Workshop at Urban Ecologies 2015. Today’s participatory design workshop is to learn and employ the Flourishing Cities canvas as a system map for designing civil governance processes. The Flourishing Cities framework adapts a design tool for constructing strongly sustainable business models as a visual organizer for engaging stakeholders in co-creating values-centred operational guidance for urban planners and local governments. This is based on research work developed from OCADU sLab Strongly Sustainable Business Model group as applied to the flourishing of cities and settlements.

1. Copyright © 2015, Peter Jones
The Flourishing Cities
Framework
Systemic Civil Planning for
an Urban Business Model
Peter Jones, PhD
OCAD University, Toronto
URBAN ECOLOGIES
June 19, 2015

2. Copyright © 2015, Peter Jones
Context & Purpose
• Purpose of the workshop
– Present & engage critically with new framework
– Adapt & reconstruct Flourishing as social intent
– Adapt co-creative business model thinking
• Future Outcomes
– Co-design artifact for both innovation & critique
– Systemic thinking tool for citizen participation
– A shared language for flourishing

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Workshop approach
1. Introduction to Flourishing concepts & research
2. Flourishing Business / Cities Canvases
3. Small Group Design Dialogues
4. Discussions

4. Copyright © 2015, Peter Jones
What do we want from sustainability?
“The possibility that human & other
life will flourish on this planet
forever” John Ehrenfeld, MIT
• Audacious
• Inspirational
• Attractive
• Universal
• Pragmatic
• Values-centred
• Continuous
Flourishing - A goal worthy of our vision
Ask yourself, what is it that sustainability sustains over time, and why?
(“Strong Sustainability” Is this the same as Thrivability?)

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 Clean air & water
 Vibrant soil for food
 Healthy eco-systems
creating materials for us &
rendering our wastes
harmless
Trusting relationships
focused on well-being
with all our fellow
citizens (neighbours,
communities, cities, regions
& countries)
Organizations co-operate,
collaborate & compete to
best meet our needs
today & in future, while
creating the wealth to
meet shared needs
(education, infrastructure, etc.)
Individuals choosing to
flourish emotionally,
spiritually, physically,
practically, artistically &
economically
Requirements for Flourishing…Big Picture
Macro: Natural Sciences
Micro: Physiology, Psychology, etc.Meso: Businesses, Organizations, etc.
Macro: Cities, Places,
Social Systems

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“Eliminating the structural causes of the dysfunctions of the world
economy and correcting models of growth which have proved
incapable of ensuring respect for the environment”
Pope Benedict XVI
“Caring for ecosystems demands far-sightedness, since no
one looking for quick and easy profit is truly interested in
their preservation. But the cost of the damage caused by
such selfish lack of concern is much greater than the
economic benefits to be obtained. Where certain species
are destroyed or seriously harmed, the values involved are
incalculable. We can be silent witnesses to terrible
injustices if we think that we can obtain significant benefits
by making the rest of humanity, present and future, pay
the extremely high costs of environmental deterioration.”
Pope Francis, Encyclical Letter Laudato Si , June 19, 2015

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Why would we start with
business models?

8. Copyright © 2015, Peter Jones
Business Model Canvas – the Language of Profit Prioritizing Business
Enables Strategic
Discussion
Makes Us
Creative
New Idea
Template Fast to
Use
Clarifies
Thinking
Enable Better
Conversations
and Decisions
Understand
customers Alignment – get’s us
all on the same page
Shared Language
for all Depts.
& Locations
Helps Tell Our Story to…
Investors, Customers,
Suppliers, New Employees
Creates a
Sense of
Urgency
Better
Teamwork
*From “The business model canvas – why and how organizations around the world adopt it – a Field Report”
http://blog.strategyzer.com/posts/2015/2/9/why-and-how-organizations-around-the-world-apply-the-business-model-canvas
Focus Quickly
on Best Ideas
We Can Act
Immediately on
Our Ideas
Inspires
Innovation
Drives
Effective
Collaboration

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A Vision for the Future of Business*
We imagine a world where business
• No longer merely attempts to do less harm
• Strives toward the possibility of flourishing
• Creates “tri-impact” by being tri-profitable
Financially rewarding
Socially beneficial
Environmentally regenerative
* Increasingly shared: see recent Flourishing & Prosperous Business
Conference (www.globalforumbawb.com), the book
“The Flourishing Enterprise” by Laszlo, Brown, Ehrenfeld et. al. and
the Future Fit Business Benchmark (www.FutureFitBusiness.org)
OPEN meetings of the Strongly
Sustainable Business Model Group
(SSBMG) at sLab 2nd Tuesdays 4:30

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A business model is a description of how an organization
defines and achieves success over time.
New mode of co-creative planning & design
• Consistent with systems & social thinkers
(Ulrich, Law, Beck, Giddens, Ozbekhan)
• Every stakeholder has perspective, values, relations
And opportunity to contribute to evolutionary design
• Creates “tri-impact” by being tri-profitable
– Financially rewarding
– Socially beneficial
– Environmentally regenerative

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• A common language to collaboratively sketch,
prototype, design, share, measure, diagnose & tell
stories about a flourishing business model
• Based on 3 years of graduate research + 3 years of
practice community R&D.
• Ontology & visual canvas - Built upon Osterwalder’s
successful Business Model Canvas & PhD

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Three Contexts for Business – And Cities?
Social &
Technological
Physical,
Chemical &
Biological
Monetary
V2.0© Antony Upward / Edward James Consulting Ltd., 2014 All rights reserved.
Each and every business relates to all three
contexts - The environment that supports a
society that creates economies

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Outcomes
Process Value People
Perspectives on a Business Model
Who does a
business do it
to, for and
with?
What does a business do
now and in the future?
How, where &
with what does
the business
do it?
Why: How does a
business define &
measure success?
(in Environmental, Social
& Monetary units)

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Relating Contexts to Perspectives
V2.0© Antony Upward / Edward James Consulting Ltd., 2014 All rights reserved.

