Co-venture options for investors in sustainable community and collectives of Social Entrepreneurs:

www.CommunityCafés.eu

Community Cafes – introducing the 7G

Community!
A goal to change society seems bold for a community
co-op team, Seven Generations is thinking big.
The name comes from the native North American
ethos one that any decision’s repercussions should be
good for the next seven generations.
Embracing the Peak Oil concept that oil production has
peaked and we’re best to think of how to live with
declining reserves this eco-internet café bookstore has
sustainability at its core.
However while the vision is forward looking there are
distinct views to the past beyond the ancient
philosophy giving the operation its name.
On the bookshelf the “Tao Of Physics” rubs spines with “How to Win Friends and
Influence People”, the Dale Carnegie book written in 1936 long before mind body
and soul workshops were in fashion!
More fundamentally the feel is of Europe’s coffeehouses at the second half of the
17th Century when great minds came together to drink coffee and converse.
Voltaire and Rousseau sparked the French Enlightenment before Lloyds of London
set itself up as a commercial hub for insurance.
The café and shop is the information hub where people and ideas come together.
People can sit, discuss and raise debate, and can leave at any time.
The long-term aim is to provide a forum not just to change the world, but to do
so by transforming community, leading to more sustainable living for all
participants, day-by-day, one step at a time.
It is fantastically light years away from the pleasures of conspicuously branded
coffee consumption that dominates the High Street.
They are planning films and talks to fire up the discourse.
Café visitors can fire up their energy with some great whole-food fare. It is all
organic, vegetarian or vegan with an emphasis on quality at affordable prices, all
locally sourced.
There is pizza by the slice, salads to keep the calories
down, and flap jacks and muffins to boost the energy
levels. The aim is for gluten-free, nut-free and low
sugar selection.
Some ingredients such as herbs and soft fruit are
grown out the back in the permaculture garden This
uses companion gardening planting plants besides
others to attract away pests. This requires minimum
effort; “You are harvesting nature not working against
Nature, as is so often the case in conventional
industrialised agriculture”, it was explained.
It’ s a beautiful spot for young and old to sit, with
story telling volunteers invited to lend their services.

“We demonstrate by example, and show just what a community can achieve, by
sitting down and listening to each other, and putting appropriate structure in
place; it’s all about friendship: it’s all about organising in a way that is best for
People and our café Members, guests and visitors!”

Introducing The Hub and FreeFLOW services – for the free-flow of ethical products and eco-services.
Community Membership is available on a subscription basis. See: www.freeflow.org.uk
Co-venture options for investors in sustainable community and collectives of Social Entrepreneurs:
www.CommunityCafés.eu

For those who want to know more

There now follows a brief introduction to PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics).
We added Psychology – for those who want to understand People.

Philosophy
People are happier (and perform better) when there is meaning in their lives and
a chance to engage in meaningful activity.

People can aspire to grow rich, but a lack of

meaning beyond earning more and spending
money can make the richest man or woman
crave that which he or she cannot buy with
money alone.

Witness the rise and demise of pop stars and

personalities who demonstrate the consequences
that fame and fortune can bring.

Politics
The Art of Politics consists in enabling community to prosper and enterprise to
flourish. For those who consider political life without regard to responsibility to
those they represent then they cut off the source of their power at its root.

The able political player puts principle before ambition and engages in the world
of realpolitik on the basis of win-win or win-win-win - a game that is increasingly
hard to play in a ruthlessly competitive environment.

Economics

The words “economics” and “ecology” use the

prefix “eco-“ which is from the Greek word “oikos”
that means “household”.

Running an economy involved the same principles

as good housekeeping.

A lot has happened since the days of Socrates and

Plato. Academics have turned Economics into a
science, as studied by MBA students worldwide.
The fact is that Economics as a science deals with
macro-economic models that are not adapted to
dealing with understanding local economies.
The skill is to be able to think large scale (macro-economics) and small scale
(micro-economics) both at the same time!

“New Economics” thinking requires a level of skilful

thinking and holistic (whole picture) understanding
that is hardly found!

