Shaping the World

The role of Transmediaries

Worldchanging = Powershifting

The most enduring, most sophisticated, and most important expression of power in any age is the will to “change the world”. No emperor, poet or warrior has in their heart of hearts not been overcome by this urge to let the whole species, the entire social cosmos, experience the world as she has shaped it. But the act of worldchanging can be inspired by radically different things and pursued using very different tools.

 After nearly two decades of involvement in the struggle to scale transformative change from different vantage points the Founders of mPedigree can finally separate the trees from the woods and are keen to share their findings with the world, to help groom a new “school of thought”, and together with fellow seekers bring clarity to a space of human endeavour attracting more and more interest every day, yet lacking the clear and lucid boundaries of a discipline in its own right, one that can be rigorously critiqued, unbundled and built upon.

 We have honed in on a specific domain of this vast spectrum of power for careful analysis, and given it a name: Transmediation. As the Akans of Ghana say, “it is to avoid folly, that names were invented”. Explore this site and contribute to the upcoming blog if you too feel strongly about “power” and “change”. 

How the World is being Shaped

Transformative Changemaking

Transformative Changemaking

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Change as Usual

Change as Usual

The Philosophies Changemakers are using to Shape the World

Polycentrism

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Monocentrism

Changemakers and their Collaborative Tools

Transmediaries vrs Intermediaries

Intermediation

Who are Transmediaries and Intermediaries?

what transmediaries are
what intermediaries are
Transmediaries Intermediaries
Transmediaries create relationships, which then define the nodes and create value. Value is not latent. They create value by configuring relationships which enable new nodes to emerge.

A classic example of this process in action is to be seen in the “ethical label” movement (fairtrade, organic, marine stewardship etc), which sees new nodes of value emerge constantly as consumer feedback shapes the relationships among certifiers, supermarkets, labour and producers.
Intermediaries look for established value nodes and try to position themselves to increase their bargaining power. E.g. look for producers and link them to consumers. Or connect formal civic institutions to the informal desires of citizens. Or bridge between human and deity.
Increase points of synergy.
Exploit gaps for arbitrage.
Invent new forms of transparency to redesign the underlying trust models.
Strengthen position in knowledge networks by leveraging opacity.
Attributional flexibility. Transmediaries try to distribute credit for outcomes as flexibly as possible to sustain buy-in. This is a very important distinction because it also distinguishes transmediaries from, say, multilateral diplomats who focus on consensus. Typically, for intermediaries, consensus is engineered outside the ideation phase. The ideation phase for transmediaries is often very similar to conventional entrepreneurs. But they spend a lot more time "programming buy-in" as from "stakeholders" as a separate endeavour. Transmediaries thus produce more concrete outcomes than most multilateralists.
Are more inflexible about the allocation of credentials and try to consolidate “credit for attainment” as another zero-sum resource. “Branding” is a widely used and abused euphemism for this mindset.

Changemakers and their favoured Philosophies and Tools

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Power

For anything to change, three things must intersect: passion, knowledge and power. The world’s problem right now is that, often, many with knowledge have no passion and many with power have no knowledge.

Classic View

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New Perspective