Institute for Challenging Disorganization

Professional Organizer, Nancy Castelli and Mayor Gierlach
at The Institute for Challenging Disorganization

My friend, Nancy came to Denver to attend the Institute for Challenging Disorganization conference.

This intrigued me, not realizing that an organization like the Institute for Challenging Disorganization even existed. They address issues like Compulsive Hoarding Behavior.

Just the prospect that this organization exists, validates my fear that I am a hoarder preparing for the next power outage or national disaster. In some ways, the 1,000 year Boulder Flood now indicates that it can happen again much sooner than 1,000 years from now. This only justifies more hoarding. Even my compost pile is Feng Shui.

Nearly three decades ago, I met Nancy after an eventful trip where my friend Steve and I changed a flat tire in less than three minutes in order to see the Police Synchronicity Tour. The concert was at a venue in Cincinnati where eleven fans had been trampled to death at a Who concert, many years prior.

Now Nancy Castelli is the CEO of BALANCE: Turning Matter Into Energy, and a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). She explains in this blog post why I am not a compulsive hoarder, but I find the process of organizing, disorganizing, and reorganizing, to be fascinating. Not so much focused on my personal organization habits, but how does a town reorganize after a national disaster? How can the organization prepare for a more resilient future?

Thresholds of Organization:

It all reminds me of a common discussion with my wife: She had a lower threshold for dust or germs than I did. I had a lower threshold for organization. So, she would see the obvious need to do laundry or dishes before I ever reached my threshold, but she did not see the need to put the clean clothes or dishes away. [She'd say, "... just going to wear them again anyway" ] I, of course, didn't recognize that my shirt needed to be washed [She'd say, "You're not going to wear that, are you?" ] because I was busy focusing on matching socks, folding clothes and coordinating them by color and texture.

This example becomes more important when it is extrapolated for an organization like our Town. [ "Why maintain dirt roads, when the snow melt is just going to ruin it next spring?" ]

Why is Organized Crime is Worse than Disorganized Crime?

Mike Myers as Dr Evil in a planning meeting

When people cooperate and work together, the result is very powerful. When the organization's mission is crime, well, that would be bad. Indeed, human nature's ability to organize itself is perhaps the single most powerful aspect of our species. It even put a man on the moon. (On the other hand, we landed on the moon well before we thought to put wheels on suitcases.)

It reminds me of the Austin Powers scene where Dr. Evil is in a planning meeting. Just as we recognize that Dr. Evil's organized crime ring is obviously not good for our community, we are often skeptical of our own government's power, simply because it is organized, and can accomplish many things, some of which we may not want. Yet we expect our government to plan for public safety, like protecting our citizens from being trampled to death at a Who concert in Cincinnati.

All of this was going through my mind, as I sat and watched the presenters at the state Capitol for the Rebuild Right campaign, sponsored by the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado.

[Related Story: Rebuild Right – the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado]

The Ned Mind Map 2011

Our community has had many forms of organizations, and back in 2011, I had to create this Nederland Mind Map in order to organize them in my own mind.

Some people believe that we live in the mountains to get away from corporate and governmental organization. I've also sited an example where The Inter-Mountain Alliance could also be perceived as an organization determined not to fall into the trap of becoming an organization.

[Related Story: Who is the IMA?]

Since the time of that Mind Map, we've been organizing the town, and other organizations associated with the town, and came up with a community-wide organization strategy – but it is not what you might expect from an 'organization'.

#NedZero grows Feng Shui from Chaos

On May 19, 2015, the Nederland Board of Trustees unanimously approved its continued support for the #NedZero community engagement tool. This is a state-of-the-art tool to facilitate 'organized disorganization', and enhance 'distributed problem-solving'. It is ideal for a town like Nederland known for its 'local distinctiveness'. Here is a 7 minute slideshare describing how it works.

Growth and change is inevitable. The process of becoming disorganized, then to reorganize, refreshes the system. I trust that our community will put #NedZero through rigorous and refreshing disorganization and reorganization. In addition, the Board of Trustees also puts our projects through the  Nederland Planning Process (NPP) to ensure they meet the needs of our community.

[Related Story: Humans and Nature]

We will need to think things through as a community, find a way to address the #NedZero list of action plan items, in order to become resilient to flood, fire, drought, or even economic resiliency.

This is item 2D-09 in the #NedZero Action Plan, under D. Community Dialog.

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[Here is a Video Valediction] Decades later ... and many miles away ... this is The Police performing Synchronicity II in Tokyo (2008). [What is a Video Valediction?]