Background
From Scarcity to Abundance is a game that brings forth Dr. Humberto Maturana’s long trajectory of research and insights on human biology in a social world. It is based on several core Matuaranian principles and Systemic Laws including desire, conservation and change, imagination, conversations and culture. The game captures the experience and moving forward from our biology to psychology, sociology, social anthropology and philosophy. Using insights from Deluzean and Stoic philosophy and its essence, this game brings the possibility of mapping paths for self, organization, and society transformation. Through play we clarify what we want to conserve enabling us to self-care, care for others and care for the system(s) that sustain us.
From Scarcity to Abundance is design to facilitate emotional transformation, and bring forth change readiness and emotional agility or flow. The game aim is to dissolve the scarcity mindset observed as a restraining narrative and a source of human conflict, contradiction and suffering. During the facilitation of the game we value self-confidence and agency, encouraging participants to solve emotional contradictions in their appraisals of circumstances, events and human relationships by reflecting. The aim is to facilitate to dissolve contradictions and conflict through play. The game can be used in the context of coaching individuals, human organisations and teams, to clarify emotional contexts and create shared futures. The game explores the human condition in five dimensions: well-being, reflexivity, interactions, relationships and ethics. As an ongoing dissertation project, we are still refining and clarifying aspects of the game to make useful for research.
The game has been played numerous times and, it appears to have helped individuals reflect on their confidence or stuckness. It has been useful for creating intra-team dialogue and could be a good vehicle for inter-team collaboration when dealing with complex issues that have societal implications. When playing we follow these principles: √ Conviviality and celebration of togetherness √ We encourage cooperation over competition √ Authenticity over simply fitting in √ Compassion (love) over disregard √ Agility over stuckness √ Social awareness over self-delusion √ Imagination over constraints √ Realism over Illusion √ Energy over staleness √ Present over future √ Make visible three levels: Individual and organizational and societal In the following link we present an article of the game played by college students and faculty members from the Jesuit University of Guadalajara (ITESO).