Can you be Regenerating the World, Serving a Community and Developing Yourself, simultaneously?
Navigating the experienced synergies of Possibility Management and Regenerative Development practices
Navigating the experienced synergies of Possibility Management and Regenerative Development practices
In this article we will share with you some of our insights, learnings and ongoing experiments, and hope these will shine some light to your own path. This article describes how we are perceiving each practice considering our journey until now and their synergies, complementarities and where they are significantly different.
We want to bring clarity that what we present here is a current understanding we have of both practices. We have been practising Possibility Management (PM) and Regenerative Development (RD) for less than 5 years, and know that each of them have more than 30 years of experience. Nevertheless, this reflection based on lived experience will be important for us to get our “X on our map” (feedback) as well as receive invitations to go deeper in each of the practices.
In Part I we introduce PM, RD, some distinctions and how Gil and Marco arrive at this point in time doing this research.
In this Part II we explore the epistemology, cosmology and ontology of each gameworld (1), what seems common (2) and some differences (3) — and how they can complement each other.
Most of the topics below will be developed in future articles. In this article we are just scratching the surface of this research journey.
1. Epistemology, cosmology and ontology
We could say that in PM epistemology considers that it is by experiencing the phenomena (external and internal) as whole and bringing consciousness into it (reflection) that each person will build an energetic, emotional, cognitive, physical and archetypal matrix to hold more understanding (wisdom).
Regarding its Cosmology, PM considers that we inhabit in a responsible Universe and that we are 100% responsible for whatever happens in our lives, individually. By noticing and reflecting on the results of our life we can track the consciousness and developmental levels we have (in all our 5 bodies) that caused those results (and cause is different from reasons). By evolving the shape of our bodies, the universe will interact with each person in a very different way, supporting the achievement of more responsible results and promoting the next step that supports the unfolding of manifested Consciousness.
Regarding the expressed Ontology in PM, humans are an integration of a Being (connected with an Archetypal Lineage and Bright Principles) in 5 bodies (energetic, emotional, physical, mental and archetypal), within a box construct (which includes all our personality from worldview to opinions) and a gremlin ego-state that protects and supports the evolution of our box. This way humans are born in a cultural context, develop their box and bodies to fit that culture and after they turn 18 years old they become ready for engaging consciously in an initiatory pathway that allow them to become whole and who they are here to be, as a living element of Gaia being and consciousness.
Within RD, its epistemology considers that development is internally generated, knowledge emerges from each of us actualizing our levels of understanding (in the direction of living system thinking) and elevating our mental energy levels to conscious level, becoming able to examine our own reflected lived experiences.
Its cosmology considers that the universe is alive and made of different worlds and dimensions that have a natural impulse to promote vitality, viability and evolution of itself. Also that human beings are a living tissue that are able to allow the system to see itself and become conscientious.
The ontology of RD highlights that every human being, undeveloped when born, has an essence (unique and singular) and high potential capabilities and agency to express it. Building contexts of essence discovery and expression invites conscious introspection and development of will, being and function capabilities. And that the role of RD is to build capacity and reignite the source of this energy and wisdom (resourcing) in human beings.
2. What do the PM and DR gameworlds have in common? And where do they complement?
2.1 Regenerative Cultures
Both practices recognize that the modern ‘mechanic thinking’ culture (Patriarchy) doesn’t work anymore, meaning the results of this thoughtmaps don’t work, e.g., we are consuming 1,7 planets Earth (and we only have one!). How can we stop ‘consuming the resource Planet Earth’ and start participating, as Life, in Gaia, in the living system of Planet Earth?
In PM this next culture, that we are aiming and designing for, is called Archearchy. In RD Regenerative Developmental Culture (usually abbreviated to Regenerative Cultures). Both argue that the work in direction of a new culture starts in the individual, in each person, in each team, in each community.
Both practices recognize that they walk on the shoulders of other practices, lineages or schools of thought. One in common in Permaculture — PM is working in Whole Permaculture, the inner and outer Permaculture.
In a way, we could say that the points we highlight next are qualities or characteristics of this regenerative culture.
