7 principles for Thriving Cooperatives

Name: 7 principles for Thriving Cooperatives
Rating: 3.9 (10 reviews)

How to make your cooperative venture highly effective and abundant. avoiding pitfalls and encouraging authentic growth.

Created byAlexander McDonell

Last updated 3/2025

English

What you'll learn

How to run an effective cooperative
3 principles that are damaging to cooperatives and communities
7 principles for thriving cooperatives
Analyse and understand what could be improved in your cooperative or community

Course content

3 sections • 9 lectures • 2h 41m total length

Introduction11:07
I have some experience with fixing problems in cooperatives and community organisations. I see often the same mistakes made, so it would be really good to help people find how to move forward without making these mistakes.

I think one of the key areas that leads people astray are the three principles of the french revolution - liberty, equality and fraternity. Each has value, but it is time we took them further.

HOMEWORK

How do you value the principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity in your personal life? How does your community value them? Could they be replaced with higher values?

Diversity27:16
Diversity not equality is the law of nature - how can we identify and use people's strengths and talents to their greatest?

HOMEWORK
Do a SWOT analysis for yourself and your cooperative or community
Equity20:56
Focus on equity and creating maximum wealth - wealth being purchasing capacity.

HOMEWORK

List your needs and the needs of the co-op - if possible list needs of others involved.
Come up with ideas for how these needs could be met? can you find a way to meet all of the needs at once?
Wealth13:50
There are 4 different important ways of looking at wealth, and it is important to analyse all of them, and how that wealth can be improved in each way.

HOMEWORK
analyse your coop or communities wealth in each of the 4 ways - basic needs, happiness, finance, impact
in what way could each be improved?
Cooperation18:18
The cooperative structure is powerful in itself and there are many developments that have already figured out effective structures to deal with many challenges and focus areas.

HOMEWORK
What kind of cooperative structure would your coop have? who are its members? how does it function? what coops are there that you can connect with who are already doing the same thing?
if your basic structure is already set up then ask them same questions about a particular area of your business that could be improved.
Service9:48
Be of Service - meet a need. People don't join you because you are a coop they join because you meet their needs.

HOMEWORK
What needs does your coop meet? what needs do your members or community have? Can the coop meet any needs better than it is doing at the moment?
Progress32:41
Continuous improvement is essential. What is not growing is dying.

HOMEWORK
What could be improved in your coop or community? What is already going well and you could do more of?
Leadership26:27
There are different personalities and kinds of leadership. It is important to understand how these grow and change, and how different leadership is needed at different points. And it is important to respect and appreciate leaders and the need for leadership.

HOMEWORK
what kind of leadership and power structure does your coop or community have at the moment? What kind of leadership does it need? Can you provide that? Do you know anyone else who can?

Requirements

This is for idealistic people working on starting cooperatives or getting involved in cooperative leadership. It assumes you have little experience, but a lot of heart.

Description

This is a course that covers a series of basic principles for cooperative management and leadership. The principles draw heavily on the Progressive Utilisation Theory, a theory of social change that is based in spiritual principles, and has some resemblance to permaculture on a very large scale. Those of you familiar with it will recognise some of the principles, but will perhaps not have thought of applying them in these ways. It also draws on my experience in resolving problems in cooperative and community organisations. The idea is that having seen the same mistakes being made many times by cooperators I would love to be able to help you to avoid the biggest mistakes and guide your coop in effective directions. This is just a short course in basic principles, but it should guide you in key practical and philosophical directions that should drastically reduce conflict and increase effectiveness as your cooperative venture develops.

We will go over the 3 main principles that seem positive but lead to issues, and then a deeper dive into each of the 7 principles for thriving cooperatives. In each one you will be given some homework to analyse yourself and your cooperative or community from that perspective.

Who this course is for:

Idealistic people who want to start co-ops or improve existing ones

7 principles for Thriving Cooperatives

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction1 lecture • 11min

7 Principles for a thriving Cooperative7 lectures • 2hr 29min

Conclusion1 lecture • 2min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: