What Unites Us

There is a whole lot more that unites us rather than divides us. The universal principles and values below have been part of holding communities together for more than 5,000 years. We call this our Symbiotic Culture DNA. Our criteria for these were their universality: could we find agreement between differing cultures, religious and spiritual frames, as well as secular and civic culture?

We are in a “All Hands On Deck” moment in history. We need to put these principles and values at the forefront of our lives, no matter how others are acting. And we’re “injecting” Symbiotic Culture DNA into the bioregional networks we are building in each of the 12 common needs of community.

The essence of Symbiotic Culture is intentional and conscious mutual benefit embodied in all our interactions. The effects radiate outward from you, as we go through our normal daily interactions: you create community within yourself, to your street, neighborhood, your existing associations, then to building networks in your bioregion.

Principles of a Community Operating System

We distilled common community operating and building principles from how real communities’ function. For example, the Golden Rule is found within almost every culture, religion, and time. We make it straightforward. The Golden Rule has to do with every interaction we have with others where you intentionally can reflect on the mutual benefit or symbiosis of each situation.

Walking Our Talk

We all share a belief that values are important, but they may not be at the forefront of how we live our lives. Symbiotic Culture is an effort to encourage our whole community to “walk our talk,” while we practically apply the “energy” of these values in building community in the 12 common needs areas. These shared values come from input from the community (crowdsourcing) and from looking at the “core values” of many social institutions including service groups such as Rotary, business, the U.S. Military, police departments, non-profit and civic organizations, religious groups, etc.

Out of the Battlefield and into a New Playing Field

We build community-based symbiotic networks in twelve sectors, what we call common needs or sectors, areas of community that people are already passionate about. These are everyday things: growing more local food, strengthening the local economy, a clean environment, wellness, spirituality and service, helping those who are on the “margins,” and other needs that your community has. As each bioregion builds their own networks, these local networks themselves connect organically and as a whole system, for example, people connecting local food to health and education and to clean environment.