An ecology of writing

As I’m building out the offerings for Dialogic Studio, it’s clear that manifestos aren’t nearly enough when it comes to cultivating depth within an organization. A manifesto is a spark that lights a fire, but in order for the fire to keep burning, it needs fuel.

I’m currently reading A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business by Ari Weinzweig, and he is over the moon about the power of visions. Highly specific, inspiring, concrete visions of what life will look and feel like within an organization at a specific date in the future. He also talks about how each business within their ecosystem has a vision, each project within each business has a vision, and sometimes even each shift at the Deli has its own vision, all of which are inspiring, strategically sound, written down, and communicated.

This is surely part of the ecology of writing that underpins Zingerman’s and makes it such a special institution and effective business.

And I’m sure there are other ingredients in an ecology of writing, too. Thing like mission statements, guiding principles, etc. Granted, all of these things are somewhat trite in the business world. They’re boxes to check, and very often the mission statement is so generic and empty that it’s like a piece of beige wallpaper. It’s not no teeth. It’s not worth deepening into. But it can be.

So yeah, I’m circling around this idea right now that Dialogic exists to help human-centered startups produce an ecology of writing that inspires, grounds, challenges, constrains, and ultimately grows the business And it’s not enough to just do the writing, but there need to be practices and rituals such that it can be progressively deepened into over time. Some good food for thought today. Onwards.