How to get a job when you want to make a difference
Tales from the Tools for the Regenerative Renaissance Course
As the events of 2020 unfolded I sat in the garden, watching the inevitable evolution of nature. The crows were seeing off the newly arrived seagulls that were looking for food 100 miles inland now that the seaside tourists had all but gone. A solitary spider was spinning a web where a shrub had been cleared, adapting to the newly changed hedgerow.
As I observed these creatures and contemplated my own job search in the midst of a rapidly changing world, I began to think that it might make more sense to follow nature’s lead and create a meaningful role for myself rather than try to find one ready and waiting.
With that thought in mind, I rolled up my sleeves and started to explore business ideas that were in tune with the times.
It’s time to make useful things I told myself, as I mused about urban regeneration and local food growing using hydroponics, an idea I called Modern Victory Gardens. I signed up for an agriculture accelerator programme to explore the idea further. Boosted on the production side by suddenly vacant inner city real estate and a plentiful interest in secure sources of food, it seemed to have some promise for combining an innovative business with community regeneration and food production. Unfortunately, the usual demand for high end microgreens that typically make these projects financially viable had all but disappeared with the pandemic and I was forced to park that venture.
Undeterred and still looking for solutions with commercial potential in the new world, I signed up for a course whose name sounded interesting… Tools for the Regenerative Renaissance.
Renaissance seemed to perfectly capture the potential for change that was in the air and a sense that what might previously have felt impossible could now be considered. It was as though our simultaneous slowing down had allowed us to reconnect with our families and perhaps remember with a deeper part of ourselves. Could this course offer a way to explore possibilities to combine in a new way? Would I gain insights that would spark new ideas? Might I connect with others who were taking a similar approach to life?
The Tools for the Regenerative Renaissance course was all that, and more. The course tutors, Phoebe Tickell and Stephen Reid seem to embody a regenerative renaissance approach to life as prolific creators, writers, teachers and leaders. They are pretty inspirational people.
The course, TFRR as it became to be known, is a sort of 50,000 feet way of learning. It is more of a sprint through a long list of the possible rather than a deep dive into any particular topic. We learned about new ways of organising and the role that technology can play in enabling collaboration across borders through new types of intentional communities. Regenerative agricultural practices were covered, and the importance of soil health to thriving ecosystems and human survival. That said, there are some pretty comprehensive course notes and references for those who want to conduct their own independent research.
Many of the ideas are not necessarily new, such as cooperatives. However, applied to today’s economy as platform cooperatives, they provide promise of community owned and organised assets. If well executed, this certainly seems like a model that can better serve a larger number of people than the “category killer” approach of some of the large technology platforms. Where technology enables new ways of serving society’s needs, putting these first can arrive at new models and better social outcomes. One such example of this are mesh wifi networks that are now present in many cities around the world, including London and New York. These networks have enabled access to the internet for segments of society that might otherwise be priced out, all by fostering a sense of collaboration among people living in these places. The main enabler of these networks has been knowledge and the desire to do better by all our citizens, and of course the technology that makes it possible.
Throughout the course, there was a sense that by searching for new ways of being, by learning and exploring together with an intention to better serve humanity and the planet, that we might actually get there. What stays with me to this day as a very profound piece of learning from this course is that we do not need to know how we are going to get there to go on the journey. If we want to avert catastrophic climate change, build resilient communities and more human-centric organisations we cannot achieve that using the same approaches that have previously been used. We have to allow ourselves to collectively imagine an alternative reality and equip ourselves as though that reality might actually be possible.
On the last week of the course, participants were invited to share their own regenerative projects and experiences with the cohort. Whilst the group Slack channel had provided some insights into this highly talented and diverse group of people, hearing some of them share their work was wonderfully inspiring.
What I have learned over this time that contributing meaningfully, for me at least, is a matter of attitude. It is about continuously striving to create something meaningful by expanding my understanding of solutions, proposing and commenting on ideas, making myself available for collaboration and also drilling right down into the spaces where I might be able to help, and those with which I can’t. The Tools for the Regenerative Renaissance may have equiped me with insight into some clever solutions however it has left a much deeper mark on me in terms of how I can live my life. Much like my little spider friend, I have learned to reach out, to weave a web of possibility and wait for serendipity.
