GLOBE TEAM: Planetary-Focused steamHouse Practice

Framework Guide

Version 1.0 | December 2025 Status: Framework-level draft for review

INTRODUCTION

What Globe Team Is

Globe Team is steamHouse practice oriented toward planetary-scale challenges — connecting local action to global purpose.

Globe Team is for people who:

  • Care about challenges bigger than their immediate circle

  • Want their local action to connect to systemic change

  • Seek community with others who share this orientation

  • Need frameworks for sustainable engagement with overwhelming problems

Globe Team assumes you already have (or are developing) the foundational steamHouse capacities — purpose, paradigm, practice. It extends these toward the largest scales of concern.

Who This Is For

Primary Audience: Ages 16+ whose purpose embraces planetary-scale challenges.

This naturally complements:

  • Hero stage (16-20): Purpose is crystallizing, contribution capacity emerging

  • Whole-Real Human (20+): Generativity and institutional engagement developing

Globe Team works for:

  • Young people whose purpose is taking global shape

  • Adults working in sustainability, development, civic engagement, or related fields

  • Anyone whose steamHouse journey leads toward systemic contribution

How This Relates to Other steamHouse Materials

Material

Relationship to Globe Team

Framework Guide Ch 25

Globe Team operationalizes supertribe and Care Space concepts

Framework Guide Ch 31

Globe Team extends contribution to supertribes

FULSOME E6 (Democracy/Citizenship)

Globe Team draws on this research foundation

FULSOME E7 (Planetary Context)

Globe Team draws on this research foundation

Manual Volume IV

Globe Team parallels and extends Hero/Whole-Real Human content

Activity Bootstrap Guides

Domain-specific Globe Team guides (future) will follow this pattern

Chronicles (TeraTerraTribe)

Optional narrative inspiration for Globe Team orientation

Document Structure

This Framework Guide provides the conceptual architecture. Companion materials (in development) will include:

  • Globe Team Domain Guides — Specific guides for climate, democracy, development, etc. (Bootstrap Guide format)

  • Globe Team Action Catalog — Specific projects and organizations by domain

  • Globe Team Community Resources — Network-building tools

PART I: FOUNDATIONS

Chapter 1: The Supertribe Imperative

Why Comfort Tribes Can't Solve Global Problems

The problems that matter most are too big for people who already agree with each other.

The Math:

  • Climate change requires coordination among billions of people with different values, interests, and worldviews

  • Democratic health requires collaboration among citizens who disagree profoundly

  • Economic development requires cooperation across cultures, nations, and ideologies

  • Pandemic preparedness requires trust among competitors

None of these can be solved by gathering people who think alike. They require supertribes — large groups united by few shared principles, not cultural similarity.

The Supertribe Insight

Comfort Tribe: Few people, many shared values. Easy because everyone's similar. Limited in scale and scope.

Supertribe: Many people, few shared values. Hard because everyone's different — but it's the only way large-scale cooperation happens.

The counterintuitive truth: bigger groups require less agreement, not more. But what they agree on must be solid.

The HOT HEADLINE

"There are a very few ideas we all might reasonably share. Let's promote them."

This is the TeraTerraTribe rallying cry — and the Globe Team operating principle.

Across vast differences, certain principles might be genuinely universal:

  • Evidence matters (Objective Reason)

  • People deserve dignity and self-determination (Personal Agency, Mutual Respect)

  • We should examine our own thinking (Reflective Thinking)

Globe Team focuses on these sparse shared principles rather than thick cultural agreement.

The Positive Definition Key

Supertribes work through positive definition:

Negatively-defined groups: "We're the people who are NOT them." Identity requires enemies.

Positively-defined groups: "We're the people who value X." Identity doesn't require enemies.

Globe Team is positively defined. We're for conscious, purposeful, connected living — not against any particular enemy.

Chapter 2: Care Space at Planetary Scale

The Outermost Circles

The Care Space model (Framework Guide Ch 22-25) describes expanding circles:

  1. Self

  2. Close relationships (family, intimate friends)

  3. Team/community (known groups)

  4. Tribe (larger identity groups)

  5. Others (people you don't know)

  6. World (physical world, global systems)

  7. Personal Whole (meaning, integration)

Globe Team operates primarily in circles 5-7 — the scales that extend beyond anyone you could personally know.

