1st Serving: Introducing ServCollab Servings
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
By Ray Fisk
This post launches occasional food for thought from me - ServCollab’s founder. For more than 45 years, I have helped grow and shape the service research community as one of several founders of the service research field. ServCollab is the culmination of my life’s quest to discover how to prevent chronic unfairness in human systems, especially economic and political systems.
In these ServCollab Servings, I will share what I have learned in my quest for fairness. In ServCollab, we like to think big, which is why serving humanity is ServCollab’s purpose. We also like to think small, because each person experiences life from within their unique body. We believe that serving humanity requires respecting the uniqueness of each human life, so we seek timeless truths and universal wisdom for serving all of humanity.
Each serving will share ideas, observations, and explanations for serving humanity. The best feature of ideas is that they are infinitely shareable. Each serving will be written clearly and briefly to encourage you to share these servings with others,
What is a Serving?
The most basic act of helping that any human can offer to another human is the act of “serving.” Serving is the behavior of offering something to another human.
A few examples of what a person might offer in serving others are:
A glass of water
A plate of food
A dessert
I chose these examples of offerings because food and water are essential to life. As a social species, offering such services to each other is an essential and ancient practice. Also, I chose these examples because I worked in restaurants while in high school and college. In those restaurants, I learned the joy of serving others, which inspired my later career choices.
While it is common to call what you offer to another person a serving, it will help us understand what a serving is if we distinguish between the act of serving (a verb) and what is offered (a noun).
There are three kinds of offerings we might make in seeking to serve others:
Tangible offerings include food, water, and the many physical objects we might use in our lives.
Intangible offerings are based on ability, skills, or expertise. Examples include a haircut or legal advice.
Cognitive offerings include ideas, concepts, or ways of thinking. Cognitive offerings are the precious cargo of human systems.
Because every child begins life helplessly dependent on other humans, we are a learning-dependent species. Cognitive offerings were among the first offerings our ancient ancestors shared with each other because they helped us learn and live together. Over the centuries, cognitive offerings have enabled humanity to create languages and cultures.
What Is ServCollab Serving?
In seeking to serve humanity, ServCollab offers an eclectic mix of ideas, concepts, knowledge, and wisdom that we believe are urgently needed in our chaotic times. While ServCollab’s roots are in the service research field, serving humanity requires:
Deeply exploring how service has been practiced across the ages
Synthesizing the best practices we find
Sharing what we learn with the world
From studying the practice of serving, ServCollab offers the first universal wisdom principle for serving humanity – “Serving Each Other.” Serving each other is the first step to fairness in human systems.
If you liked this offering, please serve it to others who might like it.
