2. How NARDIS helps

NARDIS is an acronym and stands for… New Action-oriented Realizable Direct democratic Impactful Sustainable

132 By considering each of these criteria, we leave the beaten track behind and create new ideas and solutions ourselves that we realize together. Not because it generates more profit but simply because we like doing things together. NARDIS provides us, ordinary people, the tools to do things in a more direct democratic and sustainable manner. As such, NARDIS gives us the tools to do more fun things together that are also good for our planet.

New

NARDIS helps us to come up with new ideas: • Completely new ideas that we build from scratch • Existing ideas that we recombine into something new • Old ideas that we recycle to form something new By pouring a NARDIS sauce on top of it, much of what we are already doing today or have done in the past, can be done in a more sustainable and direct democratic way.

Coming up with new ideas can best be done in these three domains:

• The ecological

• The economic

• The social

Within these domains, we, as ordinary citizens, can still generate direct impact. In the political or technological domain, this is much more difficult.

Action-oriented

Creating a new idea is an excellent first step but if you don’t turn your idea into action, not much will change. That’s also the key difference between an invention and an innovation. Regardless of how fantastic an invention is, if it is not commercialized – if, in other words, it isn’t turned into an innovation – it is nothing more than a prototype that remains on the shelf of some laboratory. If Edison had not commercialized his light bulb, the world would have been in the dark a little longer. So carefully consider who and what you need to turn your new NARDIS idea into concrete action:

• Who is your idea aimed at and how do you get it to the target group?

• What expertise and resources are needed to turn the idea into action?

• What are the first actions you should take? • What are possible follow-up actions?

Realizable

NARDIS ideas can be realized by ordinary people. Special or exceptional knowledge or expertise is not or only limitedly needed. Our available talents and competences should suffice. What we will mainly need to realize a NARDIS idea is multiple people’s TIME:

• Time to work on the realization.

• Additional Ideas to further develop or deepen the idea. • The Motivation to fulfil the idea’s potential. • Your already available Expertise. Combine your TIME and your NARDIS idea will be up and running in no time.

Democratic

NARDIS ideas are organized direct democratically: those who are involved in the idea decide through a process of consensus, delegation or voting how it will be realised. The basic principle is simple: anyone who is affected by a decision must be able to participate in the decision-making process. There are a few conditions to make this possible: • Everyone can participate in a NARDIS organization. • There is sufficient room for discussion so that different points of view can be expressed. • Everyone is equal: every participant can weigh equally on the discussion and decision-making process. • There is free access to information: sensible decisions can only be made when everyone is well informed about the various pros and cons.

More than ever, we have the opportunity to interact as equals and to organize ourselves direct democratically. So why shouldn't we do that as much as possible?

This form of direct democracy or grassroots democracy closely follows the original democratic model of ancient Greece, which is very different from the representative democracy that we know today, mainly in the political domain. Within the limited size of our NARDIS organisations, direct democratic decision-making is perfectly feasible. Direct democracy in politics, for example at the country level, is also possible but much more laborious and complex. In fact, it is quite shocking how little is organised democratically! How democratic are our companies? How democratic are the organisations we are members of? When we take a closer look, there is very little democratic decision-making happening in our democracies.

That is a pity, because more (direct) democracy ensures more involvement: when you take part in the decision-making process, you’re more likely to support the decision and put more effort into achieving the goal which increases the chances of success. Moreover, joint decisions are often better decisions: together we know more than alone.

Impactful

NARDIS ideas generate impact: they are social, persistent and recyclable ideas that set things in motion. • Impactful ideas are social ideas: we realize these through collaboration.

• Impactful ideas are persistent. If we all move one stone once, we will move a hill at most. But if we persist and keep moving stones, we can move any mountain. So make sure that you organize yourselves as a group for a longer period of time. • Impactful ideas are also recyclable: they can easily be adopted by others elsewhere. The impact of one NARDIS idea can multiply many times when it is picked up and realized by different NARDIS organization at different locations in different contexts.

Many NARDIS ideas will seem minimal at first. As if no real substantial change could ever come from it. But one of the most important assets we have to create impact is something we only possess when we work together: our number. We’re with many. When we all put our weight behind at least one NARDIS idea, we create a lever that makes a huge difference.

Sustainable

NARDIS ideas and organisations are sustainable: they take future generations into account. Within NARDIS ideas, sustainability is a given: a "must have" and no longer a "nice to have". A NARDIS idea and organisation is sustainable in three ways: 1. Ecologically sustainable: the ecosystem is burdened as little as possible.

2. Economically sustainable: the activities you undertake create fair value for all concerned while no structural losses are accumulated.

3. Socially sustainable : the interests of the individual and of the group are balanced in the best possible way. Social sustainability takes into account everyone who is impacted by the activities of a NARDIS organisation: both the initiators (the direct stakeholders) and the social environment around them (the indirect stakeholders).

In an ideal world, we try to find a sustainable balance between the ecological, the economic and the social. And even though one NARDIS idea may focus more on one and less on another domain, strong NARDIS ideas do not simply sacrifice one for the other, but try to fill in the three different domains in a sustainable way so that they reinforce each other.

NARDIS in a nutshell

In a nutshell, a NARDIS idea is a...

New ecological, economic or social idea, that is Action-oriented, Realizable, and Impactful, organized in a direct Democratic manner, and ecologically, economically and socially Sustainable.

You can use NARDIS as a guideline while creating new ideas. With every new NARDIS idea that we create and realise through a NARDIS organisation, we change our world a little. The more such NARDIS ideas we come up with and put into action together, the more we save our world.