From The Ground Up
As a wave across the land we are movin', movin'…
This ain't no phase, the change these bodies make, and the way they are
Facing forward, shoulder to the stone, telling of movin' it
It takes one step, it takes your voice, singin’
"I am not hearing if you are not naming it
I am not stopping if you are not changing it
Here are my hands let's see what they're makin’..."
In the morning, in the rise up, there's a bridge from all that's been
In the dawning, the vines are pushing through the pavement
We were born of burning hearts
We are tearing off the reigns
From the ground up we will build it
From the clouds above we'll rain it
From the crowd up we will raise it
From the ground up...
You hold the spade to turn new soil
For the coming grace, you hold the plans
And no hands but our hands will lead our children
And all that will feed you is a fierce prayer, is a fierce prayer, singin
"I am not hearing if you are not saying it
I am not stopping if you are not changing it
Here are my hands let's see what they're makin.."
(chorus)
In this life we see so many things and
Sometimes our hearts may start to bleed a bit
But I choose this life I'm gonna lead and
I must give my hands
to make it...
By Ayla Nereo, 2014
The Role of the Ecosocial Designer
In her 2014 ode to Permaculture, Ayla Nereo succinctly summarizes the ethos of the ecosocial designer: to build a bridge from all that’s been. In other words, the purpose of ecosocial design is not merely to identify what we need to do and how, but to create that pathway and, perhaps most importantly, to lead that transition. It’s not just about designing the built environment, moving earth, and planting plants, she reminds us that our craft is social and ultimately political. Nereo sings of a duty to speak truth to power, to resist oppression, and to build the new world with the knowledge we hold.
"I am not hearing if you are not naming it
I am not stopping if you are not changing it
Here are my hands, let's see what they're makin’..."
Permaculture, or more aptly Ecosocial Design, either serves for (re-)evolutionary action or we are reduced to being really thoughtful gardeners. To hold the knowledge for how to build a just, equitable, thriving world and not fight for it is the abdication of a most sacred responsibility. Yet this narrative has not been central to the Permaculture movement. In his comparative analysis between the Food Justice movement and Permaculture, Naropa University’s Stephen Polk states “If permaculture is ever to effectively impact society and move beyond the drafting table and individual property line, it must engage the political process.” And it is not only about activating Permaculture, he continues, "its not just that permaculture needs to get political, political movements of all stripes need to be ecologized as well, so to speak. Without ecological sensibilities, any future political project will most surely fall prey to prioritizing economic production and growth over the health of ecosystems." (Canty et al, P. 69) A message more consistent with what we have learned about regenerative economics is hardly possible.
With over forty years of development, the art and science of Permaculture is highly developed and well documented, but Permaculture remains a minor sideshow in culture and practically invisible in politics. The ethos, it seems, is to work in the background because the literally, the ground is politically agnostic. But without an activist approach to social equity and justice, a political posture in other words, Permaculture is condemned to perpetuate established patterns of oppression. As Polk puts it, "if permaculturists fail to gain power and exercise it inline with our ethics and values, then our designs will not extend beyond the individual property line." (Canty et al, P70). Yet in my experience an overwhelming majority of people, even those deeply active in social and environmental justice, have either never heard of Permaculture or have mistaken conceptions about it. For the most part, it is not their go-to for changemaking strategies. In spite of the good works of permaculture, of the thousands of teachers, practitioners, and projects, we continue to be a marginal influence on the dominant culture. It is past time for the Permaculture community to become a movement.
But creating a movement is more easily said than done. Yes, the Permaculture community must look inward to guide its own growth toward greater relevance. In the meantime, the individual ecosocial designer (as I consider all permaculture designers) must identify where and how they can have the maximum impacts, and that usually starts in their own communities.
It is my view that trained ecosocial designers need to be working in all aspects of human endeavor, but the individual designer can only do so much. The question of what levers an individual designer can affect most effectively, one’s “distinct, value adding role” (Mang et al., p 135), is arguably one of the most important design questions they will face. I offer here one method for arriving at an answer; my own process as a case study. It seems to me that regardless of where an individual ecosocial designer chooses to act, one of the most powerful roles they can play is as a facilitator for change. Facilitation literally means to make something easier, and a properly trained ecosocial designer is uniquely suited to easing Society’s transition to a new ways of being.