2.2. Experiential Reality
Both gameworlds work with experiential reality. This means that regardless of any knowledge, distinction, maps or anything else you cognitively “understand”, you have to experience it with your whole Being, and only then you are able to start knowing and engaging in individual and collective reflections about it. You go with your experience. The verbal reality — what we have words to talk about — is much smaller than the experiential reality — sometimes you just don’t have a word to describe your experience — such as ‘when i hold my first son in my arms for the first time’.
“Entering experiential reality happens without story. Experiential reality happens before your mind makes a story about what is happening now” as ‘i’m reading this sentence.
2.3. Thoughtmaps
Both PM and RD are rooted at upgrading the human thoughtware, once it is the way we see and experience reality. For this reason, by changing our thoughtware we see, become and act differently and are then able to create new results as well as contexts, such as a regenerative culture.
In RD you have the content of what you think, you have the process of thinking (how that content is created) and you have the why (the purpose, the maps you are using to create content).
Both practices advocate that, for different results, you need to pay attention to your attention, to your thought process and maps that you are using.
2.4. Possibilities
For PM “Possibility is a measurable quality of persons, places, or circumstances. The amount of Possibility a person has, for example, is equivalent to the measurable number of real options that an individual is aware of to choose from at any given moment for themselves or for their Gameworld. Scanning for Possibility is a learnable skill that applies to any person, conversation, relationship, Space, Organization or Gameworld. In general, ninety-nine percent of the Possibilities that are available right now are invisible to you.”
“(…) one of the basic premises of regenerative development is that every living system has inherently, within, the possibility to move to new levels of order, differentiation, and organisation. This capacity to create increasing order is the opposite of entropy.” This premise illuminates the possibilities available in each moment: what is the unique and singular way that a specific living system, such as a socio-ecological system (municipality or bioregion), wants to be nurtured and developed? The 7 principles of RD creates a completely different set of possibilities and orient the designer to focus on Possibilities aligned with Gaian Gameworlds, with a Regenerative Culture.
2.5. Storytelling
PM considers that “everything that exists and everything that happens is without meaning and completely neutral. You do not leave things that way. You are always creating. You create by making Stories about what exists and what happens. Stories are the meanings you add, your interpretations, how you See: things, your assumptions, projections, judgments, criticisms, opinions, implications, conclusions, expectations, and so on. Your Stories make the world look acceptable to your Box.” This way stories can either nurture a “victim story”, where the storymaker has no responsibility (and neither ability to respond) and it depends on the “good or bad” will of others. On the other hand, the storymaker can choose a responsible story, where the person is 100% responsible for the situation that he/she is living, and so, also 100% responsible and potentially capable of creating something different.”
For RD, storytelling is fundamental in order to make clear what is the vocation of a place, a living ecosystem inhabited by a community. The Story of Place is a process that RD undertakes in order to connect with the different key agents in the territory, understand what is alive in them and what they care about, what is the historical, geological, ecological and climatic dynamics in the past decades, centuries or even millennia that can shine some light to the unfolding that wants to happen in this particular place. The Story of Place is the short “elevator pitch” that elevates the will in all people to nurture the vitality, viability and evolution of one’s place. “The search for place-centered diversity provides an unprecedented opportunity to create a new story about what it means to be sustainably.”
Both practices recognise that humans are storymakers, that stories are individually and collectively powerful to understand the reality we live in and create the world we wanna live in.
2.6. Teams
In RD the second line of work (a map that we will introduce in section 2.10) is about team (and community). This work is a team work, a community work, a creative collaborative work.
In PM there is a saying ‘if it is not in teams is not possibility management’. We do the work in teams. And teams meet in a circle. A team in PM is more than 3 people.
2.7. Groundless and Unknown
Both gameworlds consider the subtle, the unseen, the unknown, the unmanifest, clearly referring that if we are using an existing knowledge or model, then it is neither developmental nor regenerative.
As an example, PM invites to speak from the Archetypal Lineage and Bright Principles, to be centred and grounded and open the mouth before knowing what to say, to be clear of your purpose and commit to do an action before knowing what it is about.
RD invites us to practice self-remembering (who do I want to be in this situation?) and creating energetic fields that invite a collective expansive consciousness to be present while working together. “For me, this work is fundamentally spiritual, although we don’t speak much about that dimension.” (Beatrice Benne).
2.8. Questions
Questions are vital in both approaches. In PM ‘make questions’ is one of our 3 powers (the others declare and choose). We can do e.g. open questions, close questions, dangerous questions, discovery questions, nonlinear questions. With a question you can change the space, the energetic field of a space.