What "World" Includes

Human Systems:

  • Economic systems (markets, trade, development)

  • Political systems (governance, democracy, rights)

  • Technological systems (information, energy, infrastructure)

  • Cultural systems (ideas, values, meaning-making)

Planetary Systems:

  • Climate and atmosphere

  • Oceans and water cycles

  • Biodiversity and ecosystems

  • Land use and food systems

Why This Matters: These systems are the substrate of everyone's life. They determine what's possible for billions of people. Ignoring them doesn't make you independent — it makes you unaware.

Citizenship as World-Care

For most people, world-care operates through citizenship.

Citizenship connects you to political systems that shape collective life. It's not minimal duty (vote occasionally) but active engagement:

  • Staying informed about issues that matter

  • Participating in democratic processes

  • Contributing to civil society

  • Engaging diverse perspectives

  • Taking your role in collective self-governance seriously

Planetary Care

The outermost world-care concerns the planet itself.

Humans now affect planetary systems: climate, biodiversity, ocean chemistry, land use. What previous generations could ignore — the stability of global systems — now requires attention.

This isn't about guilt or apocalypse. It's about recognizing the context you're embedded in. The human story unfolds within a planetary story.

Chapter 3: Think Global, Act Local — Operationalized

The Challenge

Global challenges feel overwhelming because:

  • Scale is incomprehensible (billions of people, decades of time)

  • Causation is diffuse (no single intervention solves it)

  • Feedback is delayed (you won't see results)

  • Individual contribution feels meaningless

Globe Team doesn't deny these realities. It provides frameworks for acting anyway.

The Local Entry Point

Every global challenge has local manifestations:

Global Challenge

Local Manifestation

Climate change

Local energy, transportation, land use

Democratic erosion

Local elections, school boards, civic orgs

Economic inequality

Local economic development, living wages

Biodiversity loss

Local habitat, land use, species protection

Public health

Local health infrastructure, preparedness

The Practice: Find where the global challenge shows up in your accessible context. That's where you can act.

The "Glonacal" Perspective

Effective action often requires seeing across scales simultaneously:

  • Global: What's the systemic pattern?

  • National: How do policies and institutions mediate it?

  • Local: Where can I actually intervene?

Neither pure global thinking (paralyzing abstraction) nor pure local thinking (missing systemic patterns) is sufficient. You need both.

Long Time Horizons

Many global challenges require intergenerational thinking:

  • Climate stabilization is a 30-100 year project

  • Democratic renewal is multi-generational

  • Cultural change is measured in decades

Implications:

  • Don't expect quick wins

  • Evaluate progress on long timescales

  • Build for successors, not just yourself

  • Plant trees you won't sit under

PART II: FINDING YOUR GLOBE TEAM PURPOSE

Chapter 4: Purpose at Planetary Scale

The Three-Way Intersection

Your Globe Team purpose lives where three things meet:

What you care about: The global challenges that stir you. This is Heart — purpose driven by genuine concern.

What you can affect: Your skills, position, resources, context. This is Body — realistic capacity.

What needs doing: Actual gaps where contribution is needed. This is Head — honest assessment of utility.

Purpose without capacity = frustration Capacity without purpose = emptiness Purpose + capacity without need = wasted effort

Avoiding Overwhelm

Global challenges are infinite. You are finite.

Bounded Commitment: Choose a specific domain, specific approach, sustainable engagement level. You can't do everything — you can do something.

Portfolio Approach: Primary commitment + secondary interests + awareness of other domains. Concentrate for impact; diversify for perspective.

Sustainable Engagement: This is a marathon, not a sprint. Burnout serves no one. Sustainable rhythm over heroic bursts.

The Purpose Clarification Process

  1. Survey: What global challenges concern you? (List without judgment)

  2. Prioritize: Which concern you most? Where do you have capacity?

  3. Investigate: What's actually happening in that domain? Who's working on it?

  4. Locate: Where could YOU contribute given your position?

  5. Commit: Make a bounded commitment (time-limited, revisable)

  6. Review: Periodically reassess fit and effectiveness

Chapter 5: Domains of Contribution

Overview

Globe Team doesn't require commitment to a specific domain. But most Globe Team practitioners focus somewhere. Here are major domains:

Climate and Environment

The Challenge: Stabilizing climate, protecting ecosystems, sustainable human activity.

