Transforming communities
Let’s ignite a renaissance at the local level by applying the best of the digital world to our real-world existence.
Flannery O’Connor, the brilliant and provocative author known for her religiosity, complexity, wit, and irony, once confessed: “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”1 Wow. That’s a sentiment I often use to excuse what I do. In this edition, I begin with a painful experience that pushed my thinking forward as I sought to construct a radical framework for innovating communities. I’ve read what I’ve written a few times, and I think it says something useful—adding depth to what I’ve already shared about my new project and the need to fight against digitalism. Do I succeed? Maybe. I’m on a journey, and every edition is a step—sometimes on the right path, sometimes in need of direction. Either way, please dive in, share with others, and let me know your thoughts.
Igniting a renaissance
I often make a six-hour road trip, through mountains and mesas, cacti and clouds, to experience out-of-this-world food, drink, art, and architecture—and a bike shop, Mellow Velo, in Santa Fe. New Mexico, that is; Land of Enchantment. It was there that, several years ago, I let go and purchased my first e-bike, an exquisitely designed, Spanish-made gravel grinder—an impulse purchase not just of conveyance, but community. In that moment, I connected the things that make me me, the experiences I seek and the work I do, with a bike shop, its people, a town’s vibe, and its economy.
All of this crashed when just last month, outbound once again, I punched Mellow Velo into GPS and was smacked by "permanently closed"—the apocalyptic pandemic-ism of business death by who-knows-what. In denial, I rolled online and found the story, told in a local newspaper: Mellow Velo was gone, likely forever, its talented workers dispersed, and loyal customers left clinging to a promised newsletter to learn what, if anything, might be next. My stomach sank, and I felt a loss, not just for a cherished store, but for the human connection it represented. Santa Fe itself seemed diminished—something missing from the whole.
As a supply chain strategist, I have witnessed the demise of countless small, independent, local businesses. Their stories are strikingly similar. A caustic combination of rising costs, a scarcity of skilled workers, the embrace of e-commerce shopping, and the advance of direct-to-consumer selling push business owners to give up, shut down, and look for opportunities elsewhere. Some celebrate this trend as an act of creative destruction, a saga of unavoidable collateral damage, a cascading avalanche of technology-powered progress—out with the old, in with the new. But I see something else—a crisis of neglected values, fueled by ambivalence and thwarted by the absence of restorative resources and means.
So what is to be done? We must not be Luddites, but rather activists—or docents—guiding ourselves and others to remember the worth of communities and to make them better: a force for human-made wellness and wealth in the digital age. Digital technology is not our enemy, nor are the artificial intelligence architects, machine learning engineers, everyday coders, startup founders, and venture capitalists who move fast, break barriers, and build new things. Instead, we must recruit them to our cause—or, better yet, invite them to join us in our work.
Let’s take the best tools guiding the most powerful uses of digital technologies and align them with the purposeful work of innovating communities—not en masse, but tailored to each one’s unique demographics, economics, culture, and aspirations. Let’s think big—and then think even bigger. Let’s be activists, docents, and yes, transformers. Have you heard of AI transformers, the breakthrough models poised to change everything? If not, catch up now. Start here. Let’s become community transformers, harnessing AI transformers and working alongside the digital scientists and practitioners who bring them to life, to launch not a renovation, but a renaissance—not of unbounded scale, but of undaunted localness.
To ignite a community renaissance, we need sparks—ideas to serve as tiny, potent seeds that, when nurtured, grow into a movement. I offer three, without foundation, to help us get started. My ideas flow from my work as a supply chain strategist, but at their start, I pulled them from my subconscious—a kind of personal therapy to process the demise of Mellow Velo. To sharpen them, I turned to ChatGPT’s new Advanced Reasoning Model, a tool designed to uncover patterns, refine insights, and connect ideas. Rooted in the same transformer technology introduced above, it offered me a space for exploration and clarity. If you’re curious—or want to collaborate—you can view our chat here. But enough tech talk.