Case Study: Myself as an Ecosocial Designer
What follows is an explanation of my recent career path as an ecosocial designer, including my analysis of the field and plans for the near future. I present this information using the Theory U phases of Co-Initiating, Co-Sensing, Presencing, Co-Creating, and Co-Evolving. Those uninitiated in Theory U may wish to reference my Introduction to Theory U (that’s a link, click it). I wish to clarify that although the shape of the U process makes it appear as a linear process, it is actually iterative: we are continuously looping through the U, and even within the U we may loop through different sections repeatedly. Hence, what follows then is my interpretation of this process at this time.
CO-INITIATING
Co-initiating generally begins with a trigger event, some realization or experience that spurs a person or a group into action. This is a brief story of how I initiated my journey towards a career in ecosocial design.
My path was set in my childhood as I awoke to the need for environmental and social activism in my early youth. This was a struggle as following this path often meant defying the mainstream, and I had few role models on how to do that gracefully and safely. Nevertheless, by young adulthood I'd learned how to approach my professional life with a social and environmental justice lens. As I grew along this path, I became increasingly aware of the inconsistencies between my work and my ideals, and of the challenges that the greater context created. In fact, I realized that in my prevailing context, the work I was doing wasn’t making lasting change and in fact may have been delaying it (for further clarification, my section on nonprofits explains my hypothesis on how much of that work enables the continued dysfunction of our systems). This realization that I was "doing it wrong" – that we were all doing it wrong – was the trigger event that initiated a proactive path towards ecosocial design. I had a vision that humanity could live in harmony with nature and with each other, I just had to figure out how. I set out on a path of discovery to answer this question. (For more detail on this story, read this.)
CO-SENSING
Co-Sensing refers to a process of exploring all sides of an issue, using a variety of senses and techniques to arrive at as complete and unbiased an understanding of it as possible. In the best of cases, it is a BIG process and thus it is the largest part of this report.
In my case I began by narrowing my attention to the environmental movement to get up to date with what I considered the most important issue of our times: ensuring the health of our biosphere. From there I followed a thread of discoveries and opportunities that led eventually to become a certified permaculture designer and to Gaia University. ( Again, greater detail is available here.)
In order to become more effective, I’ve been narrowing my focus within ecosocial design and then further towards how to make a difference while making a living in this field. As part of this, two years ago I produced an OP that included an analysis of myself as a designer and of the market for ecosocial design. My intention was to identify the likeliest pathways for my success in this field, both financially and emotionally, while advancing my mission towards the wellbeing of humanity and the biosphere. There are two parts to this co-sensing process, self-analysis and field analysis.
Co-Sensing: Self-Analysis
In order to understand how to best direct my development in ESD I've experimented with a variety of self-evaluation tools. I present here the outcomes of those processes that produced the most relevant results. They fall under three general categories: skillflexes, sectors, personality.
I’ve always been a polymath – that is to say someone with a wide-range of interests, knowledge, and skills – and have successfully cultivated a lifetime of work as a generalist. While it may seem counterintuitive to talk about specializing as a generalist, Buckminster Fuller identified this decades ago as a necessity for a society of specialists. "...our failures are a consequence of many factors, but possibly one of the most important is the fact that society operates on the theory that specialization is the key to success, not realizing that specialization precludes comprehensive thinking." [Fuller, Operating Manual For Planet Earth, p.24]
While it is a blessing to have broad understanding, it creates its own challenges including that of communicating what exactly one does. The optimal outcome is a balance between understanding the field broadly enough to serve as an integrator of specialists, while specializing enough to have functional depth in one’s chosen area. This describes the essence of my previous career as a media producer: a competent writer, producer, director with technical skills in camera, sound, and editing who primarily plays the role of coordinating the efforts of specialists in all of these areas.
