Richard D. Bartlett - Building Belonging

Richard Bartlett is a community organizer, entrepreneur & coach who helps people grow high-trust communities & decentralized organizations. Back in 2011, he was a part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, a pivotal moment that set him on the path to becoming a key player in Enspiral - an organization that shares money, power & information to help its members do meaningful work. 

He went on to found Loomio, a software that helps companies seamlessly navigate the intricacies of decentralized organization. Later he founded the Hum, a non-hierarchical management consultancy that’s rewriting the rules of how we work together. His latest venture is a community-building network and movement known as Microsolidarity. 

In this episode, we speak about essential modalities & practices for community builders, building trust and accelerating personal growth through community, navigating the polarity of autonomy and belonging, collective intelligence, how to integrate vulnerability into the workplace, creating decentralized organizations and so much more. 


🔗 [Links & resources] 🔗

Rich’s personal site - https://richdecibels.com/
Microsoldarity network and community building practice - https://www.microsolidarity.cc/
Rich’s Consultancy The Hum - https://www.thehum.org/



📝 [Show notes] 📝

0:00 - Introduction 
2:32 - How Rich’s upbringing led to his work with community building & team organization 
6:50 - The importance of integrating traditional values 
8:44 - Creating a pluralistic community with a capacity to hold many perspectives 
19:16 - What is Microsolidarity?
27:45 - How group size changes relational dynamics 
30:35 - Essential modalities and practices for community builders
36:25 - Insights from Enspiral and working in community 
44:33 - Building trust and accelerating personal growth through community 
47:22 - The challenges of visionary leadership
54:51 - Navigating the polarity of autonomy and belonging 
59:28 - Michael Levin, the superorganism, collective intelligence, and the illusion of being self-made
1:08:40 - How to integrate vulnerability into the workplace
1:17:20 - Creating decentralized organizations 
1:26:40 - Additional resources for community builders