Creating an Ecosystem of Change

16 min readJul 12, 2021

“When you talk about how everything is interconnected and we talk about how all of our challenges, they’re connected, doesn’t it get overwhelming? Where do you start?” Andrew Schwartz, Yes! Magazine

Earlier this year I attended an excellent online conversation hosted by Yes! magazine, titled “An Ecological Civilization: The Path We’re On” with Winona LaDuke, Leah Penniman, Jeremy Lent, Zenobia Jeffries Warfield, and Andrew Schwartz. At one point Andrew asked the question above, providing a launch point for this article — the ideas for which had been brewing for a long time.

As change-makers facing escalating and interconnecting crises, how do we choose where to apply our energy?

An Ecological Civilization: The Path We're O

"An Ecological Civilization: The Path We're On" was a YES! Presents online conversation held on Feb. 25, 2021. It was…

www.yesmagazine.org

The panelists offered perspectives on this which I found helpful. Jeremy shared that existence is fractal, and whatever change-makers do, it ripples out across all other nested levels of scale. Change-makers can choose the level of scale they feel best able to work at - as it’s all needed. Winona suggested change-makers start with their own part, as everyone has something different to offer, not trying to do it all. Both speakers also highlighted the importance of relationships. To “be like that mycorrhizal fungal network of all the different changes happening underground”. Leah added that change-makers can use helpful frameworks such as the Transformative Social Justice butterfly — whose four wings describe four potential areas of work: Resist, Reform, Build and Heal — to choose where to apply their energy in a way that feels like a good fit.

As an individual, and as a member of various non-profit, sustainability, and change-making organisations, I’ve struggled with the question of how best I can show up in these times of deepening and escalating crises. Times which are also rich with possibility and potential.

Wrangling with these questions often leaves me feeling exhausted and confused, depleting my energy and creativity. This feels like a waste. I have also seen individuals and organisations arguing with each other over these questions. Competing and polarising over what is considered the most important or most urgent work that’s needed now. I do not believe this approach best supports change or changemakers to thrive and succeed.

And ultimately, I want us to succeed! I’ve seen, and taken part in, so many incredible ideas and solutions already manifesting in response to the interconnected problems humanity faces. I would love those of us involved in regenerative change to weave these principles, practices, and approaches into a rich ecosystem of change-making, where a wide diversity of contributions are welcome, valued, and in mutually beneficial relationships with each other.

PART 1: THREE MAIN FIELDS

DESIGN WITH AND AS NATURE IS IMPORTANT

“Cultural biomimicry is roughly defined as the idea that to figure out what we’re supposed to be doing as humans, we should be paying attention to our elder brothers and sisters, to the Earth”. Leah Penniman

My first love is nature. My background is in ecology and nature education, and my work has mostly been in the field of environmental non-profits. I have a passion for, and a bias toward, solving problems using ecological principles based on natural systems. In nature, a healthy ecosystem involves a diversity of species, each fulfilling its part; inhabiting niches and carrying out processes which inter-relate. This leads to emergent properties of health and functioning, which cannot be created by any single part of the system alone.

This is how I would invite change-makers to frame themselves and each other.

Firstly, I would love to see change-makers re-learn how to design with and as nature — inspired and guided by the patterns and principles which support Life to thrive.

Secondly, I would like change-makers to recognise that when they work as diverse members of a networked ecosystem of change (modelled on natural systems), they create emergent properties that are powerful and could never be predicted by looking at the individual members or change initiatives.

Thirdly, I would like change-makers to strengthen and value their relationships and connections with each other, across their fields and specialties, across their diverse and sometimes challenging perspectives and lived experiences, and to stand strength to strength, learning from, uplifting and amplifying each other’s work.

(Daniel Wahl, and Fritjof Capra & Per Luigi Luisi, provide in-depth analyses of the principles of ‘designing as nature’, and ‘emergent properties of complex living systems’ in their books Designing Regenerative Cultures (Wahl, 2016) and The Systems View of Life (Capra & Luisi, 2014)).

2. DECONSTRUCT AND DECOLONIZE — A LIFE’S WORK

Designing human systems using nature’s principles and patterns is critically important for life on earth to be restored to health and to thrive, …however it is not enough. There must also be recognition of the harm being done by current human systems, and action taken to dismantle and heal from this.

I am relatively new to Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion work. As a white woman living in the U.K. I receive many benefits from the dominant culture. I have biases in my understanding and gaps in my awareness. I’m on a learning journey, which will likely continue for the rest of my life. I now recognise that as a (white, privileged) change-maker, I cannot pay attention solely to one aspect of the challenges humanity faces. Working to protect and repair the natural environment — habitats, soil, water, biodiversity — will not succeed from within a silo, and will likely create unethical, uninformed and harmful consequences in relation to oppression, injustice, power, and participation.

The temptation I have experienced in myself (and observed in other environmentally-oriented folks or organisations) is to say that if people restore the natural environment, and design with and as nature, we can create a healthy and regenerative world for all. But designing with nature, or living as part of nature, though a huge and very worthwhile challenge, is not enough. The systems of domination, oppression, and extraction — of both people and the rest of nature, — continue to create massive harm. In addition to being informed and guided by ecological principles toward a regenerative human presence in the world, we also need to deconstruct and decolonize the degenerative, and currently dominant, cultures and systems.

Many others have spoken of the interconnection of social justice and environmental issues much better than I could, so I will not attempt to do so in more detail here.

3. PARTICIPATE

A third aspect I see as being important within an ecosystem of regenerative change, is shifting approaches to power and participation. Many people, including me, have grown up in a westernised culture which trains us to be passive consumers, or to compete for power and success, or if trying to make positive change, to approach it from the archetype of the hero or saviour.

There is an emerging body of work — all of which I see as related — which explores how change-makers can work with power, leadership, governance, decision-making, personal development and participation in change, in a more distributed and accessible way.

Part of this is becoming active co-participants, who take an appropriate level of responsibility — recognising it as a marathon not a sprint — while also recognising personal limitations, areas where different individuals can best contribute, and times for rest and replenishment. Another part is being willing to experiment with new principles and practices such as shared governance, consent based decision making, participatory democracy and more.

PART 2: A FRAMEWORK

Here’s a simple framework I’ve been using to orient myself to the question “where and how can I best offer my energy to change-making”? In it, I propose there are at least three main fields of work needed to support regenerative change, including (1) designing with and as nature (building regenerative systems), (2) acknowledging and repairing harm done by current and past systems (decolonisation and dismantling of systemic oppression) and (3) facilitating shifts in power and participation (from domination and hierarchy, to relationship based partnership and networks of cooperation) — supporting many more people to connect and become active in regenerative change.

**Table 1: Fields of Regenerative Change Framework**

FRAMEWORK COMPONENTS

Outer Circle: The wider context of Regenerative Change work to pay attention to.

Simultaneously Deconstruct & Decolonize damaging current systems which dominate and oppress people and the rest of nature, and Design, Support & Scale regenerative systems, which value partnership and reciprocity between people and people, and people and the rest of nature.

This looks like supporting shifts out of and away from expressions of colonised cultures and worldviews. While consciously designing, implementing and scaling regenerative attitudes, cultures, narratives, systems and practices.

Inner Circles: Parallel & interwoven bodies of work to focus on and/or uplift and support.

Ecological principles: Use nature’s patterns and principles (i.e. the blueprint for life to thrive), to create regenerative rather than degenerative human systems and cultures.
Social justice, healing and reparations: acknowledge, make reparation for and work to heal the damage done by current and past systems of oppression, marginalisation and colonialism.
Repairing power and becoming good participants: Move from domination — power over or saviour/hero approaches, to relationship based partnership — power with/distributed power — shared/community/cooperative approaches to leadership and participation.

ROOTED IN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE & REFLECTIONS

Once I see myself as part of a wider ecosystem, part of a whole, with a variety of different functions happening in an interwoven and mutualistic way, it becomes easier for me to answer the question ‘Where am I located?’ and ‘What is mine to do’? The answer to this question is a deeply personal one.

For me the answer has sometimes been ‘where I see most need/urgency’ — however when I use this as a compass to navigate by, I have repeatedly found myself doing work that I do not thrive within, which is draining and where I end up burning out (a sprint, rather than a marathon). I recognise this is sometimes needed — however, I also believe that as changemakers, it’s important to recognise that the issues we are engaging with are challenging enough — and that if we work in areas that do not provide a channel for our genuine love and creativity, then we are much more likely to burn out quickly. In my experience, when I identify the piece of the puzzle which excites and inspires me most and put my energy there, the work in itself becomes energising and replenishing, rather than depleting. Which means I can do it over a much more sustained period and with much deeper impact.

However, even when I choose to do what I love, I’m still sometimes left with feelings of guilt, shame or self doubt — ‘is it ok to do what I love and feel called to do?’ — ‘what about all the other important pieces of work that need doing?’

