Kitchen Table Conversations Manual

Kitchen Table Conversations
Manual
Andrew Gaines
Conversations to evolve a world that works
Contents
• Introduction
• A Framework for Understanding Whole System Change
• Conducting Kitchen Table Conversations
Introduction
This manual supports you in conducting a series of structured conversations that
enable people you know to grasp the need for large-scale transformative change and
how we can accomplish it. This manual makes the idea of whole system change
intellectually manageable in a way that supports real-world changes.
We take people through four conversations. The first two enable people to grasp the
core operating principles of a viable society. The third one enables people to develop
a big picture map of how our system as a whole operates. This highlights all the
essential elements that must change if we are to have the hope of a positive future.
The final conversation explores how we (those of us who care) can catalyse a national
/ global educational initiative to seed the possibility of large-scale transformation to
become ecologically sustainable into mainstream culture.
You can use this manual to take people you know through the four conversations. I
request that you do so. By exploring the four topics with a friend you will integrate
the material yourself, and you will both learn.
I invite you to join us in becoming active in the Transition Leader Network, a
community of practice of people championing whole system change. With others we
are engaged in something extraordinary: changing the direction of society so that we
become ecologically sustainable.
The first part of this manual explores the core operating principles of an ecologically
sustainable society. The second part gives coaching on how to conduct the
conversations. The final part is a series of follow-up e-mails to reinforce the ideas
developed in the conversation.
A Framework for Understanding Whole System
Change
We are in a time of great change. For those of us who care about the wellbeing of
coming generations our proper goal is to create a thriving, just sustainable society. In
every sphere we have the means to do this.
If we take a big picture approach to our environmental situation we see that overall
our society is operating in ways that make all of our major environmental problems
worse. Regretfully, even as individuals plant permaculture gardens and reduce energy
use, state governments support the expansion of coal exports and raw materials. In
turn, this supports the industrial activity that underpins our global debt-based
economic system.
This system operates on competitive self-serving domination/control values rather
than on goodwilled collaborative partnership/respect values. It is clear that the
continuation of the domination/control ethos will destroy the prospect of a humane
global civilisation; we are on the edge of environmental breakdown now.
Therefore in order to have the hope of a positive future − rather than ecological
unravelling leading to socially violent breakdown − we need to rapidly and
profoundly change our direction. It is probably not enough to just aim for 'survival'.
A far better aim is to aim to create a magnificent society that brings out the best in
people.
The needed changes are so magnificent, and so pervasive, affecting every aspect of
life, that we may speak of a whole system change.
Images of whole system change
Let's let our mind play with a few images in order to get a feel for whole system
change. Transformative change is very mysterious, yet it is also familiar.
We ourselves changed profoundly as we moved from infancy into childhood, and
from childhood through puberty into adulthood. So much about us changed, and yet
we are ‘the same’ people. Even mood shifts from depression to joy are a kind of
whole system change, though transient. Similarly the annual shift from the bleakness
of late autumn and winter into the efflorescence of spring is mirrored by the shift from
the horrors of modern warfare to the restoration of peace.
Obviously new technologies have introduced massive social transformations. The
application of coal and oil as fuels made possible the rise of our industrial civilisation,
and the Internet and mobile phones have made us a globally connected civilisation.
Our current society, in addition to its many virtues, is characterised by endemic levels
of depression, stress, and environmental degradation. These are not unconnected. The
society we find ourselves in is the current manifestation of a 6,000-year-old tradition
of authoritarian control that was established with the creation of the first city-states in
the Middle East. Counterbalancing this has been the (imperfect) rise of democracy,
the introduction of Christianity as a religion of love (although Christians have not
always lived up to its ideals), the dissolution of colonial empires, the counterpatriarchal push for equal rights for women, and in some quarters vastly improved
child rearing that tends to bring out the best in children.
In my view a chronic low-grade depression affects many social activists. It shows up
as criticism and protest without ever dreaming of taking the high ground and creating
a healthy society. Yet only by reorganising to actually create a healthy, viable society
can we deal with all the specific dysfunctional issues.
After 6,000 years of patriarchy, where men have been subjugated as well as women,
our metamorphosis to a healthy sustainable society will be the springtime of humanity
− a new flowering after a long, long period of sometimes brilliant darkness.
This flowering is what I think of as whole system
change.
