I've only heard Robin interviewed a few times but I find the broad strokes of his concept very helpful for recognizing when something is tending towards something i'd like to see, and something I wouldn't. Which is a long way of saying that it helps me to sort things quicker.
Maybe that's "pre-practical" but having my thoughts ("theory") more organized helps me in I think a subtle way, at least as far as navigating around anyone who's got some funny ideas. It is more a hand-to-hand sort of practical than a boots-on-the-ground thing, i think.
I think most people tend to know that 'the people' are pretty good at 'autonomous self-organization', at replacing management and cops with something as effacious and more democratic, etc., etc., but that it's easy to fall into some inchoate blend of left-meets-right elitism-meets-populism nonsense that wants to elect Ron Paul to help pass laws against monopolies, which are run by immigrants, when really there are lots of good natives to be CEO, to help fund environmental clean-ups, etc., etc. It's just kind of a matter of making that more obvious. I'm surprised by how many 'liberal' types don't understand elaborate on the difference between a 'small business' and a co-op or worker-owned business, when the reality that differentiates a worker-owned vs. a small business owner-owned place gets lived out on eight-hour shifts. If nothing else that's practical, if not immediately political.
-- Nathan