More recently this has started to shift. As I’ve moved around and worked within different parts of the change-making ecosystem, I’ve been delighted to find that in every niche there are people contributing there, who genuinely feel called to that work. And just like when I bring my best to my work, they are bringing their best to this other niche. This gives me confidence and the courage to locate myself where I feel aligned. However, and this feels important, it does not mean I ignore, demean or downplay the importance of other areas of work. Quite the opposite. In fact, with my self doubt and shame reduced, I feel much better able to learn about, celebrate, amplify and continue relating with these areas of work and the change makers energising them.

As I come to the final editing of this article, I’ve recently given myself permission and time to clarify and focus on my personal area of inspiration and motivation — that of transformative education based on living systems principles. Developing and sharing the framework in this article has dissolved many of my psychological and emotional blocks and released more creativity and energy in my work again.

A STRATEGY FOR NAVIGATING COMPLEXITY

The strategy that the framework offers is,

(1) to locate myself where I feel love, creativity and energy, and where I can bring my best, and then,

(2) to actively build and be in relationship with other parts — people, organisations and issues — within the wider ecosystem.

My intention is that from a place of being deeply rooted in, and resourced by my work, I can better offer support and solidarity to other areas of the wider network. I can also continue to be informed by and learn about these areas, and amplify or share stories about their work and aims.

This is similar to how the plants and the mycelium - the mycorrhizal fungal relationships and plant root systems in a forest - exchange information and resources for the health of the whole. They form webs of relationship and communication, each fulfilling their roles and functions, while sharing and exchanging what is needed for all to thrive. This wood wide web, is a wonderful example of a complex and interconnected system, the pattens of which can help us inform the design of human systems and communities.

LINEAGE

I am not the first person by any means to use the terms ‘ecology of change’ or ‘ecosystem of change’, or to explore the concepts mentioned in this article. The main reference I’m aware of which uses this term is This is an Uprising. The authors propose that,

“ In a healthy “ecology of change,” you have both shorter-term movement uprisings and longer-term organization building… that work a little bit differently from one another — and that by creating greater understanding, it might help break down some of the suspicion and hostility that sometimes emerges between people who come from different schools of thought about creating change. We hope that, instead of having different methods of change working against each other, they can be more creative in supporting one other and advancing common goals.” Mark Engler & Paul Engler

Other resources and authors who have profoundly shaped my thinking are Carol Sanford’s ‘Regenerative Business’ and ‘The Regenerative Life’, Frances Moore Lappé’s ‘EcoMind’, Merlin Sheldrake’s recent ‘Entangled Life’, and the works of Jon Young, Fritjof Capra, Joanna Macy, Lynn Margulis, adrienne maree brown, Daniel Wahl, and Robin Wall Kimmerer.

PART 3: A COLLECTIVE REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

When I first started mulling over this set of concepts and the visual framework, it was to help orient myself within a wider field of regenerative change and so cope with my own feelings of overwhelm and impotence. During that time I was part of a two year Community of Practice for sustainability practitioners, called the Boundless Roots Community (BRC), hosted by Forum for the Future and funded by KR Foundation. I am also a staff member at Transition Network — the UK based charity which supports the international Transition (towns) movement (www.transitionnetwork.org). You can read a report summarising the BRC journey and approaches over the last two years here.

Participation in this community, and my roles exploring Practices of Change and Regenerative Culture Learning for Transition Network, were a wonderful opportunity to help shape and test my ideas. This was with some trepidation as my way of communicating these topics felt, and still feel, new and half formed. However, the feedback I received from other change makers included comments such as ….

“(Its) interesting to hear you say (the concepts and frameworks) are complex and you’re worried about just adding complexity’. For me, they’re helping me to navigate complexity. Your image has helped. As a climate activist, sustainability practitioner, entrepreneur etc. it’s helping me see the big stuff happening that I feel I need to embed in my work, but feels so big and hard to integrate. You have given me a concise image that I can work with. Those themes are in front of me as one picture. I see practices behind those words, I have a sense of some of what it needs and requires. Secondly — having this picture helps me answer the question — what do I do? It helps me work with my frustration that I can’t be everywhere at once, and my anxiety that I am not part of everything. It helps me understand my position — if I am there — who is over there? And also, which part of my work is regenerative and building, and which part is decolonising? And if I have gaps — then I can reach out to people more in those other areas and say ‘we can do more, if we do it in awareness of each other and together’”. Leila Hoballah, entrepreneur and activist.
“When Deb showed the various circles it helped me acknowledge that we don’t need to be everywhere — we can have relationships in those places, but actually it’s a vast ecology to have awareness of, and relationships across, and not try to do everything”. Louise Armstrong, Forum for the Future

The concepts of an ecosystem of change and the ecology of change (see definitions below) were also finding traction within my work at Transition Network. We started to use these terms more in our funding applications and as part of our dialogues with the wider movement regarding the impact, potential and relevance of Transition. What I observed is that others quickly picked up and started to use these terms, as the ideas embedded within them seemed to resonate for many people. These comments and the feedback from the systems I’m part of, gave me courage to share these ideas in this article. They indicated that other changemakers faced similar challenges to my own, and that my thinking could help.