Creating a viable society will involve thousands of
us (ultimately millions) forming a thoughtful big
picture understanding of what needs to change − and
then getting on with making the changes. So both
education and practical action are crucial.
Our practical projects become more meaningful
when we place them in the context of consciously
creating a new civilisation that is ecologically
sustainable, socially just and spiritually fulfilling.
Whole system change occurs
when crucial systems such as
our economic, political, food,
water, and energy systems are
designed and run in ways that
deliver ecological
sustainability for all life on
Earth, and social justice and
spiritual fulfilment for all
human beings.
David Pointon
This story illustrates the point:
A traveller asked three workmen what they were doing. The first said, "I am
chipping stones."
The second said, "I am making an archway."
The third said, "I am building a cathedral!"
We are cathedral builders. The task of our generation is to make the age-old aspiration
for a healthy society real by changing the operating character of our whole society.
This change starts with developing a working understanding of what is actually
involved in whole system change. Our Framework for Understanding Whole System
Change is a way of making whole system change intellectually manageable in a way
that supports both education for responsible citizenship and practical real world
changes.
A Framework for Catalysing Whole System Change
The prospect of working for whole system change can seem daunting. What is whole
system change at the scale of a whole society? There are so many aspects one would
have to read a stack of books in order to make sense of it all. Who has the time? And
how do we change the direction of a whole society?
The framework for understanding whole system change that we are developing here
makes whole system change mentally manageable in a way that supports real-world
transformation. We do this by articulating the core operating principles of a healthy
society, and providing examples of how the principles have already been embodied.
Grasping the core operating principles of a healthy society equips us to exert
transformative leadership within our sphere of influence.
The four conversations
The essence of the framework is four questions which, when thought through, provide
a robust systemic framework for understanding healthy whole system change. They
are:
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•
•
•
What are the core values of a healthy society − and how can we embody them
in society?
What is the essence of ecological sustainability − and what do current
ecological trends show?
How does our system as a whole operate to make environmental issues worse,
and what are the crucial leverage points for change?
How can we catalyse citizen led education to shift the aspiration and practical
operation of society so that we successfully transition to an ecologically
sustainable, just, thriving society?
A natural follow through from exploring these questions is to inquire what (if
anything) are you moved to do within your sphere of interest and influence to
contribute to the shift? Are there ways to make a bridge between what you are already
doing and whole system change?
I believe that when people think through these topics they will come to very similar
conclusions about why and how we need to change. Why? Because these are not
ideological questions, but questions about how environmental and social reality
works. ‘Reality’ does not care about our opinions or ideologies. We can observe what
happens with different value sets and with different environmental policies, and draw
useful conclusions.
Our four questions are thought-starters for a series of structured ‘Kitchen Table
Conversations’. During the first part of each conversation we explore people’s general
ideas about the topic. Then we introduce ways to pull those ideas together into a
systemic framework. However in this essay I present the frameworks directly. Please
see if they make sense to you.
Creating a systemic framework helps ensure that all relevant factors have been
considered − i.e., that there are no elephants in the room that are being ignored.
Having a systemic framework also reveals hopeful leverage points for change that we
may not have thought about.
Having a systemic understanding enables us to identify the points of change that must
be affected if things are to come right. Instead of immediately jumping to projects, we
ask: what is really needed for things to come right? Our activities will be influenced
by the insights that come from this question.
Frameworks different than the ones I provide here can also serve to answer the
questions. For example, I use The Natural Step as a basis for understanding the
essence of ecological sustainability, but the concept of Ecological Footprint can also
do the job. Both of them embody the same underlying principles.
Our first topic is: what are the core values of a healthy society?
1 What are the core values of a healthy society?
There are many ways to describe positive core values. In this section we are looking
for a systemic framework that makes them intellectually manageable. Because it is so
useful, I have adopted the framework put forward by futurist Riane Eisler. Eisler
notes the distinction between what she calls partnership/respect relating and
domination/control relating.
I find this distinction appealing, because it operates at every level from human
relationships through business and education to global governance. We can look in
any human institution and enquire to what extent it is operating either in a partnership
mode or in a dominator mode.
