Davide Prudente

Through my posture, my listening and my outlook, I accompany organizations and individuals to bring their collaboration to another level of authenticity and fluidity.
I joined Paradigm21 in 2018, to connect with others who share my passion for "doing" and "being" together.

What motivated me to choose to accompany the emergence of a new paradigm

I am passionate about the deployment of individuals, that they are as close as possible to their aspirations. There are few individuals who do not have aspirations that require a collective and collaborative approach. However, the incredible diversity of ways of thinking and apprehending the world makes collaboration extremely complex. Doing things together is therefore both a condition and an obstacle to the development of individuals. It would be tempting to believe that we are reduced to choosing between going our own way or over-adapting our aspirations, only to find ourselves losing and frustrated in both cases.
This new paradigm is powerful first and foremost because it transcends this opposition by taking care of the collaboration and the individuals.
And this is all the more valuable because the major societal challenges before us require creative, relevant and coordinated responses, which presents us with a collaborative challenge of unprecedented scale in an era that is very focused on individuals.

The most important values of this new paradigm

It is difficult to answer by listing simple words. It seems to me that the deepest values of this paradigm do not yet have their own terms, or at least not terms that can do without explanation. This is probably because a term is created and fixed by its use, and this paradigm is still too new and in the minority to be able to make its mark on common language.
I would cite two values:

• The balance between taking care of oneself and knowing how to take a back seat for the good of the group. It is a notion that deserves to have its term consecrated. The closest would be "Laget om" an expression of Viking origin attributed, no doubt according to myth, to the ability of an individual, when a horn of beer was swirling in a group, to leave enough for the last in the circle, but drinking enough for himself.
• The other great value for me is what we could call holistic or integral thinking. It implies, among other things, to get out of dual thinking and to recognize, accept and even fully embody contradictory aspects in ourselves, in our collectives and in our contexts.

The career path that led me to this activity

The years of presence at a board of directors and then the co-presidency of a large housing cooperative. I was able to observe there the worst that the associative and the idealism can produce and certainly, I saw the worst of myself. The lack of clarity (be it structural, relational, at the level of values) cumulating to the power of our idealisms and to the size of the stakes for the housed or salaried people made us reach a level of mutual mistreatment of which we were incredibly unaware at the time. Several attempts at structural improvement were initiated, but were quickly met with the great structural ease of blocking. I discovered holacracy and sociocracy at that time. The timid and unaccompanied attempt to implement its principles was met with the same easy blocking. I left this structure, however dear to my heart, saying to myself "never again". The emotional intensity of this experience has powerfully fanned my flame for know-how and being together. I have been training and working on myself ever since.

A personal experience that had a big impact on me

In fact, the last few years at Paradigm21. The various postures and understandings of my colleagues have greatly nourished mine.

My favorite animal

I have a strong tendency to love and be fascinated by all these small and large beings that move by themselves.

My favorite book

Je ne suis pas un grand lecteur de roman (trop d’essais à lire…), mais j’ai eu beaucoup de plaisir à retrouver récemment l’univers de Dune. J’ai été marqué par la narration, majoritairement construite sur le fil de pensées et de déduction des différents personnages.

My favorite dish

The mafé, which reminds me of two dear Senegalese roommates who often cooked it.

My favorite series

I was amazed by the intelligence of Fleebag and I was fascinated by En Thérapie.

One thing from my bucket list

Bungee jumping! Indeed, the idea of falling from this type of height (bridge, crane, dam,...) terrifies me. These are very concrete heights, unlike a balloon or airplane type height, where the relationship with the ground becomes abstract. Despite this terror, I can't imagine never doing it. It is important for me to have one day developed enough inner space to welcome, contain and enjoy the intensity of those seconds of adrenaline.