Manifestations:

  • Energy systems (generation, efficiency)

  • Transportation systems

  • Land use and food systems

  • Consumption patterns

  • Policy and regulation

Entry Points:

  • Individual behavior (necessary but insufficient)

  • Community-level action (local energy, transportation, land use)

  • Organizational change (workplaces, institutions)

  • Policy engagement (advocacy, voting, organizing)

  • Movement participation (climate organizations)

Democracy and Civic Health

The Challenge: Maintaining and strengthening democratic institutions, civic culture, collective self-governance.

Manifestations:

  • Electoral integrity

  • Informed citizenship

  • Civic discourse quality

  • Institutional health

  • Cross-difference collaboration

Entry Points:

  • Personal civic engagement (voting, staying informed)

  • Local participation (school boards, city council, local orgs)

  • Bridging work (across political difference)

  • Movement participation (democracy-focused organizations)

  • Institutional service (running for office, serving on boards)

Global Development

The Challenge: Reducing poverty, improving wellbeing, enabling human flourishing globally.

Manifestations:

  • Economic opportunity

  • Health systems

  • Education access

  • Governance quality

  • Rights protection

Entry Points:

  • Supporting effective organizations (giving, volunteering)

  • Professional work in development

  • Policy advocacy

  • Local-global connections (fair trade, ethical consumption)

Public Health and Preparedness

The Challenge: Protecting population health, preparing for health emergencies.

Manifestations:

  • Health infrastructure

  • Pandemic preparedness

  • Disease prevention

  • Health equity

Entry Points:

  • Professional health work

  • Community health engagement

  • Policy advocacy

  • Preparedness (personal and community)

Technology and Its Governance

The Challenge: Ensuring technology serves humanity, managing risks, directing development wisely.

Manifestations:

  • AI safety and governance

  • Information ecosystem health

  • Digital rights

  • Technology access equity

Entry Points:

  • Technical work with ethical orientation

  • Policy engagement

  • Digital citizenship (personal practice)

  • Supporting governance organizations

Other Domains

  • Peace and conflict resolution

  • Human rights

  • Education (global scale)

  • Migration and refugees

  • [Additional domains as relevant]

Chapter 6: From Purpose to Practice

The Think Big → Be Real → Act Framework

Think Big: What's the largest vision? What would success look like at scale? What do you care about most?

Be Real: What are the constraints? What's actually possible? What resources exist? What's already being done?

Act: Given purpose and constraints, what will you actually DO? Specific, bounded, trackable.

Levels of Action

Level

Examples

Characteristics

Individual behavior

Personal consumption, lifestyle

Necessary but insufficient; models but doesn't transform

Influence on close others

Conversations, relationships

Multiplicative but limited reach

Community/local action

Local organizing, local institutions

Tangible, visible, limited scale

Organizational impact

Workplace change, institutional reform

Leverage through institutions

Movement participation

Joining organizations, collective action

Scale through coordination

Policy/systemic change

Advocacy, politics, structural change

Highest leverage, hardest to achieve

What "Act" Looks Like When Problems Are Global

You won't solve climate change. You won't fix democracy. But you can:

  • Contribute to organizations that work on it

  • Model alternative approaches

  • Shift the people around you

  • Participate in collective action

  • Influence institutions you're part of

  • Support policy change

  • Prepare the next generation

The question isn't "Will my individual action solve this?" (No.) It's "Is my action part of a collective pattern that could solve this?" (Maybe — and the aggregate of such actions is all we have.)

Sustainable Engagement

Global challenges don't take breaks. You must.

Principles:

  • Bounded commitment (defined scope, not infinite obligation)

  • Regular rhythm (sustainable pattern, not crisis-to-crisis)

  • Rest without guilt (you're more effective rested)

  • Joy as part of the work (not opposed to it)

  • Community support (you can't do this alone)

PART III: SYSTEMS THINKING AS PRIMARY LENS

Chapter 7: Seeing in Systems

Why Linear Thinking Fails at Global Scale

Linear thinking: A causes B causes C. Simple chains. Direct intervention.

Reality of global systems: Everything connects. Causes become effects become causes. Feedback loops. Emergent properties. Non-obvious consequences.

Linear interventions in complex systems often fail — or backfire through channels nobody anticipated.

