Introducing: Reimagining the Nature of Work 📘
A booklet and collective reimagining for a more joyful, nourishing and regenerative culture of work 🌀🌱🐚
I’ve got news! We've published a booklet ✨
If you're seeking inspiration to transform the way you work, this booklet is for you.
Over the past four years, I've been writing this newsletter. This, living in NYC and later exploring different ways of working and living in Mexico, LA, Barcelona, Italy, and Cape Town has given me the opportunity to consult with many individuals: from Airbnb hosts who retired in little towns in Mexico and Italy to embrace the "good life", to an entrepreneur running an artist residency in the Tuscany hills, a farmer decentralizing his business to be employee-led, and many others.
All of this has led me to publish this booklet of discoveries and viewpoints, in the hope that they’ll inspire you to transform our current culture of work.
The way we currently work isn't working for many of us; The linear 9-5, work-until-you-retire model, relentless career ladder climb, and standard definition of success leave many of us feeling isolated, drained and burned out.
In "Reimagining The Nature Of Work," I present a framework and vision for work that promotes our creative well-being and human flourishing. This approach challenges the conventional, urging us to define success by personal values, to accommodate our multidimensional selves, to make space for different rhythms and seasons of work, and to create a work environment filled with belonging, trust, creativity, and inspiration.
New narratives and stories are essential because they shape our perception of the world. To create them requires imagination. As writer-activist Rob Hopkins says, “We need to imagine it and then walk around it, smell it, feel it, and get a sense of it.”
If we only follow what we know, we'll never progress. We need to venture into the unknown, step out of our comfort zones, and explore and imagine other possibilities. (A notion I've embraced by moving countries three times and living in over eight different cities)
And since nothing worthwhile is done alone, I’ve invited some favorite thought partners, friends, and collaborators to co(llectively)-imagine with us. Inspired by the fascinating patterns and mechanisms of nature, we dive into:
The pitfalls of contemporary linear work models and the potential for new models that respect the different seasons of our lives and rhythms of our days.
Rituals and practices enabling organizations, teams, and individuals to transition towards an inspired, trusted, and joy-filled work-life and environment.
Unpacking the lessons we can draw from ecosystems like mycelium and forests as ways to provide a social support system
Ways to liberate ourselves from societal expectations and redefine success based on personal values, rather than dictated norms.
Practical design principles to shape a fresh work culture, providing both guidance and guardrails for this journey and a shared vision for the future
With essays, activities, and self-reflection prompts, this 70-page booklet is designed to ignite conversations and, using nature as our compass, establish a new shared language, and a collective vision for a work culture that nourishes our creative well-being and human potential.
You can now get your physical copy, or message me at hello@alicekatter.com if you don’t have a physical address and would like to order a digital copy :)
A HUGE shout out and thank you to my wonderful friends and collaborators who contributed to this booklet to co-imagine a new culture of work 🧡🌱
Contributors:
Bree Groff, Lori Abichandani, Matt Sim, Victoria Stoyanova
Interviewees + additional contributors:
Avital Shernoff, Matthew Knight, Jenessa Gerber, Jenna Barone Bel, Johanna Guggenberger, Shuya Gong, Thomas Winkelmann, UME Collective, The Now Work, Andy Ng, Nicole Moore, Dustin Studelska, John Mikulenka, Eleanor Updegraff, Martika Vilar ✨
Congratulations, Alice! ✨ Putting in my order 💛