Ongoing conversations regarding business regeneration have generated additional reflection on my part… reflection that has been energized and organized by the request to make sure we stay product focused, and the emergence of the notion that it is time to increase our interactions… to begin to connect with other folks who have similar leanings towards and like-mindedness regarding business, ways of doing business… time to begin developing a network of folks drawn into this regenerative work – the work of regenerating business.
Business regeneration brings a much more wholistic seeing and systemic process orientation to the work before us… and allows us to see beyond material limitations – the materials involved in recycling/regeneration. So then, here are some thoughts that have emerged around that.
Business regeneration: a life of the whole, systemic approach… an intentional way of doing business… working in ways that bring spirit, meaning and purpose to our endeavors… ways that bring the uplifting buoyancy of hope to ourselves, to future generations.
As we reflect, it is useful to remember the common law of earthly life, ultimately, the perspective we hold – where we start our thinking from – determines the path we take, what we move away from, what we move towards. We can see this at work in regard to a transition principle critical to regenerating business, the transition principle of: Move away from extracting through financial manipulation, and move towards value generation sourced in virtue; value generation and realization through product development and systemic offerings… building economics, wholistic economics, around that.
As we continue our thinking, it is helpful to remember that business is the name we humans give to how we organize to generate and realize value. If we were honeybees we might refer to our hive as our way of organizing to carry out our essential work of pollination and producing life sustaining honey. If we were ants, we might look to hill or nest as a descriptor of our way of organizing to carry out our essential work of soil making… our process of returning organic material to the ground that supports/contains our hill/nest, organic material that through our processing reintegrates into the soil… enriching the soil’s capacity to nourish life… a process that nourishes us as well.
Regeneration, regenerative work, requires that we come from – start our thinking from – the perspective of potential rather than from the perspective of problem. It is what we turn to when it is clear that partial solutions lack the resolving power to effectively address the issues before us. It requires wholistic approaches and wholistic understanding.
A life of the whole perspective acknowledges that we are first and foremost living beings and, like all of life’s creatures, are inherently dependent upon the vitality and viability of the essential life processes of earth and her essential systemic elements of soil, air and water… a truth and reality not only for ourselves, but for future generations as well.
Coming from a life of the whole perspective, we seek to move towards wholeness… developing products and offerings that are more wholistically generated and reflect a more wholistic understanding of intended ways of working. Reflecting on the systemic elements of soil, air and water brings added imagery to the intent regarding wholeness. Soil, air and water are living domains within which processes critical to the ongoingness of life on earth take place. It is the nature of all living creatures to generate structures that inevitably enter into the working and processes of life itself. As living human beings we are accountable for the structures we bring into existence… an accountability that is enabled by the understanding that all of earth, all of her domains, actively participate in the ongoingness of life… processes critical to our ongoingness. As such, we understand there is no “inactive” isolated domain for the disposal of waste, of the unwanted. “There is no away.” Our living in accord with this reality is greatly enabled by seeing the structures we generate as belonging to one of two categories: Those structures that can naturally integrate into the life processes of earth… and those that cannot. For those that can, we pay attention to the rate of introduction to life processes; ensuring that integration capacity is not exceeded. For those that cannot, we create closed systems; ensuring they are prevented from entering the life processes/domains of earth. It is interesting that we can see this naturally at work within earth. We can enrich our images of this by reflecting on life cycles – birth through death and reintegration; and the naturally occurring pockets – closed systems – that contain such things as petroleum. Finally, as seems to be true of wholistic approaches, there is a recognition of the natural necessity for structures, structures related to ongoing existence and wellbeing, no effort to occlude or deny that… but rather a focus on congruence – ways that are congruent with intended ways of working… ways that are right for humanity, good for the whole of life. It is interesting to notice that a life of the whole perspective fully embraces humankind, whereas a human centered perspective commonly, perhaps naturally, does not fully embrace the life of the whole… the whole of which we are a part.
Systemic offerings make real, create a presence of, the stakeholders – those that truly have a stake in the business. In addition to the shareholder, systemic offerings bring to the fore the other stakeholders: employees, customers, community, society, future generations, and life itself. These offerings also bring to light the value, potential and business advantage of an offering systemically structured around virtues, virtues such as carbon neutral, closed systems, recyclable, regenerate-able, perpetual… virtues that allow necessary structures to be generated and used in ways that are harmonious with earth and intended ways of working.
Working Philosophy
Going back to “the perspective we hold” brings up the need to develop a working philosophy… one that emerges from a philosophy that is whole enough, complete enough to deal with today’s reality… and one that is practice-able. The living philosophy of potential is such a philosophy. Out from this has emerged a working philosophy… a working philosophy expressed by the systemic triad of virtue, ethics and potential. This serves to provide guidance, necessary guidance, for staying on the path of our intent, as well as a source of wisdom in regard to pursuits and actions… true philosophical anchors for going forward.
We understand virtue to be the ultimate source of value… and the embodiment of the living philosophy of the land – the particular planetary energy field we operate within.
Ethics – that which requires an understanding of intended ways of working; and allows us to pursue and act in accord with the right and good… right for the one; good for the whole.
Potential – coming from potential, realizing potential, taking things to essence as a means of understanding intent, intended ways of working.
We can see this systemic triad at work in working on petroleum; seeing “perpetual products” as the essential virtue, creating those products in carbon neutral ways, employing recycling/regenerating processes, and developing necessary closed systems.
Guiding Principles
These emanate from the working philosophy and provide further freedom and guidance to go forward. A systemic set of guiding principles in regard to this regenerating work has emerged:
Add no infrastructural burden.
Effectively use community resources.
Seek processes and pursuits that engender reciprocal nourishment.
Reciprocal nourishment comes to life as we add the whole of the stakeholders to our imagery and strategy… a process that lifts up necessary shifts in some of our essential processes (education for example), shifts that themselves require reciprocal nourishment to come about.
Faith
Perhaps a useful closing thought is in regard to faith. Reflecting on faith, what we have faith in, and what we can put our faith in, are useful reflective questions as one takes on a pursuit, especially ones such as this. Bolstered by experience we have faith that if we maintain our intent, our commitment to this path, we will not only see that which we previously could not see, but also see and understand that which we need to continue in order to progress along this path of intent. One “seeing and understanding” that has emerged from this work is that this pursuit is not so much dependent upon new invention, but rather lends itself to a systemic integration of existing technologies. An experienced reality that is an ongoing source of hope… hope in our seeing that this can really be done… and it can be done now.
