Our Theory of Change for Systemic Transformation
Denizen’s vision is a society where humans flourish in harmony with all life on Earth; where our economy and technologies are in service to humanity, not the other way around. Our mission is to accelerate a global awakening and galvanize collective action to realize such a future.
For decades, the dominant theory for human progress has centered around economic growth and innovation. Politicians around the world have focused on GDP while Silicon Valley has aspired to solve today’s problems with tomorrow’s technologies. Yet, by leaving intact the growth imperative and the extractive incentives of capitalism, we are continuing down a path of political capture, deteriorating health, social division, and ecological demise.
Rather than outsourcing our future to our politicians and technologists — the Denizen community acknowledges that the system itself needs to change, and that doing so starts with changing ourselves.
It is a daunting endeavor. How can any one of us possibly make a difference when the current system is so deeply entrenched? Two adages suggest how we might realize shifts of this magnitude.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” -Buckminster Fuller
And
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
If you think about it, almost every one of us is a complicit participant in a system we know is deeply flawed. Through our everyday behaviors, we implicitly endorse institutions that compromise our collective well-being. Where we work, what we buy, where we bank, how we invest our money, where we send our kids to school, which media we consume — decisions like these have tremendous consequences.
With our actions and choices, we are choosing to either sustain the current paradigm or contribute to creating a new one. This is where Denizen’s theory of change lies: in each of us stepping into alignment with a different way of being, knowing, and doing. After all, companies will cease to exist if we refuse to buy from them, work for them, or invest in them. But behavior change alone is not enough. We must also shift our consciousness, lest we unwittingly replicate the very systems we seek to change. This requires doing deep internal work to suss out the unconscious narratives, biases, and habits that do not serve us and the rest of life on Earth.
Accordingly, one of our six values is integrity: “we practice alignment with our values across the many roles we play: e.g. leaders, investors, consumers, neighbors, and parents. Leading by example through embodiment, we effect a transition to the broader change we seek.”
As we commit to such a practice, it’s imperative that we point ourselves in the right direction. Many efforts are well-meaning but are too superficial, failing to address the deeper drivers of the issues we face. Even those that target the right problems tend to do so with woefully marginal solutions, leaving intact the fundamental flaws of the current system (such as the growth imperative).
Denizen’s discourse seeks to enable the right actions by addressing a first-order question: can we envision a society that is fundamentally just, caring, and regenerative? Concurrently, we are asking, “How do we get from here to there? What strategies can we enact; what high leverage interventions can we pursue, to change ourselves and our foundational systems?” In this way, our ongoing intellectual inquiry is a necessary complement to our call to collective action.
Our podcast is where we explore these questions. Its name, Becoming Denizen, reflects the complexity of what we are asking of ourselves. We’re still living in the very systems we seek to shift; so the optimal choices are not always available to us. The work we are stepping into is deep, messy, and often subtle. Complex systems are unpredictable, and new events lead to new opportunities.
What we can do is commit to a continuous practice of embodying the changes we seek to create in the world. We can structure our companies differently like Yvon Chouinard recently did with Patagonia. We can change who we work for, shift our consumption habits, uncover our hidden biases, and learn to communicate with more compassion. We can challenge the paradigm that “more is better.” We can inspire others to follow suit, leading by example. Ultimately, systemic changes of this magnitude requires a movement.
A denizen is an inhabitant of a place. Our name invites us to ask a foundational question: What does it mean to be a denizen in the care of yourself, your family, your friends, your community, and your planet? How might we step into a different way of being, and do our part to transform society along the way?
