Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us

renewable energy supplier Good Energy has created a Good Future Board, for example. This body, which has genuine power in the business, is entirely made up of school age children, on the basis that ‘the time is up for hearing from grown ups on climate change.’138

Democratic innovations that are currently taking shape slowly and hesitantly – like liquid democracy (which equips people to allocate their voice to those they trust on an issue-by-issue basis, rather than the relatively blunt nature of electoral representation) or quadratic voting (which enables the quick and simple aggregation of the preferences

Ultimately, what we need for Citizen business to take full hold is for the cooperative model to expand massively, and for the businesses in it to step into the Citizen Story.

They were part of the cause, indeed participants in the cause, to be involved and inspired, not just sold to.

Fellow Citizens in a new business ecosystem,

NCP’s Seven Modes of Everyday Participation are each framed around what the Citizen can do.

businesses need to become platforms enabling people to undertake purposeful action in the world, as opposed to trying to deliver on purpose for people, without our involvement.

How can your business teach its customers to be participants in its purpose?

The point in all these examples is that the customers are the people who actually know best, since they use the product or service in question: How can you enable the people who know best to do the work with you?