Core Systems Concepts

Feedback Loops:

  • Reinforcing loops: Change amplifies itself (growth spirals, vicious cycles)

  • Balancing loops: Change triggers counter-forces (thermostats, equilibria)

Emergence: Properties of systems that don't exist in components. Consciousness from neurons. Market prices from trades. Culture from interactions.

Non-linearity: Small changes can have large effects; large changes can have small effects. Depends on system state and location.

Delay: Effects take time. Cause today, consequence years later. This makes feedback confusing — we don't connect action to outcome.

The Meadows Levels of Intervention

Donella Meadows identified leverage points in systems, from least to most effective:

Shallow Leverage (easier to change, less impact):

  • Parameters (numbers: subsidies, taxes, standards)

  • Buffers (stabilizing stocks)

  • Stock-and-flow structures

Medium Leverage:

  • Delays in feedback loops

  • Balancing feedback loops

  • Reinforcing feedback loops

  • Information flows

  • Rules of the system

Deep Leverage (harder to change, more impact):

  • Power over rules (governance)

  • Goals of the system

  • Paradigms underlying the system

  • Transcending paradigms

Implication: Most activism targets shallow leverage (change this policy, adjust this number). Deeper change requires shifting goals, paradigms, governance.

Avoiding Intervention-Caused Problems

When we "fix" complex systems, we often create new problems:

  • Pesticides that kill predators, causing pest resurgence

  • Foreign aid that undermines local capacity

  • Technology that solves one problem while creating others

  • Policies with unintended consequences

Humility Required: Complex systems are partially unpredictable. Intervention is experiment. Monitor, learn, adjust.

Chapter 8: The Global-Local Connection

How Global Systems Manifest Locally

Global systems aren't abstractions — they show up where you are:

Global System

Local Manifestation

Climate system

Local weather, flooding, heat, fire risk

Economic system

Local jobs, prices, opportunities

Political system

Local governance, law enforcement, services

Information system

Local media, discourse, misinformation

Ecological system

Local species, habitat, water quality

The Practice: Look at your local context. Ask: what global systems are visible here?

Finding Leverage in Local Action

Local action matters globally when:

  • It demonstrates alternatives (models)

  • It shifts local pieces of global systems (actual change)

  • It connects to coordinated action elsewhere (movements)

  • It develops capacity that scales (replication)

Examples:

  • Local energy transition → demonstrates feasibility → informs broader adoption

  • Local civic engagement → strengthens local democracy → contributes to national health

  • Local economic innovation → models alternatives → inspires adoption elsewhere

When Local Action Matters vs. When It Doesn't

Local action matters most when:

  • The global system is an aggregate of local actions

  • Local demonstration can spread

  • Local action is part of coordinated movement

  • Local institutions can influence larger systems

Local action matters less when:

  • The problem requires national/global coordination

  • Local action can't scale or replicate

  • Local action substitutes for systemic engagement

The Integration: Local action alone isn't sufficient for global problems. But global strategy without local action is abstract and impotent. You need both.

Virtue Theater vs. Actual Contribution

Not all apparent "good action" is equally useful:

Higher Value:

  • Actions that actually shift systems

  • Actions that build capacity for more action

  • Actions that are part of coordinated strategy

  • Actions that change others' behavior (not just your own)

Lower Value:

  • Actions that feel good but change little

  • Actions that substitute for more effective action

  • Actions that primarily signal identity

  • Actions optimized for self-perception

Note: This isn't about guilt — it's about effectiveness. Some low-value actions are fine (they support your motivation). Just don't confuse them with high-value contribution.

Chapter 9: Long-Term Thinking

Intergenerational Timescales

Many global challenges unfold over generations:

  • Climate consequences emerge over 30-100 years

  • Democratic cultures are built (or eroded) over generations

  • Institutional change is slow

  • Cultural shifts are measured in decades

Implications:

  • Plant trees you won't sit under

  • Build for your successors

  • Evaluate on long timescales

  • Don't expect quick validation

Legacy and Future-Orientation

The Seventh Generation Principle: Consider the impact of decisions on seven generations hence.

This isn't a calculation (you can't predict that far). It's an orientation — a reminder that your decisions ripple forward, affecting people who don't yet exist.

Questions for Legacy Thinking:

  • What am I building that will outlast me?

  • What will I leave for those who come after?

  • How will my choices constrain or enable future options?

Maintaining Motivation Across Decades

Challenge: How do you stay engaged with problems that won't be solved in your lifetime?

