TENDELE CONSULTING
Transforming culture, teams and individuals
Developing individual and collective capacities to grow integral cities
HOW can we live in our cities intelligently? WHAT can we learn from the humble honeybee who has lived one hundred million years?
The Integral City paradigm is being demonstrated as a framework for cities that integrate all the other city frameworks.
As the honey bee has successfully survived for 100 million years, what can cities, at all scales, learn from these remarkable insects that could support our human hives? What intelligences are needed to build sustainable practices for city survival?
PERSONAL CONTEXT
Having been involved in various organisational transformation projects since 1991, it seems a logical progression to consider how these practices could be of benefit to cities and communities.
Earlier in 2019, during a Google search for city-based community interventions, I came across the author, Professor Marilyn Hamilton.
She's written three exquisite books, focusing specifically on cities as our planet's human hives and offering a wealth of viable solutions for harnessing the latent evolutionary intelligences that lie in our cities.
She has spent the last 10 years researching the topic around the city as a living system and has facilitated groups in countries across the world in the application of city revitalisation to ensure a holistic process for sustainability is followed. She uses the metaphor of the honey bee as a yardstick for resilience and sustainability. There are surely lessons here to be learned for our living communities.
More about Integral City philosophy
CITY LIFE
Marilyn Hamilton makes the point that currently 50% of the world populations live in cities, so by addressing the various dimensions of city life, we are in fact, addressing the very fabric of society, at all scales, from individual, family, organization and city.
THE FOUR VOICES
She also contends that the four voices of ‘Citizen, City Manager, Civic Society and Business’ which is based both on the Integral Framework and the roles in the bee hive, ensures that all bases are covered in terms of roles and contributions that make up a healthy, vibrant city.
THE 12 INTELLIGENCES
Through her research she has identified 12 intelligences that can build or break the life force of a city. Traditionally, city management have followed the mechanistic and largely fragmented approach to building and maintaining their cities. Following her process, which is supported by significant evidence and stunning results across cities globally, a thriving city can be achieved at any scale in any place, by mindfully aligning approaches around these 12 intelligences.
Having attended her workshops and integrated the philosophy around the 12 intelligences, the four voices of the city and her five maps for navigating around the various city landscapes, it is now a privilege to introduce this methodology to our African continent.
It's organic in nature and allows for emergence to take place at the appropriate stage of development of the city and her citizens. Personally, it’s been a comfortable and exciting leap within the field of transformation, to be able to address important human issues through the lens of the city.
With the urgency we face to tackle our societal issues with both compassion and determination, this process provides the opportunity for large-scale impact.
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Fairland | Johannesburg | South Africa
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