My personal analysis process is comprised of the following elements:
- Goals
- Skillflex assessment
- Personal sector analysis
- Wheel of Life, including analysis of limiting beliefs
- Personality analysis using Myers-Briggs
- Personality analysis using the Enneagram
1. Goals
To assure meeting my intentions, I defined a set of goals in early 2017. As I stated then, “I identified these goals by delving deeply over the last eighteen months into learning and developing a wide range of knowledge and skills that hone and focus my past professional and academic experiences towards my greater purpose of ecosocial regeneration.” The purpose of these goals is to hasten earning a livelihood in alignment with my purpose while staying on track to complete my Masters degree.
For this project I identified the following five goals for 2018 - 2019:
- Generate Income with Flexibility & Diversification
- Stay in Field
- Maintain Impact Alignment
- Design a Marketing Profile
- Finish School
Click on this link to open a spreadsheet with greater detail on these goals.
With these five goals I defined a practicable pathway towards a livelihood in a new field. In my original (2017) version I stated “I also recognize that this is a living process and that both the inner and outer landscapes will change as the situation evolves. So my intention is to be agile and to stay alert to how this path twists and turns so that I can stay on it.” This proved to be prescient, practical, and aligned with the emergent realities of designing for living systems. In truth, I now see that while I met most aspects of all of these goals, I could never have met some of my timeline goals such as graduating by the end of 2018. I also recognize that my learning has been more complex than I could have foreseen, so it is appropriate that I extended my timelines; these goals remain relevant even as the time scale shifts.
3. Personal Sector Analysis
The sector analysis is a fundamental Permaculture design tool which is used to evaluate energy flows into and out of an environment or system. The goal is to identify helpful energy flows which we wish to harness and improve, and hurtful flows that we wish to divert. As a shortcut for adapting this idea to a human situation rather than the more familiar land design, I borrowed and modified a process from my former Main Advisor at Gaia University, Nicole Vosper. She uses a protocol called STEEPL, which is an acronym of the following sectors:
- Social
- Technological
- Economic
- Environmental
- Political
- Legal
- Ethical
Click this link to open the spreadsheet containing my STEEPL analysis.
Observations: The external sector analysis reveals an environment in transition. Certainly, we appear to be teetering on the edge of a powerful downward movement and there is widespread anxiety across society. This anxiety provides opportunities for leading positive change, but also entrenches reactivism. In the language of Theory U, the absencing reflex is strong. From a livelihood design perspective, focusing on services that create hope, help people feel aligned between their ethics and their behavior (including helping them to define their ethical compass), and help groups arrive at solutions to complex problems in a generative fashion all seem like promising directions.
5. Personality Analysis – Myers-Briggs
Myers Briggs is a widely used personality test which produces a four to five part composite of an individuals tendencies. My outcome from the Myers-Briggs test types me as an ENFJ-A, which stands for Extraverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging. The -A stands for Assertive versus the possible alternative T, for Turbulent. The primary contrast is that those with an A modifier tend to be more self-assured and resistant to stress. The salient positive characteristics of this personality type are a propensity towards helping people and a combination of intuition and passion well suited to leadership and teaching roles. In addition, a certain idealism makes them (us?) inclined towards work "that draws a positive long-term trend, that effects change that really sticks." Hence my interest in the world-change work that ecosocial design is all about.
Leadership is key to ecosocial design work, and an ENFJ's "true calling, where their capacity for insightful and inspiring communication and sensitivity to the needs of others really shows, is in managing teams." Team management is a role that has emerged repeatedly in my life and which is well suited both to the generalist who surrounds themselves with specialists and helps them work together towards greater results, and to the teacher who helps their students identify and reach their potential. Not surprisingly, teaching and managing teams have been my primary occupations throughout my professional life.
Some pitfalls to look out for include being too selfless, being too sensitive to criticism, and being excessively idealistic.
2. Skill Flex Assessment
Gaia University promotes the growth mindset idea that we are always developing our skills. Thus, we refer to them as skill flexes rather than skill sets. I’ve been tracking and refining a list of skill flexes since the beginnings of my Gaia U pathway. My current list tracks 28 skills in the following four categories:
- Organizational Development and Leadership.
- Communications
- Design
- Systems Literacy
4. Wheel of Life Analysis
The Wheel of Life is a tool from the Life Coaching world which uses a subjective rating system to evaluate a person’s satisfaction level in eight different areas:
- Money & Prosperity
- Business & Career
- Love & Relationships
- Health
- Family & Friends
- Personal & Spiritual Growth
- Fun & Recreation
- Physical Environment
This link opens a spreadsheet of my Wheel of Life assessment.