Eisler’s Partnership-Dominator contrast is also appealing because it describes not only
values, but also ways of organising our behaviour. We believe that a healthy society
will operate on partnership/respect values. This means that we can work out how to
transform schools and the internal operations of businesses to in fact embody those
values. For example we can imagine an organisation shifting from an authoritarian
style to a collaborative empowering style of management.
This operational aspect is important because there is reason to believe that our current
dominator style − as expressed in aggressively pursing fracking, GM crops, and the
American invasion of Iraq − is a major driver of ecological deterioration. Likewise
corporate lobbying and disinformation are a major impediment to transitioning to
environmentally sustainable practices. The dominator pattern is also a major
contributor to the inner unhappiness that produces retail therapy and other forms of
excess consumption.
In The Power of Partnership Riane Eisler observes:
In the domination model, somebody has to be on top and somebody has to be
on the bottom. Those on top control those below them. People learn, starting
in early childhood, to obey orders without question. They learn to carry a
harsh voice in their heads telling them they are no good, they don't deserve
love, they need to be punished. Families and societies are based on control
that is explicitly or implicitly backed up by guilt, fear, and force. The world is
divided into in-groups and out-groups, with those who are different seen as
enemies to be conquered or destroyed.
In contrast, the partnership model supports mutually respectful and caring
relations. Because there's no need to maintain rigid rankings of control, there
is also no built-in need for abuse or violence. Partnership relations free our
innate capacity to feel joy, to play. They enable us to grow mentally,
emotionally, and spiritually. This is true for individuals, families, and whole
societies. Conflict is an opportunity to learn and to be creative, and power is
exercised in ways that empower rather than disempower others.
Partnership relating is oriented towards the wellbeing of the community (as well as
being mindful of one’s own self interest). Partnership values find expression in
democracy, in the caring aspects of organised religion, and in the growing concern to
protect ecological systems. The archetypal form is a mother working for the
wellbeing of each member of her family.
Dominator relating uses force and intimidation to establish one’s own advantage over
others at the expense of the community. It is orientated more towards conquering than
towards collaborating. The archetypal forms of this are patriarchal: fathers
dominating their families and emperors dominating vast territories.
Partnership and dominator are two contrasting approaches to life that operate on
every level of human endeavour from childrearing to global governance. Many
aspects of dominator behaviour are truly horrific, both historically and in terms of
current events. Therefore it is important to know that in important respects some parts
of humanity are becoming healthier and more balanced, and that there is a strong
positive trend that may ultimately set the tone for a positive future.
Different scales of the Partnership-Dominator contrast
A healthy society will operate on goodwilled partnership/respect values at every level.
It can be useful to see how both partnership and dominator play out at different levels.
We have well proven practical examples of how to apply a partnership style at the
concrete levels of birth, parenting practices, education, and business operations. We
also have well thought out conceptual approaches at the more abstract levels of
economics and global governance. In other words, we know in principle, and to a
great degree in practice, how to make partnership/respect relating work.
Two paths to the future
This diagram shows real-world consequences of partnership and dominator relating,
Making partnership/respect values operational
If it is true that a viable society will operate on positive values, how can we evoke the
transformation? There are many ways. Here are some examples.
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•
•
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Peter Rennie of Leadership Australia helps organisations embed collaborative
empowerment leadership into their operating structure.
Unconditional respect is a precondition for students being able to learn. John
Corrigan's Group 8 makes the concept of unconditional respect both
theoretically and experientially real to the senior leadership of schools; this
flows through to teachers’ classroom behaviour.
Ricardo Semler’s Maverick describes how he changed his Brazilian pump
manufacturing company from an authoritarian style to a supported huge
individual initiative from workers. There are other examples of highly
successful companies that operate on goodwilled partnership/respect values.
At an individual level, there are various methods of training that enable us to
become more skilful at partnership/respect relating. They include well-known
disciplines such as Conflict Resolution, Non-Violent Communication and
Crucial Conversations. Some that you might not ordinarily think of include the
Feldenkrais of method body awareness, Aikido and improvisational acting.
Our second topic is What is the essence of ecological sustainability - and what do
current ecological trends show?
2 The essence of environmental sustainability
The essence of environmental sustainability is that overall we do not destroy nature faster
than it can regenerate, and that we do not introduce toxins into the environment that living
cells cannot handle.
Suppose you have a forest.
And you log part of it.
But an equivalent amount grows back somewhere else.
