The Boost Economy — Change our economy by boosting others as we build our businesses

It’s much easier to understand our own motivations than to get into someone else’s head (and heart) to understand theirs.

Case in point:

I know that I’m writing this blog about The Boost Economy because I’m trying to ask some different questions, put ideas together in new ways, find some useful insights, and figure out how to use what I’m learning to help us create Boost economies everywhere we work.

I know why I’m writing about the Boost Economy, but why would you want to read it?

After all,

You already know that our work, our organizations, and our economy could be better.

You already believe that our ways of working together have to change, so that instead of extracting value from each other and our world we instead create value that sustains us and helps us flourish.

You are already challenging yourself as a person, to become a better leader, manager, artist, marketer, maker, customer, supplier, and colleague, because you understand that change begins with you.

You already understand that what you do, how you do it, and who you do it with will make all the difference.

And most of all,

You already believe that a small group of dedicated people and organizations can work together to change the world – and you’re impatient, because you know that we could change the world faster, more effectively and more joyfully if we were working together.

It’s the “if we were working together”-part that gets us stuck though. All those “ifs”.

If we had other people to rely on when we got weary or distracted.
If we had words we could use to describe the ideas, the tactics and the values that are exciting us.
If we had more ideas about what we could do to bring these ideas to life.
If we had some examples of other people, other companies, and other networks who were making changes that were creating pockets of meaningful, powerful boost community.
If we had colleagues and allies to share these examples with.
If we had a place to discuss what we were trying, what we’d learned, and what questions we’re asking.
If we had a community that could say to us “Yes, that’s a great idea. A terrific insight. A clever tactic. A meaningful accomplishment.”

If we had our own small Boost economy, right here on the interwebz, where we could create this for each other.

I’m hoping that a little Boost economy of our own is what you’re looking for.

That finding — and being part of creating — this kind of place is what motivated you to read this far down the page.

Yes? Then join in.

If I’ve understood you, and you want to join in, here are a few ways to get started:

You can sign up for an email from The Boost Economy blog, by entering your email address below, so that you know as soon as new ideas are posted.

You can subscribe to The Boost Economy using the RSS feed, to connect through your blog reader, your Flipboard, or whatever news aggregating tool you use.

You can follow me & us on Twitter, @BoostEconomy. (Check out the list of other Boosters on the Twitter page, too.)

You can send me an email, to cv@TheBoostEconomy.com, and tell me what you’d like to read, write and learn about.

Join in any of these ways, and you’ll make sure that we can connect with each other when we have questions, suggestions, inspirations and progress to share.

For the next many months, I’ll be writing about the companies and people I’ve been discovering in my research, about the ideas that are exciting them, about the connections I see, about what seems to be working, and about what we can do together.

I’d love it if you’d join me by reading – and commenting, and sharing, and questioning – the posts and the conversations here on the blog.

Anytime you want, you can tweet me with a suggestion, a recommendation or an idea that you’d like to share with a broader group—and I’ll put these on the blog too.

I don’t know exactly where this is going or what will come of it, but I hope that’s okay. I’m less concerned with having a polished, perfect output on this blog than I am with having some colleagues and allies in the move forward.

If you feel the same way, I’d be honored to have you join in.

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For some time now, I’ve been trying to identify the thread that ties together all the different topics I write about here on AuthenticOrganizations. Other than the fact that they interest me, what is the underlying theme that links topics as different as:

After hashing it out with colleagues (thanks to to Cali, Deb, Whitney, and Anne) the link seems to be emerging.

All of these topics have to do with ‘building positive capacity’ in individuals, organizations, and economic networks. They all have to do with building a ‘boost’ into some part of the individual/organizational/community economy.

The Boost Economy (tm)?

For the next several months, I’m going to investigate “The Boost Economy”, at the individual level, the organizational level, and business network level. I’ll test to see whether the idea of crafting your business or your career or your network as something that provides as boost to others as well as to you is in fact something that holds these topics together.

Here’s a rough first draft of a definition:

Defining the Boost Economy

The Boost Economy is a market orientation, a way of thinking about business, a type of network structure, and a principled set of behaviors, all of which connect your local activity to a network of larger benefits for yourself and others.

A boost economy is a way of constructing relationships within your organization to coax out and support what other people have to offer. It’s a way of organizing your business platform so that you make money by helping other people make money, while helping both of you make a difference in the world as a result.

It’s all about figuring out how the work you do can boost the work of others, for overall benefit.

The Mindset of the Boost Economy

The mindset of the Boost Economy is that the work that we do locally (ourselves, in our teams, in our businesses) can do more than benefit us. We can choose to structure and direct this work so that it benefits others. This means that we partner with firms or individuals becuase we share and want to promote the same purpose (e.g., sustainability), or because we share a set of work principles (e.g., Agile, lean startup).

The benefits that our work creates for others have to be more than economic — because the boost is about more than money. There is a mission behind the market, a purpose extending past the platform.

The Structure of the Boost Economy

The Boost Economy is structured so that value builds not just horizontally, as in a ‘value chain’, but also vertically, with recursive value loops that layer one on top of the other and enfold themselves in each other.

As in communities of commerce, one organization structures its business so that they not only build their their clients’ businesses but also so that their clients’ success throws additional value back to the organization.

It’s kind of like a pyramid scheme, but without the swindling and without leaving anyone empty handed.

Thick value, both vertical and horizontal, is just one outcome of the way a boost economy is structured. Another outcome is “increased capacity”.

Boost economies contribute to the growth and development of each element in the system (e.g., individuals, teams, organizations, client groups) so that each is more able to do whatever it does more effectively, as a result of being part of the system.

For example, when an organization like Etsy provides free workshops on marketing to its member sellers, each of those sellers becomes more capable and more effective at marketing, leading to increased sales (and profits for Etsy), to increased competence and maybe even increased business vision for the seller.

Communities of Commerce are great examples of a boost economy. Accelerators and coworking spaces are organizational forms that create bite-sized boost economies.

Communities of economic purpose, the networks of relationships that social enterprises build around themselves and their work, fuel triple-bottom line growth. For example, the Pipeline Project organizes a set of diverse agents, including mentors, entrepreneurs, and angel investors, around a common goal that has a direct economic inpact (invest/build and make money) makes measurable progress towards a purpose (create social enterprises, empower women investors).

As I look at different organizational forms (e,g., accelerators), specific firms (e,g., Skillshare, Etsy), various business trends (coworking, micro-lending), technologies (social recognition, collaborative works systems) and business philosophies (Humanizing, Lean Startup, Open Innovation) I’ll be asking if and how any of these elements helps to create a boost for individual members and communities/markets.

If you have ideas about other trends to consider, or specific businesses or initiatives I should look into, shoot me an email!

Images from Flickr:
Boost Some rights reserved by hijuka
Lolcat Some rights reserved by insertnamehere.99999

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Change our economy by boosting others as we build our businesses