Hi there, welcome to The Une, Weekly #8.
The summer is here. The holidays are calling. Time for a round-up and some announcements. But first. What’s in a name?

/juːn/
Our name. Une. What's behind it?
(And, since we're here, how do you pronounce it?)
There is a healthy tension between the individual and the collective.
Autonomy and connection. Personal freedom and the wellbeing of the whole.

You could say, and some do, the tension is the result of an illusion.
But it’s one that feels quite real in many ways.

We know what happens when a tiny part of a bigger system disregards the health of its environment in favour of its own greed. Diseases. Dictatorships.

The part (which ceases to exist the moment it stops taking care of itself), and the whole (that what the part depends on to exist at all): both need to be held at once.

Like the famous Buddhist saying: we are the wave and the ocean.
Two sides of the same truth. A balancing act.

Une is our word for that balance.
Not that we're all one. Not that we're all unique.
But both, at once.
Une.

Oh, and it’s pronounced as /juːn/.

On the way
We kind of soft-launched in May. No full website yet. No launch party.
Doing pilots, sharing our journey, collaborating on research, having tons of conversations...
Those, we did.

And we've hosted several workshops:

Lots of insights, learnings, fun and value :)

Summer Sync

Summers are great to zoom out and reflect on what you'd love to focus on the rest of the year.

If it's something like:

"Our vision is clear, but it doesn't reach the daily work. The organisation is growing, teams are making their own calls. AI tools are scaling the incoherence with thousands of small decisions a day. If only we would have a clear compass with principles based on how we create value, sharp enough that the teams and AI tools can decide by them without me in the room."

...you're probably a founder or leader looking to stop being the bottleneck for vision or strategy, dreaming of more coherence in the organisation, clarity on direction, and a team that's actually aligned.

Get in sync after the summer and book a workshop.

Value²: for every new client, we give away one Value Design workshop for free to a non-profit or impact start-up of your choice.

Practitioners

Over the past few weeks, independent professionals — strategists, facilitators, change managers — have been asking how to bring Value Design into their own work.

So: we're hosting a Practitioners Workshop for you, on September 24, at De Groene Afslag in Bussum.

Curious, considering, or not sure yet? Send us a message. Happy to talk through dates, agenda, anything.

Until then:

Move as one. For the benefit of all. — Laurens & Jorn 👋 hello@une.eco