In RD questions are resourcing gateways to observe and develop thought process. Key questions help the designers and communities to change from mechanical thinking to living thinking, from degeneration to regeneration. A regenerative culture is grounded in the unknown and questions invite us to creatively collaborate.
2.9. Multi-dimensionality of the Self
PM presents the Self composed on a Being (spiritual essence), integrated in 5 connected bodies (energetic, emotional, mental, physical and archetypal), integrated in a box (memetic construct that defines our personality, worldview, opinions), a Gremlin (an active energetic component / ego-state with a primary focus of defending the box until reaching adulthood and then expanding the box) and with main ego-states (such as the children, parent and demon).
In the RD there is also the recognition we are a Being with an Essence, with a construct that includes all that is not the spiritual essence, higher purpose and alike. At least 4 bodies are recognize (physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual).
Note1: PM and RD features the distinction of Being. It is unclear whether its meaning is the same in both gameworlds and needs further investigation as it is foundational in both gameworlds.
Note2 : Both feature elements of the 5 bodies and this distinction (bodies) is not clear in RD.
2.10. I, We, World
The ability to see different levels and nested systems (in the sense of order — an atom is part of a molecule, a molecule part of a cell) is present in both PM and RD.
Regenerative Development starts by anchoring itself on the essence of each living being, in this case humans and the required work on developing the Will in each of us to ignite and maintain our personal development and the regeneration of the systems we are part of. The main focus of RD has been to invite projects, organisations and territories to look at themselves integrated in proximate and greater wholes (the nested systems they are part of), so these collective entities understand that a regenerative development paradigm can only happen when each project aligns with the essence, purpose and vocation of the larger systems they are part of. This way the vitality, viability and evolutionary capabilities increase creating the conditions conducive to more Life and Consciousness. RD uses the 3 lines of work framework: the first line of work is about developing Oneself and focused on the Designer, the second line of work includes the first one and is about Growing the Capacity of a community or team and focused on working on the design Process; and the third line of work, includes the two above, and is about improving the Health and Value of a System, and focused on working on the designed Product.
In Possibility Management, the individual and gameworlds (a relation or a team is a gameworld). The focus of PM is mainly at shifting the thoughtware of the individual in relationship with its own team or community or gameworld. It is about healing and developing the capabilities, competences and skills required to have more responsibility as well as create an archyarchal cultural context (beyond matriarchal and patriarchal gameworlds). Recently PM has been encouraging its practitioners to come physically together and ground BridgeHouses with the goal of anchoring this context in those places and be open for people to go there for a certain amount of time (6 to 24 months) in order to live and integrate this culture promoting personal and collective development in a regenerative (Gaian) gameworld.
2.11. Empowerment
Both practices empowered people to be in their authority and, after experimenting in their bodies, go and share with others. As an example, in Shamanic Practices, you stay quiet and are the Shaman that does all the work. In PM and RD you are trained to be the Shaman, you do the work yourself. The trainer is holding space for you, unlike the Shaman is not doing the work, you are doing the work to yourself. And after that you do spaceholding for others and train others to do it themselves. As an example in an Expand the Box Training you start practice delivering maps (distinctions) and hold the space for others.
3. Where they seem to be quite different… and/ or they complement
3.1. Organisational
Regarding the organisational setting PM and RD are quite different. PM is very decentralised, where each possibilitator is generally an individual economic agent. They use a circular meeting technology called Torus Technology that has decision making and conflict practices embedded. In the RD context most work happens through legal entities, most based in the USA.
3.2. Knowledge sharing
The way we today share and co-create knowledge, acknowledge the traditions and lineages that created or developed the epistemology, cosmology and ontology of the schools and practices, how the value is exchanged between practitioners and apprentices, and the availability of the existing materials (e.g. books, videos) to the interested people can be very diverse. Although PM and RD are rooted in reflective lived experienced reality, the way they approach sharing and valuing the existing information is quite different.
