Bridges To Knowledge: A Blog by Barry Camson

Steps to a Regenerative Perspective, Part 1

 

I think a wonderful place to start in terms of developing a regenerative perspective is simply with being human. I think the most human thing we can do, as well as perhaps the most spiritual, is to encounter each other's face. When I say "encounter each other's face," I am being a bit philosophical.

To encounter someone else's face is to see the face and also the person behind that face. It does require us to pause in our path long enough to engage in a process of seeing and wonderment. It is to see the uniqueness of that person. It is to wonder about the questions they have, the feelings they feel, and how they experience their life on this planet. From a more spiritual perspective, it may be to see how the Divine manifests in them.

This will hopefully lead to the suspension of judgment, respect, caring and all of the things necessary to trust and join with them in a collaborative endeavor. It will lead to a recognition as a mentor of mine once said, that "each person's truth is truth."

Beyond this, encountering and seeing each other's face is an attitude and practice that can lead us to be able to encounter the face of each animal we meet, each bird, each tree, each insect. For example, I am familiar with each cat in my neighborhood and there are many. Each has their own stance, their own personality, their own proclivities, their way of expressing themselves.

With the use of a little imagination, one can move on to encountering and seeing the flow of a river - wondering where it is coming from and to where it is going - seeing the personality of the river. I remember sailing on the Charles River in Boston and I can tell you that the river has its own character enough to even have a song written about it.

My belief is that unless we can see and encounter each of these, we will not be able to care enough about them to engage in the process of regeneration. This is the first step to a regenerative perspective. Even wanting or striving to do this, is an important step along the way.

Creating Synergy Between Education and Sustainability

How can we create enhanced value in our teaching as well as in our sustainability efforts? I am suggesting that we explore the reciprocal relationship between them.

I gained a important awareness about this at a webinar that I recently attended that dealt with the role of Place in sustainability work. This was in the service of focusing on the regeneration of ecology in a section of the state of Ohio.

Place has been defined by some writers as:

"The unique, multi-layered network of living systems within a geographical region that results from the complex interaction throughout time of the natural ecology and (human) culture." (Mang and Reed)

This conversation about Place has often arisen in the course of work dealing with regenerative development and design.

There were a number of both academics and people working in organizations in this webinar. At one point, someone made the comment that we should view Place from the perspective of each of our disciplines. I found this comment very impactful. It would certainly bring a richness to the exploration of the role of Place. It would bring a freshness and immediacy to our teaching, for example bringing in the disciplines of art, music or literature as perspectives on Place. This is what I have been striving to do in my teaching. This comment provided an interesting framing to my work.

I teach in a Masters program in Organization Psychology. The goal of this program is to develop OD consultant and managerial skills on the part of participants. I have endeavored to make connections with sustainability in one of my courses in order to support the use of skills offered in the course in the pursuit of sustainability.

Bringing an Organization Development (OD) perspective to a discussion of Place gets us into issues of how to design for complex change, how to work with many divergent agendas, and how to mobilize the commitment of people who work and live on the land. It opens our eyes to the reality that land and the people who live and work on it are not just objects to be moved about as part of a cognitive design process or even ignored.

On further reflection, I identified a nuance to this framing of my work. More than bringing an OD perspective to the discussion of Place, I think I am bringing a perspective of Place to our work as OD consultants and managers. In this regard, Place becomes an umbrella term for a regenerative and ecosystem perspective which looks a how all can flourish by attaining a deeper alignment.

OD has always been a field that has prided itself on its life-giving potential. This perspective of Place makes it even more so - in a way that connects to what is deeply embedded in each of us - our connection to Place, the people and species connected to Place and the stories that embody all of this.

Recently, I have noted that a number of workshop sessions have started out by honoring those who lived on the land before us, for example indigenous people in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. There is a sincere effort to connect to their naming in the Place as we move forward in our endeavors. Some Ecovillages have picked indigenous names for their Place with the permission of indigenous elders.

There is a growing effort to recognize how Nature does things in our efforts to design how we will work and live upon the land. We note how the land is replenished, sustained, drained, protected. Using this as a lens for our work helps us literally to be grounded in what is most enduring in our lives and work.