Building a Cordial World
A Team Update #8
Edited by Joshua Scott
At Cordial World we have a diverse team working toward building our knowledge based decentralized ecosystem. Cordial’s team is truly international and we have some of the best advisors and professionals supporting us, take a look for yourself here .
Our effort only means something if we provide value to our potential supporters and future community members. This weekly series of “Building a Cordial World” is an attempt to capture the inner workings of our team to give you a behind the scenes look of the big stage, that is the Cordial World Foundation.
This week’s update is provided by our CEO Chris MacGregor.
Chris MacGregor : The priority this week has been preparing for our reward crowdfunding campaigns that we’ll run on Kickstarter for the more traditional donor and on givETH.io for those who understand the power of decentralisation and own crypto.
We continue to develop our list of partner organisations with whom we wish to work for mutual benefit and to help us refine our own offer. This week I had a great call with Jo’Anne from SparkTank in Australia and David Randall from the Crystalisr community wealth building charity in South London.
One of the questions I am asked on a regular basis, however, is ‘Who will Cordial World help?’.
I see Cordial World as a universal application, like AirBnB or LinkedIn, to be used by anyone, from any industry, at any time. Instead of renting out apartments or allowing people to recruit and build their personal profile online, in my mind Cordial World is the welcoming palace for people who need help to make complex decisions which will have downstream social effects. Erin Liman our CDO, further defined why people would come to Cordial World:
- To gain a prismatic view of an issue or of a proposed intervention
2. To gain feedback from people most affected in positive feedback loops.
3. To remove the pain of assembling a diverse group (time, effort) through a decentralized, on-call network that is only actualized when needed (“think bat signal for the superfriends”).
Here are some examples of increasingly complex challenges, from micro to macro, that require a new approach to innovation through more diverse and inclusive collaboration:
1. The Great Resignation. The Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong, wrote in a blog post that the company would not participate in social activism. The consequence was that 60 employees walked out in protest as they wanted the company to take a stand on issues outside its business goals. A recent poll found that 68% of Americans want CEOs to take a stand on social issues, with two-thirds of that group saying that leaders should do so on issues that don’t directly impact their business. The discussion around Coinbase’s politics started internally in 2021 when the company didn’t release a statement supporting Black Lives Matter. If organisations fail to hear their outspoken people they will fail. Employee activism are voices of difference that seek to influence their organization on wider social and environmental issues. “There are no ‘voiceless’. The problem is finding ears for the earless” — John Higgins. This is a hot topic that requires a new model of employer-employee engagement.
2. Entrepreneurs / SMEs solving the wrong problem and VCs losing heavily (14/03/22).
Fridge No More and BuyK (ultra-fast delivery companies) shut within a week. VC investment is channeled to shiny siloed start-ups, so solutions to real local or future needs are skipped. Ultra-fast delivery is a solution to a non-problem, and creates far more. All these examples were unviable without ongoing VC funding; multi-stakeholder research at concept stage would have proved or disproved the need and preserved the funds for better.
3. UK’s MOD procurement of AJAX Armoured vehicles. (14/03/22). According to the National Audit Office’s report, General Dynamics will deliver 589 Ajax vehicles for £5.522 billion. The in-service date has increased by 4 years and the MOD does not know when it will be able to start using the vehicles. Significant technical problems persist and there is no agreement on the causes of critical safety issues or how these will be resolved. The MOD “has not demonstrated value for money on the £3.167 billion it has spent so far”. “The approach was flawed from the start as they did not fully understand the scale or complexity of the programme… missed milestones and unresolved safety and technical issues”. The two parties remain in dispute over unresolved contractual, safety and technical issues, and the end user continues to be the last to be involved.
4. Lack of diversity in VC funding. Such was Serena Williams’ shock at learning from the CEO of Clear, Ms. Seidman-Becker, that less than 2% of venture money went to women, she created her own VC fund ($111m) to invest in people with diverse views. “I literally couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that 98 percent of all of this money we’re talking about — billions of dollars — goes to one type of individual” Serena said.
5. Climate change. Solutions to counter climate change, and the general lethargy of most people for whom the effects are unseen and unknowable, require sense-making at scale to change behaviors. Cordial is keen to support Ark2030 in their mission to bring people together around the major challenges of climate change to create common understanding and unified effort.
Join our discussion, get your opinions heard and questions answered here by joining our telegram group and social media. We look forwarding to hearing from you ! Keep an eye out for more weekly updates on medium.
