Meet Jim Garrison, Integral City Meshworker 2021
Jim Garrison is the Founder and President of Ubiquity University and producer of Humanity Rising. His passion and the purpose of Humanity Rising is to create a historical gathering of great minds and hearts responding to the pandemic “as a crisis not to be wasted”.
As Founder of Ubiquity University, Co-Founder of the State of the World Forum and the Gorbachev Foundation, Jim creates global learning meshworks that are Gaia-Focused, Wholistic and Action-Oriented. Demonstrating these qualities as an individual, Jim thinks like an Integral City. He is dynamic, complex, evolutionary and always vitally alive.
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Jim demonstrates all of the Integral City Intelligences at a global scale.
Contexting Intelligences
Ecosphere — Every day of Humanity Rising Jim paints a picture for the theme of the day that is sensitive to the Ecological setting of the story. He is knowledgable about all the Big Challenges faced by the Earth, recognizing that humans are not merely on the Earth, but ARE, like all life, part of the Earth – our Mother.
Emergence — Jim trusts that Resonance and Coherence result in Emergence. For a year he has invited into Humanity Rising’s explorations people who have emerged new discoveries right on the screen, in conversation and interaction. In doing so he has clearly demonstrated how not to “waste a good crisis”. Over the year, he has fearlessly parried with multiple crises and unexpected challenges – like the murder of George Floyd – and in doing so has catalyzed 12 months of generative insights.
Integral — In forming Ubiquity University, Jim invited the world’s quintessential Integral Expert, Ken Wilber, to be Chancellor of the University and backed him up with the Involutionary Expert Peter Merry as Chief Innovation Officer. Together this trio has created a field where Humanity Rising was Ubiquity U’s natural response to the pandemic, so that the evolutionary lenses of AQAL could be used “to learn the many partial truths from any crisis.” Moreover, Jim is a natural host to the 4 Voices of Integral City, equally at home with Citizens, Business/Innovators, Civic Managers and the Third Sector, and able to navigate across the 5 Maps of Integral Cities around the world.
Living — Jim’s approach to both Ubiquity University and Humanity Rising has been multi-generational. He has reached out to invite in the Next Generation on Ubiquity’s Operations Team (including Assistant, Matt Robertson). At the same time, Jim has used his very wide spheres of influence, to draw into the Humanity Rising conversations from his connections with the early days of Esalen, his catalysing of the Gorbachev Foundation and his interconnections from the State of the World Forum. As a result, Humanity Rising has cycled through a grand parade of humanity from cradle to grave in every geography and culture of the globe. This has made Humanity Rising a welcoming, inclusive and compassionate container of the Master Code of Care.
Individual and Collective Intelligences
Individual: Inner and Outer — Jim has been exemplary in demonstrating both Inner and Outer Intelligences. Each day he (or co-host) introduces Humanity Rising with a minute of meditation (and/or mantra), opening the field of Humanity Rising with deep personal inner awareness. Jim has also been faithful to bring to the series the enactment of bodywork – from breathing, to humming, to trauma release, to optimizing physical health – through diet, organic food, water and a whole range of healthy behaviours.
Collective: Structure — Jim has modelled how Humanity Rising can stabilize self-organizing complexities into structures that serve and mature. When the early Chat function in the Zoom format, started to take on a life of its own, he supported the emergence of an AfterChat Zoom Meeting that enabled the audience to see itself and engage with the information that had been shared in the main HR Zoom Webinar. As the ChatAction Group moved on to create archives and integrate resources, Jim expanded his support, so that the audience was encouraged to move from passive listeners (although the live Chat was anything but that) to active participants/contributors. Jim shifted from the early HR of 7 days per week to 5 days a week, and then supported week long intensives on Regenerativity, Cities, Peace.
Collective: Cultural — Jim’s special support of Culture in Humanity Rising has spanned the globe. Daringly, he curated the first 10 days of HR to be delivered entirely by women – and repeatedly returns to the theme of “What if women ruled the world?” Jim has introduced the poetry of Kim Rosen and the music of Gary Malkin, many forms of art, and artists from Russia to Africa to South America to New Zealand. Jim seems to live the Master Code of Care – for self, others, place and planet.
Strategic Intelligences
Inquiry — Jim’s enlivening approach to Humanity Rising is always the question – whether it has to do with American politics, or research into regenerativity or how to expand the reach of Doughnut Economics. He is always seeking to discover, “What choices do we need to make for humans to be a healthy, vibrant species in all Gaia’s eco-regions, contributing to the wellbeing of all of Gaia’s life” ?
Meshworking — Jim’s disposition is to be a natural meshworker. He can bring together the 4 Voices of the City, with functions that fit any challenge in a self-organizing way. At the same time, he stands back and allows structure to emerge through the high-capacity people he surrounds himself with (like Richard Buckley and Georg Boch as the tech support for Humanity Rising; or Shelly Alcorn Ubiquity U COO, re-purposed as an expert commentator on American political science). Jim saw the potential of a new kind of MBA and immediately seized on the twist to a new name, delighting in the invention of an MRA: Master of Regenerative Action.
Navigating — Jim seems to be an intuitive navigator – able to use the Integral City GPS with great adaptability. He senses the strong pull from the future and finds the vessel – such as Doughnut Economics – that is needed to move the most influential number of people in a generative direction. Jim always views setbacks as merely temporary and listens to his Advisors, even while he is way out front, sighting new possibilities and potentials.
Evolutionary Intelligence
Jim would not have demonstrated all the foregoing intelligences without listening to the Evolutonary Impulse that flows strongly through his being. With Humanity Rising, he has cross-pollinated a whole year of deep insights, intricate interconnections and new relationships across the globe. The energy of these discoveries has attracted the Beauty, Truth and Goodness that Jim natrually amplifies in the fields around him. Jim is a real lifeforce of the Human Hive who cannot deny the Evolutionary Impulse he is called to serve. Gaia is a planet better able to nurture her cities as Gaia’s Reflective Organs because of Jim Garrison.
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For personal, professional, intelligent investment in Humanity Rising’s initiatives in “not wasting a good crisis” we are proud to award
Jim Garrison, Meshworker of Year, 2021.
For more on Jim Garrison here.
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Definition of Meshworker
A Meshworker of the Year demonstrates the meshworking intelligence as defined on the Integral City website . Meshworking intelligence creates a “meshwork” by weaving together the best of two operating systems — one that self-organizes, and one that replicates hierarchical structures. The resulting meshwork creates and aligns complex responsive structures and systems that flex and flow.
Candidates for the Meshworkers of the Year Award invest dollars, time, effort and expertise at a level of complexity that serves a whole city or cities. Here are our previous winners:
2017: Hub Co-Evolucio, Reus, Catalonia, Spain
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