I’m a bit giddy about deep2. The web site is only days away from completion. There won’t be any videos posted – since we haven’t created any yet – but the site will convey a bit of the flavor of deep2 and, well, I’ve been taking a sort of build-it-and-they-will-come approach to this project. The web site is a way to begin to have conversations with speakers, filmmakers, marketing people, advertisers, and so on. In any case, it’s the milestone I’ve set myself to begin launching deep2 in earnest.

I’ve run my own business (recently sold) for 30+ years. I was the head,  surrounded with various limbs and organs who showed up in our building Monday thru Friday from 9 to 5 (not even close really but that’s the idea) to carry out our coordinated missions. It was all good. There were many lovely and creative and dedicated people and we did some great work together over the years.

But for deep2 I find myself excited to approach the organizational structure and the relationships between contributors more freely. I’m more inclined toward creative collaboration than toward any kind of top-down process. I’m eager to explore ways of working together which are more optimal than people gathering in an office on the clock to carry out their appointed tasks.

I was touring the Costa Rican rainforest several years ago with a naturalist who pointed out some of the happenings around us. He pointed to pools of water gathered in the cupped leaves of bromeliads growing off tall trees and explained how water droplets rolling down the bark picking up nutrients along the way had formed these little pools and created whole eco-systems for insects perfectly suited to this tiny niche. He showed us long rows of Leaf Cutter ants with enormous green leaves on their backs and told us how they would nearly defoliate a tree but would leave just enough greenery for the tree to survive.

In example after example our guide showed us the incredible harmony of the forest. But a complex harmony: Each individual pursuing their own needs and appetites while also participating in what appears to be a brilliant work of creative, intelligent, coordination. Nothing appears to be wasted. Everything dynamically adjusts to real time conditions.

Then I think of traditional organizational structures and their seemingly intractable inefficiencies, destructive capacties and the compromises often made by individuals who participate in them.  I wonder how we can do better – can we relax our assumptions about organizations and create new models which optimally serve the individuals, the organization, and the world at large. Of course, this isn’t a new idea. Many organizations have been exploring non-traditional ways of working together – often aided by emerging technologies and they are helping to forge new possibilities.  Each situation calls for its own unique approaches and I’m very excited to participate in the creation of the structures for deep2 and to explore collaborative processes which nurture us individually and lead to the creation of magnificent productions which touch and inspire millions.

It’s almost new year’s eve. A reminder, perhaps, of creative potential. I wonder how deep2 will emerge and self organize?