In PM all material is copyleft and there is a strong promotion to record information and make it as widely available as possible. There are more than 500 websites that are populated by several people and coordinated by a small group of people, there are several free events from work-talks to weekly tematic teams that explore together specific topics, sharing of information through telegram groups, published articles on medium, weekly experiments shared to the community (sparks), and also hundreds of videos of specific distinctions (such as the STARR), many past online trainings, real Emotional Healing Processes, coaching sessions and conference talks and alike. PM shares its root lineages in a dispersed way, such as in PM books as well as in the suggested list of books to read, or during live sessions.
In the RD most of the information is copyright, with free information being of difficult access online. There is a strong emphasis that RD content should be provided with clear and appropriated context (experiential reality) and for that reason not shared publicly. Even between practitioners the material is not shared. For example, when a practitioner shares a framework she/he becomes responsible to provide the context, make the framework become alive for the apprentices and be available to them in case of need during the first explorations of that framework.
3.4 Underworld
PM explicitly recognizes the underworld, the unconscious part of us, with shadow principles (e.g. resentment, revenge, lying, betraying, manipulation, control, superiority). People going to this practice are initiated in their Underworld. Gameworlds need to become conscious of their underworld shadow principles. A distinction, if you don’t know the purpose of your action (or gameworld) probably is the underworld that is running your action with a hidden purpose. The results are often the creation of low drama and separation.
RD doesn’t have this distinction.
This is a good possibility for PM to complement RD in the 3 lines of work.
3.5 Emotional Body
RD recognizes the existence of feelings and don’t have much distinctions about it. PM recognises an emotional body, with a heart that feels and several distinction around feelings; as an example:
Feelings are from emotional body; thoughts are from intelectual body
We have 4 feelings (joy, sadness, fear and anger)
Feelings are neutral and are information and energy.
There are Conscious and Unconscious Feelings
Feelings (information and energy of the present) are different from Emotions (incomplete feelings from the past that require completion)
We have 6 type of emotions
This is a good possibility for PM to complement RD in the 1st line of work.
3.6. Energetic and Archetypal Body
RD recognizes that there is a spiritual dimension (in PM a ‘body’), with purpose, being and values. PM divides this description in 2 bodies: energetic and archetypal. The energetic body has vision, attention, and will. The archetypal body has purpose, bright principles, and a lineage.
This is a good possibility for PM to complement RD in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd line of work.
3.7. Human interaction
PM has fundamental distinction around human interaction like communication and roadblocks, type of speaking and listening, feedback and coaching, low drama and high drama, type of games and appreciation that change the way people interact and hold the space for relations.
RD have some distinctions around designing for interactions like ‘task cycle’ and ‘story of the place’. And don’t have distinctions about the fundamentals of human interactions.
3.8. Place-based/sourced
RD is a design practice, a place based design practice, meaning that all the approaches start by grounding in place (the socio-ecological system). The tool entitled Story of the Place supports project development by anchoring its potential in place (Place-based/sourced Potential). RD offers maps and frameworks to navigate this unfolding.
PM has the distinction of the Gaian Gameworld and some maps and distinctions around context, teamwork and governance (gameworld codex). PM Does not have specific distinction for the unfolding of a regenerative, place-based project and how that project is interconnected with proximate and greater wholes.
As both gameworlds recognise Permaculture as one of their lineages, the place based orientation in there and PM could benefit with the work of RD.
3.9 Trainings
They both use training to socialise the gameworlds — in PM, ETB and Labs. In RD, TRP and advanced training. The trainings are primarily an experiential reality and verbal reality uses mainly Socratic Dialogues. They both use dialogue practices (e.g. socratic dialogue, circle).
In PM the focus of the training is about landing the distinctions in five bodies and having five bodies learning experiences.
In RD the focus is to produce insights (energetic and intellectual distinctions) that in combination with new frameworks invite to build and develop a higher level of Will, Being and Function in the people, organisations and Places.
3.10 Impact Scaling
RD has experience in working with companies, regions and countries (mainly on the 2nd and 3rd line of work). It is mainly involved in large scale interventions for hundreds, thousands and millions of people. Designers use participatory and collaborative approaches to engage the several networks and communities of a certain system.
PM has experience in working at the individual and team levels reaching a few hundreds of people (e.g., working in ecovillages or companies).
Both gameworlds are Planetary gameworlds with practitioners on all continents.
Part III (to be published soon)
In Part III of “Can you be Regenerating the World, Serving a Community and Developing Yourself, simultaneously?” we develop our research agenda and some cases where we are applying and experimenting with both practices.