Regenerative Thinking and Development
We invite you into what we mean by regenerative practice and how we can serve the transforming of what is important to you.
An Evolving Theory of Change*
7group started as collaboration between close friends which happened to evolve into a business at the dawn of the green building movement in the 1990s.
We were inspired by the development of LEED and regenerative leaders like Bill Reed and Carol Sanford, and started to question the current paradigms and collective systems of beliefs that pervade our culture.
We believed that there was a different way... and recognized something needed to change.
*Based on Carol Sanford's 4 Paradigms Framework
Slowing The Damage
Our initial lens was through making incremental changes within the context of the current paradigm, using the language that that paradigm knew best - money.
Demonstrating that it costs less to build green buildings... and you get significant environment benefits. If we can show people how to do that, then the market would change. So we worked on projects that did just that, many times.
Learning that what creates change is way more complex, we noticed that the market wasn't changing or shifting in a more meaningful way... we asked what actually motivates change?
Doing Good
A shift happened - Change occurs when people are internally motivated. We believe that everyone wants to work on something greater than themselves.
Inspiration is the key to our heart. Our ongoing inquiry deepened, leading us to examine the source of humanity's disconnect with nature and each other. What needs to shift is our collective relationship with life. Buildings are merely an instrument for affecting change within the living systems they are embedded within. New questions emerged.
What are the beliefs and assumptions behind our thinking? How can we align the way that people think with the way that nature works?
Regenerating
We're looking forward to discovering the unique manifestation of what regenerative means on your project, together. What questions are we collectively not asking, that we should be asking?
Regeneration is an ongoing and ever evolving exploration of life's potential. It is aspirational and we certainly do not have all the answers. Instead we co-develop generative questions that unleash the creative potential in your project.
Let's figure out what the really important questions are, through collaborative audacity, as our theory of change continues to unfold.
How We Do This Together?*
*Based on a framework offered by Tyson Yungkaporta in his book Sand TalkRe-discovering the genius inherent in each unique place and its inhabitants (all life) requires curiosity, open-mindedness and an exploration of the project's place-sourced potential.
- Although we always endeavor to start by discovering, its always different in each Place, and on each project within Places or Organizations.
- We begin with a set of Respectful Principles and a curiosity to work to reveal the unique potential of the project.
- Consistently cycling back into inquiry (re-spect = look again) with living systems.
The collective "we" is wiser and more able to evoke the vitality and evolutionary viability of a place. Deeper connections foster understandings that are required to harmonize divergent values and opinions.
- All living stakeholder voices must actually be enrolled in "us" or team, using process and structure that ensures the application of harmonizing energy to create community.
- A significant diversity of perspectives is necessary to see the holistic affects of any project.
- Creating conversations to ensure we are all on the same page.
Questioning "how we have always done it" regenerates the process and patterns that invites greater levels of creativity and unity. Reflection with intension evolves our thinking.
- Engaging reflection questions enable us to direct action and intervention in a new (good) way.
- Utilizing frameworks to organize and raise the level of our thinking leads to the discovery of novel design strategies.
- Questioning our assumptions creates synergistic benefits to the living systems affected by the project and its bottom line.
Direction allows us to navigate the uncertainty of moving through the actualization of a design to its manifestation in existence. Such aims must be co-created by all interested parties.
- The first three stages are required in order to develop a fully informed direction to a project.
- Imaging of future potential interim states is required to allow for the development of new capabilities that were not there before.
- Co-directing creates new opportunities for the emergence of even more regenerative potential than originally envisioned.