Modern means of transparent communication are making present governance approaches obsolete. Since the Industrial Revolution, organisations have developed top-down, hierarchical, command and control governance arrangements in a climate of slow, uncertain, incomplete and often secretive communications to meet mass markets of relatively uninformed individual end-users/citizens in independent nation states. These governance arrangements are dominated by managers so the situation is sometimes referred to as the managerial economy. Bullying, corruption, poor accountability, poor acceptance of responsibility in organisations, poor stakeholder engagement and lack of transparency are possible in this sort of economy and are tolerated as being competitive ways of gaining, exercising and maintaining power over people and their physical, social and cultural environments. The cooperative and creative potential of most human beings is seen as inferior to the ultra-competitive nature of some people.

More generally, because of the influence of these top-down organisations over our lives, value and wealth generation are regarded as residing in the products and services supplied by them rather than in the end-users/citizens who generate demand and can now readily express it. This has inhibited sustainable improvement in the lives of many because it has valued production and distribution (supply) at the expense of physical, social and cultural environments and the potential for cooperation and creativity in each individual.

This is no longer the most efficient, effective and competitive way to organise because supply responses from such organisations can not keep pace with the demand changes of a rapidly increasing number of informed end-users/citizens with access to world-wide, comprehensive and fast communications. End-users/citizens, for whom the organisations exist, have become alienated from the organisations. It is time for existing business, government and civil society organisations to change and for new enterprises to adopt a governance approach tailored to the realities of an emerging distributed economy.

As a result of thinking integratively about the difference between what we have and what we want, Douglas Integrative Governance 247 (DIG247) offers a new bottom-up federated approach to governance for existing and start-up organisations which want to survive, adapt and prosper by meeting 24/7 the sustainable needs and wants of individual end-users/citizens in balanced ways which benefit both parties and their environment. It offers a way of re-humanising connections, relationships and interactions. It is governance for the emerging distributed economy.

1 Applying DIG 247 in practice begins in the same way whether it is a social entrepreneur, a single business person starting out, a large corporation, a public servant planning the implementation of a government program or an activist in a civil society organisation. Each person involved simply acquires the NEW Integrative Thinking (NEW IT) and Douglas Integrative Governance 247 (DIG 247) training modules and templates at www.integrative-thinking.com and works their way through them.

2 Establish Integrative Improvement Institutes in all educational organisations as follows:-

Aim:- Improve the well-being of people and their environments through low-cost diffusion, refinement and implementation of the Integrative Improvement (II) approach for achieving sustainable development.

Strategy:- Establish an adaptive networked Integrative Federation (IF) of largely virtual Integrative Improvement Institutes (IIIs)) in a number of countries using the training modules and templates at http://www.integrative-thinking.com and their complementary tools for achieving sustainable development.

Outline plan:- Have one IF website for teaching, research and consulting in Integrative Improvement with a page for each Institute, for each tool and for research related to Integrative Thinking, Integrative Governance, Integrative Improvement, Integrative Capitalism and Integrative Democracy. A catalyst in each of 7 countries would attract and train 7 people to be the IIIs Integrators Team (IIIsIT) in their country. Each Institute would attract, train and license 7 people with experience in 7 industries to provide personal contact in 7 local areas to further diffuse Integrative Improvement and, for a fee, train successive groups of 7 people from government, business and civil society organisations based on material on the IF website. These trained people would implement Integrative Improvement in start-up and existing organisations and help in the further diffusion, refinement and implementation of Integrative Improvement in line with the model outlined here.

Tactics:- Sense and respond adaptively to other catalysts and end-users/citizens as the Integrative Improvement Institutes “virus” spreads.