As long as the amount that grows back equals the amount that was logged, in principle the
forest is sustainable. You destroy part of the forest, but it can regenerate.
However, if you destroy the forest faster than it can regenerate, the forest gets thinner and
thinner (or smaller and smaller) and eventually turns into grassland and then desert.
This is unsustainable.
So what we are looking at is cumulative environmental damage − damage that accrues over
time. In the long run cumulative environmental damage is unsustainable.
This way of looking at the essence of environmental sustainability comes from The Natural
Step, developed by Swedish scientist Karl-Henrik Robèrt. He puts it more formally,
however.
The Natural Step System Conditions for environmental sustainability
The Four System Conditions that must be met to create a sustainable planet are:
•
•
•
•
Substances extracted from the Earth must not increase in nature
Neither must substances produced by society
The physical basis for nature’s productivity and diversity mustn’t be diminished
And everyone’s basic human needs must be met using the most resource-efficient
methods.
These are real-world conditions, not theoretical ideals. If the first two system conditions are
not met, we will do ourselves in by poisoning ourselves with toxins. If the third system
condition is not met we will destroy the ecological basis of our food supply. These processes
are currently going on.
The fourth system condition is not simply an idealistic wish. Where basic human needs are
not met people behave in ways that are environmentally damaging on a large scale.
The Natural Step System Conditions provide a way of working out whether a business, a
country or our global civilisation is operating in a way that is ecologically sustainable or not.
For example, we may ask: are the fish in a given fishing ground repopulating as fast as we
take them out, or are the fish stocks declining over time (eg, currently tuna stocks are down
90% from former numbers).
Thus, instead of arguing over absolute numbers (eg, at what point will the fishery collapse?),
for policy purposes we can simply note the trend line. Is a given environmental indicator
getting worse? It's time to change course. Is an important environmental indicator getting
worse faster? It's time to go into emergency mode.
The Integrated Sustainability Analysis research division at the University of Sydney works
out numerically the embedded energy and material flows in entire supply chains. So we have
the techniques and resources to measure whether the production of a given product is
ecologically sustainable or not.
A number of businesses now do annual sustainability audits to assess how they are doing
against these criteria. Perhaps the most famous is Ray Anderson's Interface Carpets; he tells
the story in Mid-Course Correction.
Two major breakthroughs occurred after Anderson had Karl-Henrik Robèrt train his staff in
The Natural Step principles. Interface realised that they could shift from selling carpets
selling the carpet services. In practice this means they only replace worn out carpet tiles,
rather than whole carpets. And they keep the used carpet tiles instead of throwing them into
landfill. This is profitable, because Interface engineers invented a way to reconstitute the used
carpet back into oil for manufacturing the carpet tiles − a huge economic as well as
environmental gain.
How are we doing?
Will Steffen of ANU produce the following diagrams that show how population, economic
increase and environmental damage in various sectors are all rapidly increasing
simultaneously. If one does not especially like graphs, it is sufficient to note that all of these
graphs have more or less the same shape − gradual growth turn into steep acceleration: the
classic ‘hockey stick’ curve.
These diagrams tell a story. They are indicators of a dysfunctional global civilisation
that must change radically if it is to survive its own success. If we don’t, the
implications are clear: even in the developed countries there will be starvation, disease
and violence when there is insufficient food and water as the environment unravels.
Some countries are already near or in this zone.
Peak Oil
Peak Oil is that point in global oil production when oil prices inevitably increase
because the availability of oil that is cheap to extract begins to decline. Some analysts
assert that we have already reached peak oil. Our currently rising petrol prices are
consistent with this view.
From the perspective of climate change, Peak Oil is good news. It will reduce the
amount of oil we burn. However, from the perspective of an economy unprepared for
Peak Oil we are in for a rough ride.
As Joseph Tainter shows in The Collapse of Complex Societies, the historical record
shows that when societies reach the limit of resources they depend upon, and those
resources decline, leadership typically pushes harder to extract the remaining
resources. Thus they accelerate their society’s decline by trying to amplify business
as usual.
Globally our current version of this is to extract oil from sources where extraction is
difficult, such as coal tar sands and deep offshore drilling, and to rapidly push the
expansion of coal seam gas extraction (fracking). Fracking destroys both prime
farmland and aquifers, and can only provide a short-term energy respite in any case.
