Valuing People As They Are

In most organizations, you start by defining a specific need or set of work requirements and then finding a person that matches those needs. In some ways, centering skills could be perceived as a way to avoid building organizations based on bias. (For example, we should not exclude people that we don't get along with.)

But systems that orient around skill sets and productivity metrics tend to treat people as expendable. If you don't hit those goals or meet those needs, you are fired or find yourself no longer welcome.

Authentic relationships, compassion, and mutual understanding require us to value people as they are, not just as what we want them to be or what they can do for us. Performance - based qualifications also don't erase bias. For example, some of our performance expectations are simply encoded biases. Systemic obsession with conforming to templated skills often end up reducing diversity, and blinding us to people's unique brilliance.

Designing for an alternative

There is no question that certain kinds of productivity will matter for the foreseeable future. We have to finish tasks to earn incomes, and we do believe that people should be rewarded for their hard work and labor. But productivity metrics should not be prioritized at the expense of collective well being. (See here for more on why we think this is also a matter of justice.)

We're asking how each of our values can be a primary framework for how organizations embrace new members into an organizational system. Layered on top of this primary framework, we hope to build secondary frameworks tied to tasks. For example:

• How does deep values alignment express itself, in our life journeys and commitments?

• Is it possible to provide a baseline of universal basic income solely based on deep values alignment and deep, personal commitments to justice?

• How could values aligned support be enhanced by project-oriented income where specific, time-bound deliverables are important?