Observations: The Wheel of Life exercise is quick and easy. Starting by rating your satisfaction levels with the different sectors, one can move on to deciding how to address the imbalances they see by applying different design tools. I added a Notes section to clarify why I feel the way I do for each item which also allows me to track progress and changes. I find that over time I've been able to raise my overall satisfaction level while evening out the discrepancies between areas. Developing a practice of periodically checking in with this tool has proven to be a an easy but helpful process for improving my outlook.
6. Personality Analysis – Enneagram
Enneagram is a personality similar in process to Myers-Briggs but with a different rating system. Depending on which version of the test I take I seem to get either a 2w3 or a 3w2. Curiously, some people that are familiar with the test have typed me as a 7. The definitions are linked below and I've excerpted the characteristics that seemed most salient to me. A critique I have of this model from my superficial use of it is that the personality types are narrowly focused when compared to Myers-Briggs, exalting a single personality trait. Looking at the definitions of the three categories below I can see how I have elements of each. It is also true that this combination of characteristics is consistent with the ENFJ categorization I received from Myers-Briggs.
2: The Helper: Involved, socially aware, usually extroverted, "Twos are the type of people who... go the extra mile to help out a co-worker, spouse or friend in need. Twos are warm, emotional people who care a great deal about their personal relationships, devote an enormous amount of energy to them, and who expect to be appreciated for their efforts. They are practical people who thrive in the helping professions and who know how to make a home comfortable and inviting."
3: The Achiever: "People of this personality type are frequently hard working, competitive and are highly focused in the pursuit of their goals. They are often "self-made" and usually find some area in which they can excel and thus find the external approbation which they so desperately need. Threes are socially competent, often extroverted, and sometimes charismatic. They know how to present themselves, are self-confident, practical, and driven. But, while Threes do tend to succeed in whatever realm they focus their energies, they are often secretly afraid of being or becoming 'losers.'"
7: The Enthusiast: "People of this personality type are essentially concerned that their lives be an exciting adventure. Sevens are future oriented, restless people who are generally convinced that something better is just around the corner. They are quick thinkers who have a great deal of energy and who make lots of plans. They tend to be extroverted, multi-talented, creative and open minded. They are enthusiasts who enjoy the pleasures of the senses and who don't believe in any form of self-denial. Sevens are practical people who have multiple skills. They know how to network and to promote themselves and their interests. They often have an entrepreneurial spirit and are able to convey their enthusiasm to those with whom they come in contact."
Reflections on Outcomes of Personality Tests
Despite initial skepticism of both these personality assessments, I have learned that test of this type tend to produce consistent results that, at least in my case, I mostly agree with. Thus, they are a valuable tool for evaluating aspects of one's personality that they may not be willing to recognize or admit when self-evaluating.
Based on my outcomes, I conclude that when designing a livelihood for myself I am well-served to consider roles which include a strong sense of service and helping others and opportunities to truly connect with people. It is also important to align my ideals with my actions. Being in positions of leadership, especially where I can practice Servant Leadership, will be important to me personally. I also derive a special satisfaction from helping others understand and solve problems. Thus I am well suited to teaching and group facilitation roles, as well as organizational development consulting, especially around team building. Life coaching, mentoring, and other personal development roles will also be rewarding. Important also is deep curiosity and an ongoing need for adventure and exploration, so being a consultant that continuously works with new clients is one way to keep the landscape fresh.
Co-Sensing: Field Analysis
To better understand the field I’m working in, I conducted a survey of individuals and organizations working in what I’d describe as Sustainability or Regenerative and/or Ecosocial Design. This includes offerings such as consulting, design, facilitation, as well as certain personal development services such as coaching and leadership development as long as it has a specific culture-change focus. I've identified the following four elements of the field to survey: individuals, organizations, staff positions, and existing opportunities.
1. Individuals
This group consists primarily of solo entrepreneurs who appear to be succeeding as sustainability/regenerative design consultants. I've compiled a list of people with notes on how they structure their businesses, who their clients are, and how they market themselves to the extent that I can discover these things. This is a living list which I am continuously building with a view to create a network map.