Approaches:

  • Process attachment: Find meaning in the work itself, not just outcomes

  • Incremental wins: Celebrate steps, not just destinations

  • Community: Share the journey with others

  • Long view: You're part of a multi-generational project

  • Local satisfaction: Do good locally while thinking globally

  • Legacy framing: Your role is to advance the work, not finish it

PART IV: JOINING AND CONTRIBUTING

Chapter 10: The Landscape of Movements

What "Movements" Are

A movement is a sustained collective effort to create social/political change. Movements include:

  • Formal organizations (nonprofits, advocacy groups)

  • Informal networks (coalitions, communities of practice)

  • Mass participation (protests, voting blocs)

  • Professional work (people whose jobs address the challenge)

Finding Your Place

Questions:

  • What movements address challenges you care about?

  • Which organizations align with your values?

  • Where are entry points for someone in your position?

  • What kind of contribution can you make (time, money, expertise)?

Evaluating Movements/Organizations

Not all organizations claiming to address a challenge are equally effective.

Evaluation Considerations:

  • Theory of change: Is their approach plausible?

  • Evidence: Does their work actually accomplish goals?

  • Efficiency: How do they use resources?

  • Integrity: Do they practice what they preach?

  • Fit: Do they align with your values and approach?

Caution: Evaluation is imperfect. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. But don't excuse ineffective work because intentions are good.

Entry Points

Your Position

Entry Point Options

Limited time

Donate to effective organizations

Some time

Volunteer locally; participate in events

More time

Join organizations; take active roles

Professional interest

Seek work in aligned organizations/sectors

Leadership interest

Start initiatives; organize others

Chapter 11: Citizenship as Practice

Active Citizenship

Citizenship is not passive status but active practice:

Staying Informed:

  • Following issues that matter

  • Seeking diverse sources

  • Distinguishing reliable from unreliable information

  • Updating views based on evidence

Participating:

  • Voting (consistently, informedly)

  • Beyond voting: primaries, local elections, referenda

  • Contacting representatives

  • Attending public meetings

  • Serving on boards, commissions, juries

Contributing:

  • Joining civic organizations

  • Volunteering in community

  • Supporting civil society (donations, membership)

Engaging Difference:

  • Maintaining relationships across political difference

  • Seeking to understand, not just defeat, opposing views

  • Practicing the supertribe capacity: working with people who differ from you

The Citizenship Check

Self-assessment for civic engagement:

  • Do I vote consistently (all elections, not just presidential)?

  • Am I informed about issues that affect my community/nation?

  • Do I participate in any civic organizations?

  • Do I maintain relationships with people who vote differently?

  • Do I contribute to civil society (time or money)?

  • Do I engage local governance at all?

If answers are mostly no: That's information, not judgment. Where could you start?

Cross-Difference Engagement

Globe Team requires working with people who differ from you profoundly. This is the supertribe capacity.

Practices:

  • Seek relationships outside your political bubble

  • Steelman opposing views (present them charitably)

  • Distinguish "disagree" from "enemy"

  • Find minimal shared ground for cooperation

  • Maintain dignity even in profound disagreement

Chapter 12: Leadership as Service at Scale

The Servant Leadership Frame

Leadership is often framed as getting others to follow you. The alternative: leadership as service.

Greenleaf's Question: "Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?"

What Service Leadership Looks Like

  • Listening first: Understanding before proposing

  • Developing others: Building capacity, not dependence

  • Sharing power: Distributing authority appropriately

  • Taking blame, sharing credit: Protecting those you lead

  • Building for legacy, not tenure: Will the institution be healthier after you leave?

When to Join vs. When to Start

Join existing efforts when:

  • Something effective already exists

  • Your contribution enhances what's there

  • You can learn from those who've been at it longer

  • Starting something new would fragment effort

Start something new when:

  • Nothing addresses the need

  • Existing efforts have fundamental problems

  • Your innovation is genuinely different and needed

  • You can sustain it (not just launch and abandon)

Most of the time, joining is more valuable than starting. The world has enough organizations. It needs more effective contributors to existing efforts.

Institutional Stewardship

Institutions are the infrastructure of collective action. Globe Team includes caring for institutions — not just pursuing causes.

