The theme of our COMMON HOME conference is “Regenerating the Common Good” and our goal is to help advance a sense of urgency – the door to survival is shutting and we’re trying to stick a foot in – to slow things down.
Accelerating extinction isn’t a good business plan for anyone.
Very thankful to UCL’s Paolo Taticchi for helping us put the conference together in London. Thanks to Enrico Foglia and Philip Kotler – nothing would be happening without them. Thanks also to Assoholding– a steady partner in turbulent times.
And special thanks to all the incredible speakers – grazie mille! Download the event program here >>
– What is regeneration? – Why is it relevant for systems change? – What are the opportunities of regeneration for systems change? – What are the challenges of regeneration for systems change?
These are 4 questions I’m supposed to answer for a webinar in a few minutes. By way of preparation here are my “answers” >>
Regeneration is a process of rebuilding or renewal of the Common Good – taking an asset, resource, ecosystem, individual, family, organization, community, or place, from crisis and collapse to recovery and regeneration.
There are 9 Domainsof the Common Good: Social, Economics, Nature, Work, Culture, Media, Law, Technology, and Politics.
The process of regeneration follows indigenous traditions: to protect, repair, invest, transform and learn – rooted in the pastand looking forward, seven generations ahead. Regeneration includes 5 Worlds, interconnected and interdependent, the individual, community, work, the Nation, and the Planet.
Why is it relevant for systems change?
Because all our systems are interconnected –
and the root cause of why nothing changes is power and corruption. The Wicked 7 Project taught us that at the heart of all our problems is the existing power structure.
What are the opportunities of regeneration for systems change?
It’s not an opportunity – it is a matter of survival. As we collapse into fragmented regional economies, we’re going to find that systems thinking is the best hope we have for actually creating a life worth living – at a community level, or regional state level.
Here’s the before – our current state:
and the after:
Can you see why systems thinking is critical?
What are the challenges of regeneration for systems change?
The challenge is leadership.
Our current state of leadership can rightly be called misleadership – because it does not advance the Common Good, but instead promotes self-interest, corruption, hate, nationalism, and drowns out the voice of the Planet. Because of their inaction and their inability to face the world’s most urgent problems, humanity retreats to narrow, parochial survivalism – a world of war and brute force. The rule of law is once again discarded on the trash heap of history, as our governments turn inward and increasingly more authoritarian and corrupt.
The systems around us are breaking—socially, ecologically, politically, and spiritually. Our world is fractured by inequality, poisoned by extraction, and divided by misinformation. The Common Good—our shared dignity, wellbeing, and future—is under assault.
By now it should be obvious to the public that our leaders are (for the most part) not interested in serving the Common Good. They are engaged in an ancient form of misleadership – maximizing value for themselves and their sponsors. If there’s one attribute which separates the regenerative leader from the traditional leader, it is their focus on the Common Good.
Our regenerative leadership model is an attempt to bring all the pieces together – systems-wide, and 5 worlds deep.
