What Are Regenerative Business Design & Principles? (2/3)

We are just one week away from our company participating in the online Regenerative Summit hosted by Carol Sanford, author of the book "The Regenerative Business" (amongst others). Participants include forward-thinking companies such as Numi Tea, Dr. Bronners, REBBL, Guayaki and organizations such as One Step Closer to Organic Sustainable Community (OSC2). 

In a nutshell, the process looks to redesign work, cultivate human potential, and achieve extraordinary outcomes. The regenerative concept requires commitment and the willingness to make deep changes through long term learning. Understanding does not occur after reading a book or attending one summit; instead, it comes from immersing oneself and applying learning outcomes that are unique to your company. If you think this is a journey you would like your company to take, please continue with the resources below or email us marketing@associatedlp.com.

A note that we will be posting the final blog of the series in the week following the summit: "Associated's Regenerative Business Summit Learning Outcomes."

What is Regeneration?

Regeneration is a paradigm and accompanying set of capabilities based on the awareness that every life form is unique and nested within other, larger living systems. Every life form grows and expresses itself to benefit the living wholes within which it is embedded and receives benefits from these wholes in return. It is capable of regeneration only to the extent that it is part of a larger, value-adding process. 

Do You Know Your Business's Essence?

Essence is core to non-displaceability. If you aren't working from essence, you are on the edge of being displaced. Essence is the distinctive and singular nature of the company. It acts as a unifying concept and decision-making beacon for everything the company does. Essence cannot be copied and offers an unyielding source of profitable innovation.

Without your business's essence in hand, you drift from tactic to tactic or respond reactively to changes in the market. With essence in hand, you own the market, and have a clear strategic direction for growth and impact Carol Sanford, carolsanfordinstitute.com. 

Carol Sanford's Seven Fundamentals of Regeneration

1) Whole Systems

Working from the perspective of understanding a whole, rather than parts. For example: working with a whole child, a whole family, a whole community or a whole ecosystem; rather than segmenting it into parts and pieces. 

2) Potential

Working from the development of the potential of a specific real individual or system, rather than working from ideals and problems. Ideals mean that you have a template and you layer it on top of everything. It tends to objectify it and says you ought to be like this, rather than looking at potential which is where something really comes to life. One of the ways you'll know if you're working with a template of ideals is you probably have to certify something or be certified or you have standards you have to meet to be a member. So what you want to be doing is working from potential which is working from principles as we are here, or aims.

3) System Reciprocity

Considering systems reciprocity, rather than transactional exchange. In order for something to be vital, viable and evolving and have the capacity to do that, it needs to be seen as a part of something that the whole is moving at the same time. We tend to fall into our world thinking about the exchanges we make and we become extractive because we are looking for quid pro pro.

4) Essence

Working from the essence, the singularity or the individuated-ness of a living entity. What you see there is something that is never seen anywhere else. Doing the opposite means we categorize it into 1 of 4 types, 1 of 7 types or 1 of 9 types. The minute we do that, we are no longer connected with the essence and the individuated-ness of a living entity and we've made it into a commodity; which can be found among a large number of similar things.

5) Nestedness

Working and understanding living systems as nested inside one another. A living system is a place, person or some other dimension. Humans, for example, are nested inside of families, and inside of communities, and then inside of an eco-system. In order to understand that, it helps us get over our flatland view of where everything is separate and we have to bring ourselves back to that we all exist in what permaculture might call a guild.

6) Nodal Interventions

We all intervene and we all have roles to play, but the important thing we do is we learn to intervene nodally. Nodally is contrasted to a shotgun effect that many sustainability programs have or many other programs that are not even about doing good. Where you get long lists and you work on trying to make sure you cover all the bases. Nodally, on the other hand, looks at where the high potential intersections run together, it's an acupuncture idea.

For example, you want to understand a child, and you would say the most nodal place to be intervening with a child is where enthusiasm and passion intersect with their interests and it's something they seem to be drawn to. If you wanted to teach them something, starting there might be an example of a node.

7) Building Capacity

More related to people, although it does fan out to all living systems. It means working on the development of human beings, animals or living systems; rather than manipulation. What that means is we're actually working on building capacity of human beings rather than trying to maneuver them into how we want them to behave from the outside based on incentives. Such as with rewards, recognition or just anything that would seem to force them into the path that we want to go. A developmental way of working helps people become self-directed, self-determining and even greater tomorrow than they are today.

Additional Resources

i) Carol Sanford on speaking about Essence: https://vimeo.com/237464265

ii) Regenerative Business Summit Website: https://theregenerativebusinesssummit.com

iii) Carol Sanford TedX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqza5Uo1cFE

iv) Tickets to the event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-regenerative-business-summit-tickets-57835099339

v) Carol Sanford Website: https://carolsanford.com

vi) Carol Sanford Institute: https://carolsanfordinstitute.com