Next Stage Radicals: Cool stuff without the Kool-Aid

23 February 2020

Management has had it's fair share of fads and fashions over the years. With each there is the initial excitement of a new horizon to be discovered and explored. Latterly though, interest wanes, communities fracture and the 'silver bullet' solutions that were imagined reveal themselves to be limited - and limiting - perspectives on how things really work.

And that's all ok!

Learning and progress are never linear and forging new ground requires the energy and enthusiasm that a fad can bring. Each new horizon explored brings insights and advancements, pushing the sum total of our knowledge about what works, in what contexts (and what doesn't) forward. This is all good.

So perhaps the real issue with fads occurs when the insights they offer become dogma. When this happens, the wave of energy they have unlocked gives rise to zealots; people who convert the cool stuff that's happening into the Kool-Aid that turns people off.

Today, one of the major 'waves of energy' is around the potential to create 'Next Stage' organisations, those being places where work is:

more purposeful.
more human(e).
better adapted to complexity.

For some this translates as a move towards more self-management, for others it's about mindfulness or wholeness, others still focus on wellbeing at work, the role of happiness or the relationship between learning, improvement and psychological safety. In fact, it's in the nature of movements like this that people find their own connections to it through many points of entry and differences in emphasis.

We see this as an opportunity to resist the slide into fad-dom; a chance to embrace the rich diversity that the 'Next Stage' movement has within it and to:

celebrate the cool stuff without turning it into Kool-Aid.
favour doing over dogma.
transparently share learning - warts and all - without feeling the need to gloss the narrative.

So today we are launching a new website - a collaboration between loads of people we've met and admired, some of which we have worked with - and all under the banner of 'Next Stage Radicals'.

The site is a place where contributors can "Explore Aloud" - sharing what they are doing and learning as they work to create "Next Stage" ways of working, whatever that means to them.

We expect to see differences in perspective and practice arise and are excited at the opportunity to curate this all in one place. We hope that in doing so we can:

help new insights and learning to emerge more easily.
foster connections between Next Stage Radicals - whether they are visitors or contributors to the site.
make it easier for everyone to find great resources that can inspire them and keep the energy of the 'Next Stage' movement flowing.

What this means for you...

You can get involved in whatever ways work for you:

visit the site and browse the nearly 700 blogs, podcasts, sketchnotes, etc. that are available from c.30 authors at launch.
while you are there, sign-up for the monthly newsletter to be notified of new content and special features.
follow us on Twitter, Linked-In, Instagram or Facebook to spot what's new from the Next Stage Radicals as it happens.
find us on Youtube for still more (but more occassional) updates.

Get even more involved:

join the Facebook discussion group where you can share experiences, ask questions and seek peer advice and support.
become a contributor and start to 'Explore Aloud' with us by posting your blogs, podcasts, etc.
sign-up for one of the events being hosted by a Next Stage Radical near you. These focus on areas that the hosting Next Stage Radical is expert at or interested in and that they think will be of interest to others.

A final important point to note...

Next Stage Radicals is an open learning community made up of people with a passion to make work work better. It is not owned by anyone and it doesn't sell services.

Members and contributors work for lots of different organisations, in different sectors and in a wide variety of roles. They are authors of their own work and the Next Stage Radicals platform exists simply as a place to help them "Explore Aloud" together; to share what they are doing and what they are learning so that others can learn with them.

While Easier Inc. are extremely proud to be able to support and sponsor this platform we make no claims on the content of the Next Stage Radicals site or to the work of its contributors. We are just happy to be amongst them and learning with them... and with you.

Easier INC