Using Dan Palmer’s interpretation of Allan Savory’s holistic management, we will develop a holistic context, which - if used and referred to on a regular basis - will streamline and strengthen the decision-making process.

• Example Holistic Context (hover on image and select "original" to see full-size version)

<aside> 💡 Definition Holistic Management is a framework for empowering decision making that is socially, environmentally, and economically sound in the short, medium and long term. Read more about Holistic Management here.

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As we go through the following exercise, keep in mind the following:

• Get it down, then get it good. Let's not spend time worrying about perfect phrasing but rather get all our thoughts and, in particular, sentiments into a single receptacle. Once we do that we can combine, condense, and group everything into a working Holistic Context.
• Don't try to be objective. We cannot separate ourselves, our needs, or our constraints from our business, so let's not try to. Instead, let's acknowledge that there will be overlap between the personal and professional and that's okay, because we are human beings. The important thing here is to identify those things which are deeply important to us as individuals and as co-contributors of Shine.
• Consent over unanimous agreement. Once we have a working Holistic Context, we will each go through and ask ourselves, Is there anything on here I vehemently disagree with? Did we forget anything? And finally, Do I consent to the Holistic Context in its current form? We will use consent-based decision making (also referred to ask consensus decision making) for this process because the point is not for us to all 100% resonate with every single point, but rather to agree to respect each other's needs. If something is important to one founder and is not important to the other two, but is also not a big deal to them, it's still important to consider including.
• Fuck "shoulds." Let's not spend too much energy thinking about what we believe we 'should' include in our Holistic Context, and instead focus on the things which are deeply important to us from a philosophical or experiential perspective.

1. Statement of purpose (10 mins)

Our statement of purpose should succinctly capture what the whole was formed to do and thus why it exists. Reading it should resonate with us and remind us why we bother getting out of bed to participate in this whole.

• Example
• Shine exists to help women speak up, take huge risks, believe in themselves and establish themselves as leaders and speakers by creating simulated experiences. - Stef
• Amy - We help to create equity within the events space by flooding the speaker pool with qualified and well-prepared speakers coming from a range of unique and groundbreaking perspectives and challenging systems of oppression both within and outside of our organization.
• Ale - To make women and non-binary people, especially women of colour, feel seen and heard, and believe in their inner voice. their voice matters, their story matters, they are valuable and deserve to be heard, be leaders, stand up and speak up and most importantly believe in themselves.
• Shine helps to create leadership equity threefold: by validating the experiences and uplifting the voices of women and non-binary people, especially at the intersection of Black and Indigenous people; by offering intensive, simulated learning experiences with tangible results and takeaways; and by challenging systems of oppression both within and outside of our organization.

• lots of overlap - taking huge risk and having courage and feeling seen and heard (equity in the events space)
• believing in themselves
• combine the macro and micro so we demonstrate the result in the world and in the people who take our program
• go really niche in order to get customers and then broaden from there. Started in tech/marketing but now has expanded.
• people also want to write more, become leaders, write books