David Brooks, columnist of the New York Times and author (too conservative for the liberals and too liberal for the conservatives) has created the Weave project. He wants to find and give a voice to normal citizens constructing ties and weaving a social fabric of society. Those who start perhaps little movements without knowing that they are doing so. His article in the New York Times [1] is worth reading for anybody interested in people mobilization and peer to peer work. That includes leaders in organizations.
In Viral Change™ we define culture as the behavioural fabric of the organization, the tapestry of unwritten rules where the written ones come and visit, come and go. We can say we are weaving. I have never used the English term because it is not straight forward or ‘easy’ for people who do not have English as their mother tongue. Like me.
My father was a weaver, as in textile worker in front of a machine. I should know about fabrics. I should have remembered my father.
We all are waiving relationships. Behaviours are the thread. BTW, it all goes back to the Greeks! This is where the term ‘web’ comes from
PS: Michael Gerson, columnist in the competition, the Washington Post, wrote an article about this. I reproduce here some paragraphs that I think are beautifully written.
Eventually, someone who writes on public policy comes up against the limits of words. There are only so many times you can urge, condemn, cajole, wheedle, praise, remind, prod, propose and coax before your vocabulary and patience both give out. This is not to say that public argumentation makes no difference. But for a columnist, that influence consists mainly of throwing 750 words over a high wall and hoping they land with a pleasing thud on some doer or decider.
Having mastered the arts of opinion writing, cultural criticism and human decency, David Brooks of the New York Times is now undertaking a project at the Aspen Institute called “Weave [2] ,” designed to recognize and help people directly involved in social repair. In the work of lighting candles to push back the darkness, Brooks wants to be a lamplighter.
‘Having mastered the art of human decency’ – I’d love this as my epitaph.