For a few months now I have been thinking about the Benedictine movement in terms of complex adaptive systems, and to Saint Benedict’s Rule as a protocol. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes.

So, when prominent innovation journalist Riccardo Luna asked me to tell the story of the unMonastery at Next (it’s a sort of televised innovation festival run by Repubblica, Italy’s top daily newspaper), I ended up rambling about that. Focusing on monasticism in sixth century Europe might seem at odds in such a temple of innovative technology and startups, but then innovation has been with humanity well before Silicon Valley. And if you look at Benedict from Nursia through the lens of social innovation, what you see is… surprising. My presentation is below. It’s in Italian: if you don’t speak the language, you can still check out this beautiful videoclip (largely wordless) that makes up its middle part.