when the beneficiary (e.g. consumer or user) interacts with the value generator (product, service etc.). See Wikipedia: Service-dominant logic and Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing (pdf; 18 pages) by Stephen L. Vargo and Robert F. Lusch.
Read more elsewhere on this website: What is value and how is it generated?
The kind of value you only notice when it is absent — generally, you only notice the anti-value that is generated when functional value is absent. “Salt is the stuff that makes potatoes taste horrible if you don’t put any in,” —Dr D. J. Stewart.
Read more here: What is value and how is it generated?
The means available to an individual, group or enterprise for generating value or creating that which generates value.
Value generation potential
The value a value generator (product, service, facility, event, establishment, artistic work etc.) or meta generator (an enterprise for example), could be generating when conditions are favourable. Potential is the what (the possible future yield) and capability is the how (skilled people, equipment, money and other means).
Value generator ♥
Something tangible or intangible that produces experienced value when the user interacts with it, such as a product, service, facility (this website, for instance), event (conference, party, festival), establishment (museum, theatre, restaurant), or artistic work (book, song, piece of music, painting, theatrical production). Academics Stephen Vargo and Robert Lusch, co-originators of service-dominant logic, use the term appliance in much the same way as I use value generator.
Vision of realised potential ♥
A depiction — an actual picture accompanied by a vivid and compelling synopsis — of how the world will look, sound and feel when the person, group or enterprise is fully utilising its value generation capability and manifesting its intent without constraint.
Wholeness
“An undivided or unbroken completeness or totality with nothing wanting.” Source: The Free Dictionary. Wholeness is all-encompassing, transcending the dualistic nature of mundane reality, and cannot be reduced to parts (see Holistic). Neither can it be reduced to a pithy definition or distilled into an elegant concept. “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.” Lau Tzu.
World-enriching
Seeking to generate significant value for customers or users, other beneficiaries and wider society.
Worldview
An individual’s set of fundamental beliefs and organising principles; his or her unquestioned assumptions about the nature of reality and the human place in it. A worldview is like the operating system in a computer, controlling operations behind the scenes but mostly outside the user’s awareness. When someone upgrades his or her worldview, certain things that were previously impossible become possible, and some things that were difficult become easy. Generally, a new worldview does not replace the old one, but subsumes it. Read more: How our worldviews are evolving
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