Stewardship includes:

  • Making institutions work better

  • Defending institutions against erosion

  • Reforming institutions that need it

  • Building institutional capacity for successors

PART V: THE GLOBE TEAM PRACTICE

Chapter 13: Local Manifestation Projects

Finding Your Project

Where does your chosen global challenge show up locally in a form you can address?

Process:

  1. Identify the global challenge (from your purpose work)

  2. Map local manifestations (how does it appear here?)

  3. Assess your capacity (what can you actually do?)

  4. Find or create entry (existing efforts? something to start?)

  5. Commit (bounded, sustainable, specific)

Example: Climate Local Manifestation

Level

Example Action

Personal

Reduce personal emissions

Household

Home energy efficiency

Community

Local climate advocacy, transportation alternatives

Municipal

City policy engagement, local elections

Organizational

Workplace sustainability

State

Policy advocacy at state level

Example: Democracy Local Manifestation

Level

Example Action

Personal

Informed voting, civic education

Relational

Cross-difference conversations

Community

Local civic organizations, public meetings

Municipal

School board, city council engagement

Organizational

Workplace dialogue, institutional health

State/National

Voting rights, electoral reform engagement

The steamHouse Overlay

Any local manifestation project can be wrapped with steamHouse practice:

Before:

  • What's our purpose here?

  • How does this connect to the larger challenge?

  • What's the theory of change?

During:

  • Regular reflection on progress

  • Learning from setbacks (AAR)

  • Connecting local action to systemic understanding

After:

  • What did we learn?

  • What impact did we have?

  • How do we build on this?

Chapter 14: The Globe Team Calendar

Annual Rhythm

Rather than crisis-to-crisis engagement, establish sustainable rhythm:

Quarterly Review:

  • How is my Globe Team engagement going?

  • Am I sustainable?

  • What's working, what isn't?

  • What needs to shift?

Annual Assessment:

  • Is my current focus still right?

  • How has my capacity/situation changed?

  • What did I actually accomplish this year?

  • What am I committing to next year?

Civic Calendar

Time

Civic Engagement Opportunity

January

Annual commitment setting

February-March

State legislative sessions (many states)

April

Tax season, Earth Day (April 22)

Spring

Local elections (many municipalities)

Summer

Community engagement, preparation for fall

Fall

General elections, school year civic education

November

Election Day, post-election processing

December

Year-end giving, annual review

Creating Personal Practice Calendar

  1. Identify key dates (elections, events, organizational meetings)

  2. Schedule reflection (quarterly reviews)

  3. Block engagement time (consistent, not just reactive)

  4. Include rest (sustainable rhythm, not burnout)

Chapter 15: Reflection and Learning

Applying AAR to Civic/Global Work

The After-Action Review works for Globe Team projects:

  1. What was supposed to happen? (What were we trying to achieve?)

  2. What actually happened? (What occurred? What impact?)

  3. Why the difference? (What worked? What didn't? Why?)

  4. What will we do differently? (What changes for next time?)

Learning from Movement History

Movements succeed and fail. Learning from history:

What works:

  • Clear demands

  • Sustained pressure

  • Coalition building

  • Institutional engagement alongside protest

  • Long-term perspective

What doesn't work:

  • Vague goals

  • Short-term bursts without follow-through

  • Purity tests that shrink coalitions

  • Violence (in most contexts)

  • Assuming righteousness = success

Calibrating Effectiveness

Questions for ongoing calibration:

  • Is my theory of change plausible?

  • Am I seeing evidence of impact?

  • Am I learning and improving?

  • Am I sustainable?

  • Is this the best use of my capacity?

When to persist: Impact evidence, even if slow. Learning is occurring. Sustainable engagement.

When to shift: No impact evidence over time. Stagnation. Burnout. Better opportunity emerges.

PART VI: THE GLOBE TEAM COMMUNITY

Chapter 16: Globe Team as Network

The Vision

Globe Team isn't just a curriculum — it's a community of practitioners connected by shared orientation.

What Globe Team community provides:

  • Mutual support and encouragement

  • Shared learning from different domains

  • Collaboration on projects

  • Accountability for commitments

  • Sustainable engagement through connection

Local Globe Team Clusters

Where there are multiple Globe Team practitioners, local clusters can form:

Elements:

  • Regular meetings (monthly?)

  • Shared projects or cross-support

  • Learning exchange (what are you learning?)