Fortunately, Green Economics provides both a value

system and methodology that allows economists and
Social Entrepreneurs to “read” the marketplace by
means of: patient listening, observation, analysis and
interpretation.

Introducing The Hub and FreeFLOW services – for the free-flow of ethical products and eco-services.
Community Membership is available on a subscription basis. See: www.freeflow.org.uk
Co-venture options for investors in sustainable community and collectives of Social Entrepreneurs:
www.CommunityCafés.eu

Psychology
A close analysis of communications and understanding will reveal that people do
not act for economic reasons. Their desires are based on psychological reasons of
perceived value, perceived effect, and perceived benefit. This, in turn, is
dependent on their individual discernment, based on their motive, abilities and
personal values based on their individual life experience and value commitment.

For those who have a PPE education and want to realise practical
benefits

Principles of Profitable Organisation

Organising so as to realise rewards: profitable organisation:
creating harmony: (The Ancients and astrologers call this:
“Alignment between Heaven and Earth”!)
1. It starts with friends and family
2. It is a process of adaptation
3. The first steps of adaptation can take care of
themselves through dialogue, openness and
opportunity.
4. To realise opportunity it is advantageous to commit to a positive outcome,
without pre-judging what form that might take!

Some helpful starters

For Social Entrepreneurs – start off by using mindful attention!

1. See what is being done, see what is not being done.

Look to improve, modify or adapt. Listen to what
people say, and don’t say! The flow of attention is
important: do not be locked into analysis, but use your
creative abilities to re-configure a solution to a
blockage of energy flow.
2. People arrive and things appear, these incidences and
coincidences we can learn from, to be warned by, to
be inspired by. This ability to “decode a situation” on a
small scale, in a meeting, behind your desk or on the
street is just as, or equally as important as your ability
to understand a macro-economic, political situation.
Being able to “Read the Marketplace” is very important, and a skill you can
learn and practice.

3. As you learn to cope better, you can un-learn

the pressure to be self-conscious, or anxious,
but use situations to co-create the future you
want, in a way that is good and useful for
people and Planet. Big-scale lessons of what
works best, and what is dysfunctional are
available from Nature and Society.

4. For example: bees create a hive of activity: this is based on an open

structure, collaboration and flow. Learn how to create an open-ended
flexible structure that people can use as a Hub of information, resources,
contacts, advice and community. Collaborate with friends and flow
mindfully!

Introducing The Hub and FreeFLOW services – for the free-flow of ethical products and eco-services.
Community Membership is available on a subscription basis. See: www.freeflow.org.uk
Co-venture options for investors in sustainable community and collectives of Social Entrepreneurs:
www.CommunityCafés.eu

The combination of all four disciplines as an interdisciplinary subject is called

Human Ecology. Community Cafes run courses and develops Curricula for those
interested in learning, teaching and practicing Human Ecology.

For those who want to know more

See: Corporate Entrepreneurial Culture – organising the workplace as Café

New Economics and Management Innovation

This discipline is based on simple observation.

The conditions of wealth creation have shifted according to the
times. From the Industrial Age, to the Information Age to the
current phase “The Creative Age” entrepreneurs have had to adapt,
in order to prosper, or fail to adapt, and perish.
When we look at how managers are trained, the core practices of
management, capital budgeting, talent management, reporting
standards were all invented some 100 years ago to allow
companies of that time to deliver standardised, mass-produced
outputs for a rapidly-growing market.

The underlying principles of hierarchy, bureaucratic control and pay

for performance worked well when the object was output efficiency.

But today, companies need to deliver on a broader set of

objectives and they need to be far more creative than their
forbears.

Management innovation has greater potential as a source of

strategic advantage and a superior seedbed for productivity than a sole reliance
on the traditional drivers of product development or technological innovation.

So rather than force-fit old outdated management practices to the needs of

modern companies it is useful to develop a new set of appropriate principles
based on variables such as, community, variety and creativity.

Innovation is not just for top executives. Any individual is invited to look for
opportunities to experiment with new ways of working that are more appropriate
to the needs of modern enterprise.

Introducing The Hub and FreeFLOW services – for the free-flow of ethical products and eco-services.
Community Membership is available on a subscription basis. See: www.freeflow.org.uk