IN SUMMARY

What I’m sharing here is a simple (I hope) set of concepts, and a visual framework, to start exploring the question and pain-point experienced by many changemakers of, in amongst complexity, urgency, competing demands and escalating crisis…where and how do I place my energy and focus?

The invitations made by this article and framework are,

(1) to reframe regenerative change as an ecosystem, with many roles and niches — working in a mutualistic and beneficial way towards thriving for the whole system and,

(2) to allow ourselves as changemakers to locate ourselves in the area of change which most sings to us, while amplifying and supporting other aspects of the wider change network.

TALK TO ME?

What I offer here is just one perspective and one contribution amongst many. I’m curious to know how these ideas land for you.

In what ways might the ideas within this article support you as a change maker? What is missing or would make this framework or these ideas feel more helpful? What would your version of this be?

If we took a networked, cooperative, ecosystem approach to change making? What might come next? What might be possible?

What could be added to or change about the visual framework? I know it’s oversimplified and could be more detailed, for example by adding the principles and practices nested within each of these areas of work. It could also be visualized differently as parallel and interweaving strands, or literally as a map of an ecosystem with different areas of work and functions described in more detail. This is something I would like to explore more in the future — preferably with a group of people embedded within these various spheres of change.

Please do leave your comments below or email me if you would like to offer feedback and/or get involved in progressing these ideas. deborahmbenham(at)gmail.com

Thank you for reading and for all that you are and do in service to a regenerative future.

APPRECIATIONS

Many thanks to Leila Hoballah at Boundless Roots and Louise Armstrong at Forum for the Future for the very practical support of time, financial resources and good conversation, for helping me have the courage to share these emerging ideas, and for their belief in building practitioner capacity. I’m grateful for coaching and support from Dr Anna Birney at the School of System Change. For sharing with me the concept of a reflective practitioner and for helping me develop and clarify my ideas. I’m grateful for the idea all three shared, that our own lives and changemaking activities can be approached as action learning, and that through mini experiments, personal reflection and feedback from the nested systems we are part of, that we can grow and develop our abilities, resilience and capacity as practitioners. This feels important to me, as the challenges we face feel huge, and to enable us to keep showing up and engaging with them, I believe we need to keep developing ourselves and our networks of support.

GLOSSARY/DEFINING TERMS

Regenerative change — change which leads to life being able to repair, regenerate and perpetuate itself, providing health and stability for the entire system (ecological and social). A further step than sustainability which aims for maintaining what is already present. Autopoiesis (Varela & Maturana) is a way that life and other self-organising systems can be defined. The word means “self making or self-production”. It refers to a system which can balance, reproduce and sustain itself. Which can transform energy and matter to repair and replace needed components. Systems which contain active permeable boundaries — in constant relationships of exchange and support with other parts of the system.

Ecology of Change — using ecological principles and patterns to design and/or describe change making approaches. Using a living systems approach to designing human systems and societies. A Living systems approach (Capra & Luigi) is focused less on structures and more on networks, processes and relationships. Life is determined by metabolic processes and the relationships between different parts of a living system — whether a cell, plant or animal body or an entire ecosystem. The same principles and patterns show up in human social systems and communities. By using the patterns and principles which show up repeatedly in natural systems e.g. networks, relationships, nestedness, cooperation, fractal levels of scale, feedback loops, adaptive cycles, circular/no waste processes — we can facilitate the emergence of human systems and communities which operate within planetary boundaries and provide conditions where all groups of people, and all species and habitats, can thrive in mutually beneficial relationships.

Ecosystem of Change — seeing change makers and change making organisations, across different fields of ecological and social change, as interrelated parts of a wider system, working towards shared/interrelated aims, and fulfilling different niches which are in relationship with each other. The whole system working synergistically to create ‘more than the sum of its parts’ — also known as emergence. Emergent properties cannot be predicted by looking only at the parts or their sum. Emergent properties create unexpected jumps in evolutionary potential and can be very powerful. By working together as an ecosystem we have more chances to create emergent properties which can lead to bigger shifts in society, than we could create alone.