  • Encouragement and accountability

Virtual/Distributed Community

Globe Team naturally includes geographically distributed practitioners:

Connections:

  • Online forums/discussion

  • Periodic virtual gatherings

  • Domain-specific networks

  • Cross-geography collaboration

Cross-Geography Collaboration

Global challenges benefit from people in different locations working together:

Examples:

  • Climate advocacy networks spanning regions

  • Democracy support across national contexts

  • Development partnerships across wealth divides

Chapter 17: Globe Team Across Stages

Heroes (16-20): Purpose Crystallizing

What's happening:

  • Purpose taking clearer shape

  • Beginning to see how identity connects to larger contribution

  • Capacity growing but not yet full

  • Idealism meets reality

Globe Team emphasis:

  • Connecting emerging purpose to global challenges

  • Entry-level movement participation

  • Learning about domains of contribution

  • Building knowledge and skills for future engagement

Mentor role:

  • Supporting purpose discovery

  • Helping connect passion to effective action

  • Providing models of engaged adults

  • Moderating between idealism and cynicism

Whole-Real Human (20-24+): Contribution Maturing

What's happening:

  • Adult capacity developed

  • Generativity emerging (caring for next generation)

  • Institutional roles growing

  • Long-term perspective developing

Globe Team emphasis:

  • Sustained engagement in chosen domains

  • Leadership roles in movements/organizations

  • Mentoring younger Globe Team members

  • Building for legacy

Community role:

  • Experienced practitioners supporting newer ones

  • Creating infrastructure for Globe Team continuity

  • Transmitting wisdom across generations

Chapter 18: Connection to steamHouse Ecosystem

Relationship to Core Framework

Globe Team isn't separate from steamHouse — it's an extension:

Core Framework

Globe Team Application

Purpose (Gold Star Ideals)

Purpose extended to planetary scale

Paradigm (Red Toolbox)

Systems thinking, supertribe capacity

Practice (Green Gear)

Citizenship skills, movement participation

Care Space

Outer circles emphasized

Four Principles

Applied to global cooperation

Relationship to Club

If you're in a steamHouse Club:

  • Globe Team extends Club learning to larger scales

  • Club provides community; Globe Team extends orientation

  • Club activities can connect to Globe Team purposes

If you're not in a Club:

  • Globe Team can be practiced independently

  • Globe Team networks can serve community function

The TeraTerraTribe Connection (Optional)

The Chronicles story world features TeraTerraTribe — a supertribe across timelines facing civilizational challenges.

For those drawn to the narrative:

  • TeraTerraTribe embodies Globe Team principles

  • Chronicles stories illustrate supertribe dynamics

  • The narrative provides imaginative framing

For those preferring non-narrative approach:

  • Globe Team works entirely without Chronicles reference

  • The principles don't require the story

PART VII: NAVIGATING CONTESTED TERRAIN

Chapter 19: When Reason and Evidence Are Clear

The steamHouse Position

Where reason and evidence point clearly, steamHouse says so:

  • Climate change is real, human-caused, and serious — this is scientific consensus

  • Democracy is preferable to authoritarianism — this is normative commitment based on human dignity

  • Evidence-based approaches outperform ideology-driven approaches — this is empirical

Not Everything Is Equally Uncertain

False balance treats contested topics as if all positions were equally valid. They're not.

  • The earth is warming: not genuinely contested (scientifically)

  • Best policy response: genuinely contested (involves values, tradeoffs)

  • Evolution occurred: not genuinely contested (scientifically)

  • Implications for meaning: genuinely contested (involves values, worldview)

steamHouse acknowledges what's settled while engaging what's genuinely open.

Chapter 20: Where Values and Perspectives Differ

Genuine Value Pluralism

Some disagreements reflect different values, not different facts:

  • How to weigh liberty vs. equality

  • How to weigh present vs. future

  • How to weigh local vs. global

  • How much risk to accept for potential benefit

These aren't resolvable by evidence — they require value choices.

Legacy and Tradition

Some disagreements reflect different relationships to tradition:

  • How much deference does the past deserve?

  • When is inherited wisdom valuable vs. outdated?

  • How fast should change occur?

These aren't simply "progressive vs. conservative" — they're genuine tensions in human life.

