7 principles for Thriving Cooperatives

This is a course that covers a series of basic principles for cooperative management and leadership.  The principles draw heavily on the Progressive Utilisation Theory, a theory of social change that is based in spiritual principles, and has some resemblance to permaculture on a very large scale.  Those of you familiar with it will recognise some of the principles, but will perhaps not have thought of applying them in these ways.  It also draws on my experience in resolving problems in cooperative and community organisations.  The idea is that having seen the same mistakes being made many times by cooperators I would love to be able to help you to avoid the biggest mistakes and guide your coop in effective directions.  This is just a short course in basic principles, but it should guide you in key practical and philosophical directions that should drastically reduce conflict and increase effectiveness as your cooperative venture develops.

We will go over the 3 main principles that seem positive but lead to issues, and then a deeper dive into each of the 7 principles for thriving cooperatives.  In each one you will be given some homework to analyse yourself and your cooperative or community from that perspective.