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Describe What’s Unique… & Shared
Unique to this businessEverything
shared with
everyone
Common to
everyone &
everything
V2.0© Antony Upward / Edward James Consulting Ltd., 2014 All rights reserved.
We must identify boundaries,
what is unique about this
business model and what is
shared by all organizations
Or institutions such as cities.

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Describe What’s Unique… & Shared
V2.0© Antony Upward / Edward James Consulting Ltd., 2014 All rights reserved.
Unique to this
business
Everything
shared with
everyone
Common to
everyone &
everything

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In pairs… generate & discuss
What are 2 things a business requires
to create the possibility for flourishing
for itself & all stakeholders?
Start with business models …

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If we can define a business operating system
on a visual map, can we do the same for city
planning, decision-making, & government?
Let’s start with a flourishing business model.
A Goal of Workshop
Center for Urban Pedagogy

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FBC Case - Tiffinday
• Delivers hot lunches to office workers in
downtown area in reusable metal
containers (Tiffins) – collected next day
– Customers: single white men
• Recipes, containers and service
modeled on typical South Asian
practices
• Website to place orders
• Operating for 4 years; profitable
• Located in North American urban centre

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A Flourishing Philosophy
“I believe that the very act of revenue generation
whether it be as:
a government earning taxes
a corporation earning revenues or
an individual earning a salary
is pointless…
unless it improves
lives and communities.”
Seema Pabari
Founder & CEO of Tiffinday

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Seema Pabari
Founder & CEO Tiffinday
…and her son
• Plant-based recipes (vegan)
– If everyone in U.S. ate no meat or cheese
just 1 day a week for a year = 91 billion
miles or removing 7.6 million cars
• Employees are new immigrant
mothers available to work while
children in school
– Includes founder – a single mother
• Delivery via electric vehicle
• Shared resources: Kitchen and chef via
arrangement with established vegan
restaurant
• Maximize purchases from Local
Sustainable certified farms (organic +
local + worker welfare)
• Certified Benefit Corporation - 80/200
More
Facts

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Tiffinday’s Goals
• Improving Lives and Communities by
Building on South Asian Culture (B-02)
• Contribute to a Healthy Environment (B-03)
EnvironmentalSocialFinancialContexts:
Goals:
• Sufficient Profitability (A-01)
B
• Having Time to Be a Mother (B-01)
Based on the founder’s values, we now have a rich basis for
understanding this business:
Who – People, What – Value, and How – Process

23. Copyright © 2015, Peter JonesSimplified for workshop / © Antony Upward / Edward James Consulting Ltd., 2014 All rights reserved.
Tiffinday Business Model
V3.40 on FBC v2.0

24. Copyright © 2015, Peter Jones
We ask 20 Questions:
SSBM Ontology Flourishing City
1. Actor
2. Needs
3. Stakeholders Citizens & community participants
4. Relationships
5. Channels
6. Value Propositions Institutions & organizations
7. Organization Communications & deliberation
8. Decisions Value Co-Creation /Co-Destruction
9. Partnerships Processes
10. Resourcs Assets
11. Biophysical Stocks Partners in Services
12. Activities Governing
13. Ecosystem Services Accountabilities
14. Success
15. Tri-profit “
16. Valuation method “
17. Processes
18. Costs
19. Revenues
20. Assets

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Narayana Health

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A Community Business Model?
• Can we create a process for participatory
systemic civil planning ?
• Can we adapt the FBC as a planning tool?
• Would a canvas be sensitive to capturing
stakeholders & community proposals?
• Do the Flourishing distinctions provide
guidance for a sustainability case?

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Group Exercise
• Form 6 groups - Handouts & Canvas prints
• Assign Contexts or Perspectives per group
1. Environment + Eco-Resources
2. Society + Actors & Needs
3. City or Community Definition (+ Economy)
4. Resources & Assets + Value
5. People + Value
6. Accountabilities + Value

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Using the 20 Questions …
• Our default flourishing city is the “possible
future Toronto.”
• Generate responses on notes that present
an ideal model of ecological balance.
• Within your group’s focus, extend ideas to
the adjacent entities where needed.
• Create a narrative or define a purpose.
• We’ll share in 15 minutes & integrate.

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Concluding Questions
• How might this model enable conversations for
Flourishing?
• What are the relationships between business &
social ecologies in a place?
• How might we get started with this approach in
policy debates?
• How could this become a practical, usable model
for engagement?

34. Copyright © 2015, Peter Jones
REFERENCES
• Upward, A. and Jones, P. (2015). An Ontology for Strongly Sustainable
Business Models: Defining an Enterprise Framework Compatible with Natural
and Social Science. Organization and Environment (in press).
• Jones, P. (2014). Caring for the Future: The Systemic Design of Flourishing
Enterprises. In Proceedings of RSD3, Third Symposium of Relating Systems
Thinking to Design. Oslo.
• Jones, P. (2014). Systemic design principles for complex social systems. In G.
Metcalf (ed.), Social Systems and Design, Volume 1 of the Translational Systems
Science Series, pp 91-128. Springer Japan.
• Weigand, K., Flanagan, TR, Dye, KMC, and Jones, P. (2014).Collaborative
foresight: Complementing long-horizon strategic planning. Technological
Forecasting & Social Change, 85, 134–152.
pjones@ocadu.ca