Navigating This Terrain

steamHouse approach:

  • Acknowledge genuine uncertainty where it exists

  • Avoid pretending value choices are purely technical

  • Present multiple reasonable perspectives

  • Encourage reflective thinking about your own position

  • Maintain dialogue across difference

What steamHouse Doesn't Do

  • Pretend scientific consensus is uncertain when it isn't

  • Avoid difficult topics because they're contested

  • Impose particular value frameworks beyond minimal shared principles

  • Demonize those who disagree on genuinely contested matters

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Global Challenges Overview

Brief overview of major global challenges (to be expanded):

Climate and Environment

  • Current state: ~1.2°C warming, accelerating impacts

  • Key dynamics: Energy transition, ecosystem protection, adaptation

  • Major uncertainties: Pace of change, tipping points, political will

Democratic Health

  • Current state: Global democratic recession, polarization

  • Key dynamics: Institutional erosion, information ecosystem, civic culture

  • Major uncertainties: Technology effects, generational shifts, institutional resilience

Global Development

  • Current state: Progress on poverty, persistent inequality

  • Key dynamics: Economic growth, governance, health, education

  • Major uncertainties: Climate impacts, technology effects, geopolitics

[Continue for other domains]

Appendix B: Movement/Organization Evaluation Framework

Questions for evaluating organizations:

Theory of Change:

  • What's their theory of how change happens?

  • Is it plausible?

  • Does evidence support it?

Track Record:

  • What have they accomplished?

  • What evidence exists for impact?

Leadership and Governance:

  • Who leads? What's their credibility?

  • Is governance accountable?

Resources:

  • How do they use money?

  • What's the overhead ratio? (Be careful — low overhead isn't always good)

Culture and Integrity:

  • Do they practice what they preach?

  • How do they treat staff, volunteers?

Appendix C: The Citizenship Check (Self-Assessment)

Rate yourself on each (1-5 scale):

Informedness:

  • I follow major issues affecting my community

  • I can explain the basics of key policy debates

  • I seek diverse sources of information

  • I update my views based on evidence

Participation:

  • I vote in all elections (not just presidential)

  • I engage local governance (meetings, contact)

  • I participate in civic organizations

  • I contribute to civil society (time or money)

Engagement:

  • I maintain relationships with people who vote differently

  • I can steelman opposing views

  • I engage difference with curiosity, not contempt

  • I contribute to civic discourse constructively

Total Score Interpretation:

  • 12 or below: Significant room for growth

  • 13-20: Engaged citizen with areas to develop

  • 21-28: Active citizen, consider deeper contribution

  • 29-36: Highly engaged, consider leadership roles

Appendix D: Systems Thinking Tools Quick Reference

Feedback Loop Diagrams: Map reinforcing and balancing loops in systems you're trying to understand.

Stock and Flow Mapping: Identify what accumulates (stocks) and what moves (flows).

Leverage Point Analysis: Where in the system could intervention have most effect?

Scenario Planning: What are multiple plausible futures? What would each require?

Root Cause Analysis: Trace problems to underlying causes (5 Whys, Fishbone diagrams).

Appendix E: Development Markers Especially Relevant to Globe Team

Stars (Character):

  • S8: Purpose Clarity — essential for Globe Team orientation

  • S11: Service Orientation — contribution motivation

  • S14: Respect & Belonging — supertribe capacity

Lenses (Thinking):

  • L17: Stakeholder Mapping — understanding systems

  • L18: Long-Term Consequence — intergenerational thinking

  • L20: Supertribe Capacity — working across difference

  • L21: Systems Thinking — understanding complex dynamics

Keys (Skills):

  • K14: Direct Communication — civic discourse

  • K16: Mentoring Others — developing the next generation

  • K17: Conflict Navigation — working across difference

Appendix F: Resources by Domain

Climate and Environment:

  • Drawdown edited by Paul Hawken — solutions inventory

  • Project Drawdown (drawdown.org) — ranked solutions

  • 350.org — movement organization

  • [Local climate organizations]

Democracy and Civic Health:

  • How Democracies Die by Levitsky & Ziblatt

  • Protect Democracy — institutional defense

  • Bridge Alliance — cross-partisan network

  • [Local civic organizations]

Effective Philanthropy:

  • GiveWell — effective charity evaluation

  • Open Philanthropy — cause prioritization

  • 80,000 Hours — career impact guidance

General:

  • Limits to Growth by Meadows et al. — systems dynamics classic

Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows — accessible systems primer