My ideas address just a few of the countless challenges faced by small, independent, and local businesses: 1) finding, hiring, and retaining skilled workers, 2) leveraging data to design or adapt business models to local market dynamics, and 3) building community-centered partnerships for mutual value. I’ve named these potential solutions community labor trusts, community intelligence, and community collaboration—and I’ve defined them below:
Community labor trust
My idea for a labor trust is inspired by land trusts, the legal practice of conserving open spaces, free of development, for future generations. Labor is an equally vital and scarce community resource, and I imagine a Community Labor Trust as a legal entity dedicated to preserving, supporting, and enhancing the local skilled labor force—especially in crafts, artisanal trades, and essential services. Skilled workers contribute their expertise to the trust, which, in turn, provides economic benefits (such as tax breaks) and non-financial rewards (like recognition and ongoing training). Businesses employing these workers also receive community-backed incentives, creating a sustainable ecosystem for vital local services.
Community intelligence
Community Intelligence is a collaborative system in which communities aggregate and share localized data and insights with participating businesses—such as bike shops in a labor trust—while equipping them with tailored AI tools. These resources empower businesses to design and implement customized models that address the unique needs, preferences, and trends of their local market, fostering mutual benefits and long-term sustainability.
Community collaboration
Community Collaboration is an innovative, community-centric partnership that unites local business owners, skilled workers from the labor trust, and the community (represented by local government) in a shared commitment to mutual benefit. Unlike traditional two-way supply chain collaborations focused on competition, this three-way alliance emphasizes cooperation. It harnesses the vested interests of business owners, workers, and citizens to enhance community wellness and drive economic development. By shifting from a competitive to a cooperative mindset, Community Collaboration helps businesses achieve profitability, workers build personal wealth, and communities address wellness challenges while fostering a thriving local economy.
Like Flannery O’Connor, I write to discover what I think. But more than that, I hope to inspire what is possible. Ideas take shape in the doing—through sparks ignited, tools leveraged, and partnerships forged. Only when we act together, as community transformers, do we discover the power of what we can build.
About the artwork
This edition’s artwork depicts a bike shop inspired by biomimicry, as discussed below, blending the principles of nature with community-centered innovation. Nestled in a lush, forest-like setting, the shop symbolizes its role as a keystone species—giving back more than it takes. Its organic design and interconnected layout reflect harmony with the environment and the thriving relationships within the community it serves. Hopefully, the image is at least entertaining and captures what I’ve attempted in this article. If I’m lucky, it might even inspire.
A way forward
In many ways, Mellow Velo contributed to Santa Fe’s community the way a keystone species helps a forest thrive. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a keystone species is a concept from biomimicry—a discipline that studies and applies nature’s designs, processes, and systems to solve humanity’s greatest challenges. A keystone species gives more than it takes.
Imagine a large oak tree in a forest: it occupies space, consumes water and nutrients, and absorbs carbon dioxide to sustain its life through photosynthesis. In return, it shelters vulnerable animals and plants, provides food, recycles its leaves into nutrients, offers shade to regulate the climate, and more. When scientists add it all up, the value the tree creates for the forest exceeds what it consumes. The forest, in turn, protects the oak tree through an organic network that defends against pests, diseases, storms, floods, predators, and invaders.
The best-designed and operated small, independent, community-focused businesses, like Mellow Velo, serve a similar role in their communities—creating wellness and wealth far beyond the profits they earn, in ways that are almost never known, managed, or measured.
As community transformers, we need more than passion and ideas. We need a way forward—a new language and a clear process. Biomimicry has inspired me before, and it will again. I’m also exploring other disciplines to borrow from—and hopefully contribute to—as we dig in and deepen our understanding of how communities can thrive in the digital age, and what innovations they will need to flourish.
As always, I invite you to leave comments below, DM me on Substack, or reach out directly at mark.dancer@n4bi.com.
Sally Fitzgerald, The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979)