Lab Universe
Every Lab focuses on one specific business area that should be unlearned.
Here, practitioners and experts come together and experiment how systemic solutions could be put into practice. The participants test
and evaluate solutions in their own organisations.
The Labs are dedicated to topics such as Unlearn Leadership, Unlearn Sustainability, Unlearn Value Chains, Unlearn Compensation, Unlearn Logistics and so much more.
In each Lab we want to experiment with the Unlearn Journey, discover the power of real connectedness, explore radical ideas and act collaborative for real change.
We are curious to hear from people who might be interested in taking part in a Lab.
Which Lab topics are you interested in and why? What is missing?
Lab Examples
Compensation
What to unlearn …
Indirectly pay systems create a situation in which people with more privileges (e.g. access to education and networks, knowledge of social codes) earn more.
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› How can we set up a pay system that compensates for privilege?
› How can we set up a pay system that is not based on performance but on value?
› What competencies do we need to develop in companies to create new pay systems?
Trade
What to unlearn …
Companies are seen as independent actors that are in interaction with other companies with the ultimate goal to get "the best" out of it for the own company.
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› How can we go beyond a purely transaction based relationship with other companies where risks and margins are distributed fairly?
› Where the trade condition is based on the requirements of the people involved?
› How could ownership and finance be thought in this scenario?
Value Chains
What to unlearn …
Most of the trade conditions are determined (delivery conditions, payments, social/ecological criteria) by players in the Global North. Partners in the global South are to be "controlled".
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› How can we create trading conditions that are more redistributive?
› How can we balance the inclusion of partners in the global South, without imposing more work on them at the same time?
› How can we distribute profits and power beyond corporate barriers in the value chain?
Biodiversity
What to unlearn …
Our Biosphere is one of the most systemic and complex planetary boundaries influencing all other and hence has a very important role for keeping life on earth in balance. However, it is under very strong threat by increasing land use for human activites.
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› How do we properly understand and evaluate our impact on biodiversity?
› How do you judge the extent of your impact on the functioning of an ecosystem and whether it is still able to regenerate?
› Which possibilities exist to regenerate degenerated ecosystems and how do you evaluate the regeneration?
Climate Responsibility
What to unlearn …
Labelings such as climate neutrality or climate positivity suggest that the purchase of the product is actually leaving a positive footprint on earth as if we simply need to consume more.
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› How could you ensure that organisations take responsibility for their activities in reference to planetary boundaries, reflect the true cost of a product and contribute to the lowering of CO2 emissions?
Pricing
What to unlearn …
Price structure at its best reflect the "value" created by the people connected to it? They do not reflect the true costs the product is causing the (future) society. People with less income cannot afford the "sustainable" alternative.
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› How could a pricing system look like that takes into account the privileges of its customers (without being humiliating?)
› How would you actually count true costs? Are the costs the cost the product is causing the environment or just the cost for compensation?
› How can we calculate the costs in areas where the systems are complex and true costs can hardly be measured (biosphere integrity)?
Sustainability
What to unlearn …
Sustainability has come to mean “a better status quo”, where the status quo is extracting finite resources, making products with a short life cycle and filling landfill.
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› So what does sustainable need to mean when recognising living within our planetary boundaries?
› Which planetary boundaries is the business affecting, is there even a regenerative practice possible and what would the sustainability (or actually the business strategy) look like from an earths perspective to regenerate?
Growth
What to unlearn …
There is much debate whether a growing economy on a finite planet is actually possible or not.
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› How does a sustainable business model incorporates this discourse?
› Which kind of growth is ok? Growth until where?
› How would horizontal growth look like?
› And how do we degrow certain business practices/aspects with integrity and solidarity with the people (workers/suppliers) involved?
Communication
What to unlearn …
The entire marketing world consists of a paradigm of "faster - higher - further". Catchy headlines are favored by the algorithms compared to real, meaningful and complex content. Marketing is often associated with creating a “need” (or desire) in a potential customer which was not there before.
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› How can we navigate between complexity and outreach?
› How can we communicate straight forward and be open about uncertainties?
› How can we reduce dependencies on social media since these companies stand for everything we want to fight against and still position ourselves as David among all the Golliaths?
› What does marketing look like in degrowth?