Work with Source by Tom Nixon: a great new book for purpose-driven leaders
For all those who want to work with source
This inspirational and very practical book explains Peter John Koenig's source principles and also weaves in his work on the relationship to money, with chapters on how to work with the role of source, develop organisations using source, and reimagine finance. This book is the ideal follow-up for readers of A little red book about source.
Work with source may be ordered atwww.workwithsource.com.
part One: fundamentals
Work With Source will expand your perspective on human endeavours by offering you a new lens; a way of seeing. There are some fundamentals that all initiatives have in common, and once you understand these, you’ll find your attempts to realise a worthwhile vision will drastically improve. There are three new concepts at the heart of all of this.
Firstly, we’ll add a new perspective on what we mean by the term organisation. We’ll loosen our grip on the Western idea that organisations are separate entities; things in their own right. It’s an idea dating back to the industrial revolution in the UK where companies were first able to incorporate and be treated in law in much the same way as human individuals: owning assets, hiring and firing people, and so on.
Secondly, I’ll introduce you to a vital role that’s held by one individual in every creative field: the role of source. This is not a formal organisational role like CEO; it’s a naturally emerging role which cannot be appointed through a governance process. Like the mother in a family, we simply acknowledge who it is.
Thirdly, the book will shift from the creative process of realising a vision, to the self-development required to show up and keep taking the next step. We’ll enter this through a surprising route: Money. Like it or not, to realise a vision of any substance, we have to find ways to get money flowing appropriately - not chasing it for its own sake or pushing it away.
part Two: creative fields
Part Two is full of advice for working with creative fields and the role of source. You’ll learn how to clarify and lead a creative vision; team up with co-founders and other collaborators; and make it through the critical moments of transition for founders and their successors: times of feeling lost or de-energised; leaving endeavours they’ve started; planning for succession; creative mergers and take-overs; and even closing things altogether.
part Three: organising vision
The chapters in Part Three form a practical handbook for organising around a vision. You’ll learn how to avoid the initiative being diluted to the lowest common denominator in an attempt to please everyone; or becoming stifled by bureaucracy; or pulled off its creative path altogether. We’ll take inspiration from some of the most radical, participatory initiatives on the planet and you’ll learn a simple yet powerful approach to organisation development to evolve your own unique way of organising.
part Four: creative money
Part Four comes as a set, and reveals the fundamental nature of money; how to understand and transform your relationship to it and how this is the basis for deep personal transformation. It concludes with a chapter on working artfully with money in service of a creative vision.
(Tom Nixon, Work with source, excerpt from the Introduction and How to Use this Book, © Tom Nixon, All rights reserved).
Back