An invitation to innovation

Let’s talk about

The trouble we have today with collaboration,

competition and just plain survival

An organizational model that might solve our problems

and offer new opportunities to serve Alaskans

An invitation to explore this new world together

A few problems

There are several factors that make working together

difficult today — and it’s not easy alone, either

A few problems

APTI is stressed by the substantial operating cash

subsidy from local service to statewide service

KSKA KAKM

APRN

$

limited local service

$

limited local service

statewide service maintained

stationstation

station

station

station station

station

station

station

station

stationstation

A few problems

Conflicts over APRN ownership and management

model persist 4 years after the merger

APRN(APTI)

A few problems

Limited State funding creates unhealthy competition

between stations

APBC(GAR)

stationstation

station

station

station station

station

station

station

station

stationstation

A few problems

rising station costs

falling state revenue

diminishing underwriter

capacity

as-yet unknown

impacts on donors

Costs Revenues

A few problems

Largest potential source of money—the State—has not

been overly generous in recent years

Access to money made tougher by ever-expanding

media market, blunting our traditional case for support

Everyone wants more flexibility, lower fixed costs, more

control and independence, more value

But today’s APRN makes this hard to deliver

Bottom line

We must find more resources and build resilient

strength (competition)

We must end our conflicts (cooperation)

Our top-down organization model doesn’t help

We need a new way to organize ourselves

What if a new approach...

Fostered maximum autonomy for members

and simple cooperation at every scale

Eliminated most conflicts over power and money

Helped participants with a shared mission but couldn’t

interfere with local missions

Brought new members and new support to the table

Built a new case for support based on deep public

service with measurable impact

chaordic organizationchaos + order = chaord

Living systems thrive in a narrow band between

chaos and order …

CHAORD (kay-ord)

ORDERCHAOS CONTROL

A Chaord Is

Any organism, organization or system that is:

Self-organizing Self-governing Adaptive Nonlinear Complex

CHAORD

©2001, Chaordic Commons

Chaordic Organizations

! Enduring in purpose and principle.! Powered from the periphery,

unified from the core.! Exist to enable constituent parts.! Equitably distribute power, rights,

responsibilities and rewards.! Fluid webs of cooperation and

competition.! Cannot be managed, can only be

led.

Chaordic organization

Pioneered by Dee Hock, founder of Visa International,

about 40 years ago

An organization that serves members in a common

mission, but leaves members autonomous

Based upon natural / biological principles, rather than

top-down industrial era management notions

Allows participation by any entity committed to the

shared mission

Visa International

Problem: value transfer system in a world of competing

banks plus millions of consumers and merchants

No single bank could solve the problem without

building out at huge risk or by owning all banks

Multiple banks founded Visa with a unified mission

Bank / merchant / consumer problem solved

Prevented merging for scale or competing to death

Visa International

A Delaware for-profit, non-stock membership

corporation, with ownership held in the form of

irrevocable rights of participation

An inside-out holding company

An enabling institution

—Chaordic Commons

©2001, The Chaordic Commons

Holding Company

Ownership

©2001, The Chaordic Commons

Inside-Out Holding Company

Ownership

©2001, The Chaordic Commons

Umbrella Organization

Give up autonomy to leverage joint

influence

©2001, The Chaordic Commons

Upside-Down Umbrella Organization

Freedom to grow from shared infrastructure

What if we created our own

“Visa” for public service

media in Alaska?

common platform

co-branding

collaboratio

n &

competition

easier distrib

ution

content exchange

open market

member autonomy

shared mission

If we built a natural network

What would it be like?

How would we get there?

What missionwould we share?

APTI

APTI

pool

station

station

station

other org

station

other org

station

facilitator

A shared mission would

attract the bulk of current APRN stations and staff

attract new members to the network with a natural

inclination for the shared mission

focus on positive, measurable community impact

draw new support to members

be platform- and distribution-agnostic

One possible mission

Informprovide information in context

Connectbring people and resources together around issues

relevant to our communities

So that Alaskans can actwe enable action (but don’t do the work),

then measure the impact

Development phase

early pool formed mostly

by legacy APRN

filled with traditional

content and services

founders setup

constitution,

shared mission

requires funding

and facilitator

APTI

pool

station

station

station

other

station

other

station

facilitator

Expansion over time

pool draws in additional

members

technical platform

grows

new members join

governance

facilitator role

grows, never

produces products

APTI

pool

station

station

station

other

station

other

station

facilitator

nonprofit

commercial station

independent

reporter

museum

new media org

Members beyond APRN

public television

libraries

commercial media

United Way, other

nonprofits

museums

foundations

new media orgs

Alaska Native cultural

organizations

schools, universities

local government

Okay... so now what?

A modest proposal

Let’s design an organization to facilitate sharing and

distribution of public service media focused upon

Alaskan people, communities and issues

Let’s define a shared mission for the organization that

incorporates legacy values of APRN, but opens the

platform to any member subscribing to the mission

An invitation to innovation

We have the seeds of an idea and have found a

compelling model to explore

There’s a lot to figure out and it needs more ideas from

more people to develop

We invite interested parties to get in touch with us

We’d like to start exploration in January

The exploratory group would be small and ideally

include 1 or 2 from outside APRN