Finally, the time has come! For five years, I have wanted a space where people who work for the common good can strengthen and regenerate themselves. A space where they can reflect on their own activities and develop new inner and outer competencies that make them happier and their work more effective.
And that's exactly what's available now: This week, the programs betterplace well:being and betterplace co:lab are launching. They are aimed at all activists and volunteers, at the leaders and employees of associations, NGOs and social enterprises, and follow the approach: you can only effectively contribute to the urgently needed social transformation process if you are feeling well yourself. And only if you are stable yourself, you are able to enter into strategic alliances with other organizations and thus significantly increase your influence.
In Wie geht es Dir? Gut genug, um Gutes zu tun? (“How are you doing? Good enough to do good?”) I described why a radical cultural change is needed in the social sector. After all, the very people who help others and work to create a healthier, sustainable future based on solidarity are often at their wits' end. They suffer disproportionately from burnout, depression and poverty in old age.
To reverse this alarming trend, we need a new culture in the social sector: a culture that accompanies activists and committed people in their personal development and supports them in forming effective alliances with like-minded people to increase their impact.
In recent years, I have seen for myself that transformation has an external and an internal dimension. But while we pay a lot of attention to the outer side, we lack both a nuanced understanding and the tools and resources needed for inner change. In New Work needs Inner Work, Bettina Rollow and I describe how digitalization, globalization (and today Corona) are making our world increasingly complex, fluid, and uncertain. But in order to be creative, we need sufficient security and orientation. If these are greatly reduced on the outside, we need to develop them on the inside. Therefore, new inner competencies such as self-contact and authenticity, empathy and transparent communication, multiperspectivity and meta-reflection are essential components of the "digital mindset". (I also recently wrote an article for the Stanford Social Innovation Review on the role of wellbeing in the social sector.)
My first inspiration to combine social change and inner transformation came from the international Wellbeing Project. Here I met social entrepreneurs who had gone through a personal growth process that fundamentally changed themselves and their organizations for the better. At betterplace lab, we were going through a similar process at the same time, which centered on building inner competencies.
When betterplace was given the use of the 2500 sm substation on Kreuzberg's Paul-Lincke Ufer by Google for five years in 2019, my colleagues and I spent several months in a construction container on the site of what would later become the “bUm", having many conversations with associations, NGOs, and activists. Again and again, the unhealthy, self-exploitative culture of our sector came up and solidified our vision to build the bUm as a regenerative place for socially engaged people. My colleague Carolin Silbernagl added a further focus on collaboration to my plans for a wellbeing program. She saw the need to help small organizations work together successfully to become more effective and powerful. This is because although many organizations strive to collaborate with each other in theory, they rarely succeed. Co-creation and collaboration need extra resources and new skills.
Collaboration with unusual, exciting partners
In the betterplace lab, we then outlined a comprehensive program and set out to find funders. This was not so easy, because many funders saw the need, but were not really willing to get involved in this new topic. After many rounds of planning, presentations and the generous support of Sebastian Baier from Co-Creation Loft (via Tomas Björkman), we then found an unusual, but in its diversity highly exciting coalition of funders in early 2020: The betterplace well:being program is supported by three company health insurers, BKK VBU, Salus BKK and pronova BKK pronova, who bring their own interest in knowledge: What will healthcare look like in the future when many people no longer work as permanent employees in companies, but as solo entrepreneurs in co-working offices? How is digitization changing our health needs and interests? For the collaboration program we were able to attract the Schöpflin Foundation as well as Luminate. Both funders are burning to explore and improve the conditions for success of collaboration in the social sector.
In the last few months, as the program has been honed, this choice of partners has turned out to be a real stroke of luck. Our partners share the same interest in knowledge and implementation as we do, and the collaboration is correspondingly collegial and constructive.
What can you expect as potential participants of the program?
Two programs under one roof
betterplace well:being
By the term wellbeing we mean the ability to deal mindfully and consciously with the inner tensions of increased complexity and uncertainty. This includes developing a new balance between our basic needs of security and freedom.
The term wellbeing is not very widespread in Germany. That's why we spent a long time looking for a catchier German term. But as the months progressed, wellbeing popped up more and more in international discourse and established itself as the umbrella term for a whole range of developments that pursue the enhancement of quality of life. These include, for example, the wellbeing budgets of the New Zealand or Canadian governments, but also the concept of "digital wellbeing" (healthy use of technology).
As a part of the betterplace well:being program, you can expect five different free beginner workshops for inner empowerment. The workshops build on each other and will be repeated on a rolling basis over the next two years. Due to Corona, the first workshops will take place digitally. As soon as possible, we will also offer face-to-face events at bUm.
betterplace co:lab
Our societies are facing comprehensive challenges. There are no easy solutions to questions of economic and political participation, the use of natural resources, or rapid technological development. They require continuous social negotiation that recognizes systemic interrelationships and accepts that there are multiple development scenarios.
This negotiation can succeed if organizations and stakeholders from all sectors learn to engage with their different perspectives. Good collaboration therefore takes time, engagement with others, give-and-take, and the courage to take risks.
Collaboration does not mean the transactional negotiation that we know from working with others. Collaboration means co-creative development: In a creative process, a solution perspective emerges that is more than the sum of its parts.
Within the framework of the betterplace co:lab, you can expect a total of 66 free beginner workshops over the next two years, in which more than 500 people will be able to participate. In addition, we will accompany eight cross-organizational groups (so-called topic clusters), which in turn will consist of needs-based process coaching and work sessions.
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All offers are free of charge and open to participants who are engaged in the social-ecological transformation of our world on a full-time or voluntary basis.
Details about the workshops and the team of coaches, therapists and organizational developers can be found on the respective websites:
Link to betterplace well:being
Link to betterplace co:lab
P.S.
Another note on our own behalf: with the program, we are entering new territory in many respects. All the more reason for us to share our experiences and findings widely, e.g. in the form of podcasts and blogposts.
However, we would also be very happy to receive accompanying scientific research. Contact our project manager Anja Adler (anja.adler@betterplace-lab.org) if you would like to conduct research in our range of topics!