Click here to access a table of consultants working on some aspect of ESD.
3. Staff Positions
I have tracked salaried jobs in both the private sector and government and have even applied for a few (to no avail). At this time it is hard for me to get excited about this possibility because of my commitment to school, entrepreneurial ventures, and other obligations. However, It is informative to see how established institutions track and respond to changes in the world and in this field. It is possible that I will consider this option more seriously once I complete my MSc.
Click here to access a table of staff positions I have surveyed.
2. Organizations
These are groups of individuals collaborating to leverage collective advantage. Some are little more than mutual aid arrangements while others are structured as companies in which each person fills a different role. My purpose at this time is to examine how these operate with a view to better understanding whether one of these ways of working can best serve me, and to identify potential candidates for collaboration. I am curious to learn whether any of these groups have successfully implemented some sort of dynamic governance and democratic ownership arrangements.
Click here to access a table of organizations I have surveyed.
4. Existing Projects and Relationships
Throughout my time at Gaia University I've worked on a variety of projects in collaboration with individuals and organizations. Many of these continue underway, and all of them have spawned ongoing relationships. Linked below is a list of the most relevant of these.
PRESENCING
At the bottom of the U journey we come to Presencing. This is a process of retreating and reflecting on the information we've gathered and sensing what arises within us. I think of it as a combination of deductive and inductive reasoning with a healthy dose of intuition thrown in. If you'd like to read more about the nuances of Presencing, click this link. By sitting with the outcomes of my Co-Sensing process I found a deeper understanding of four critical aspects of creating a regenerative livelihood:
- The state of the marketplace for ecosocial design work: There are a wide variety of consultants and consultancies in the Ecosocial Design field offering services to government, business, and nonprofits. Surveying them in all their variety provides the opportunity to do a comparative analysis of how they operate and who they target as their clients.
- My own skillflexes relative both to my intentions and to others in the field: Re-evaluating my skillflexes afforded me an opportunity to redefine them to be better aligned with market expectations. It has improved my ability to talk about what I do, thus creating better employment opportunities. Comparing my skillflexes to those that others are marketing has helped me identify what is valued in the market and what is unique about what I can offer.
- What opportunities I already have in this field: Taking the time to identify and appreciate the opportunities that I have created for myself serves to confirm the progress I’ve made in this field. It also identifies those areas where I can likely get the best results from the least effort by building on existing successes.
- How to generate income during a transition phase into a new career: Through a combination of diversifying, building on existing opportunities, and harvesting the low-hanging fruit of odd jobs when needed, I’ve started the process of building a resilient income stream. This diversity has also afforded me the opportunity to test ideas with minimum risk to better understand what and how I can incorporate into my future livelihood.
This Presencing process helped me to chart a course that includes: progressively narrowing my field of study and skillflex development; begining designing and implementing short and long-term business plans; mitigate the negative financial impacts of a mid-life career change.
CO-CREATING
In the Co-Creating phase of the U the designer typically engages in a series of safe-to-fail prototypes to test their ideas. This ability to test with minimum risk is a key aspect of intervening in complex situations because a hallmark of complexity is that outcomes are unknown until you test them. In my own case I've been able to design and run a number of projects with collaborators and clients that have allowed me to test my ideas and hone my skills. You can read about some of these at the following links:
- Portfolio of selected pre-capstone projects.
- Areas of focus for my Capstone year.
- Intended reports for my Capstone year.
Note that while the three links I've provided lead to academic projects, these are based on real-world projects which define my professional development.
CO-EVOLVING
The final phase of the U is Co-Evolving. This occurs when the designer is sufficiently satisfied with the outcomes of the testing they've done in the Co-Creating phase to begin scaling their work for wider distribution. Taking it into the world, as it where. The title of this section is The Ecosocial Designer as Facilitator of Change, and the reader can learn about many of the change making projects I've experimented with throughout my extended Co-Creating phase. The transition into Co-Evolving is a process of completing the work of my Capstone phase at Gaia University as I continue to build my professional presence. My final output packet, OP5 – Learning Review, will include a business plan and a new website detailing my offerings. These will position me to move into a full-time professional life, post-graduation.