Thus we are caught in what might be called Tainter's Dilemma. We feel that we need
both the energy and the income to keep our economy going. But the harder we push
the sooner our demise will come. The way out is to accept the reality and aim for a
planned descent − descent by design, not by disaster.
Our wake-up call
In 2008 a Russian research ship discovered methane plumes bubbling up from the
bottom of the Arctic Ocean. The permafrost vault that covers vast tracts of frozen
methane (gas hydrates) is developing cracks. It thought that this deep permafrost
could not thaw for a long time, but now Siberian rivers discharging into the Arctic sea
are warmer. The prestigious United States National Science Foundation issued a
warning paper about it.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116532&org=NSF&from=news
Since methane is a potent greenhouse gas, arguably this is beginning of uncontrollable
global warming. It is so small that it may be reversible.
The implication for public policy is that it is no longer realistic to plan to allow
atmospheric CO2 to rise. All the scenarios suggesting stabilising CO2 at 450-550ppm
are out of date. Merely stabilising at current concentrations of CO2 will be
insufficient. A responsible policy response requires going all out to not only reduce
fossil fuel emissions; but also paying farmers directly to sequester carbon into the soil
− and publicising the need for this to our population at large.
George Bush senior famously said at the first Rio Earth Summit on
Environmental Sustainability. “The American way of life is not negotiable.”
“Yes dear,“ affirms Mother Nature, knowing what is coming, "it is not
negotiable.”
We have just considered the two core principles of a viable society. Obviously a
viable society will be ecologically sustainable. It will also operate on life positive
values that support individual and community wellbeing, rather than on aggressively
competitive values that destroy the environment, communities, and individual
wellbeing.
Our next step is to develop a big picture map of how our society works as a whole, so
that we become clear about what needs to change. It is not enough to see parts of
what needs to change; we need to bring the whole picture into view, so that nothing
important is neglected.
3 Mapping the Big Picture
Skilled practitioners in every discipline take account of the whole situation before
they intervene. They don't just jump to solutions; they take the time to work out
precisely what is needed. That way they do not miss important factors, and they can
identify the most effective places to intervene.
This approach is especially important in terms of catalysing large-scale healthy social
change. Here I will show a way of mapping the big picture that gives a systemic
overview.
Our approach is almost inside out from what you might expect. We ask: how does our
society as a whole operate in ways that make global warming and other
environmental and social issues worse?
Our procedure is to develop step-by-step a diagram that maps the major elements of
our current industrial civilisation. We start with the Ecological Equation, a diagram
that shows the connection between consumerism and environmental degradation. The
Ecological Equation is reminiscent of Annie Leonard's The Story Of Stuff. We will
end up with a one-page big picture map that includes the major elements must change
in order to achieve ecological sustainability.
The Ecological Equation
The process of obtaining raw materials through mining, industrial agriculture and
cutting down forests produces environmental degradation. The raw materials are
processed in factories, which produce their own environmental damage through
chemical toxins, acid rain and the greenhouse gasses that accelerate climate change.
All of these are involved in the production of the ordinary things that we use.
Here is the point: The more things we produce and consume, the more environmental
damage is produced − vastly more than most of us imagine.
In the following diagram, as the red arrow on the right representing increasing
consumption goes up, the red arrow on the left representing environmental
deterioration goes up even more. So you can see how this diagram works as a visual
equation.
Cumulative environmental impact use environmental deterioration that adds up over
time. It gets progressively worse and worse.
It is clear that in order to become environmentally sustainable we must reduce the
cumulative environmental impact of the process of making and consuming things. By
how much? we may ask. To what numerical value should the arrow on the left
representing cumulative environmental damage fall in order to be sustainable?
If we cut trees from a forest, but trees in other parts of the forest grow back at an
equal rate, then in principle the forest is sustainable. However, if we cut down trees
faster than they regrow, gradually the forest will get smaller and smaller until it is
gone. This is an example of cumulative damage. It adds up over time. If we intend to
be ecologically sustainable, our goal must be to reduce our cumulative rate of
environmental degradation in key area such as topsoil, forests, fish stocks, water and
biological diversity, to zero.
Zero! This rigorous demand comes from the nature of reality itself. It has nothing to
do with political opinions. If the overall trend is of increasing deterioration, we end up
producing a desert.
Integrated industrial design as a hopeful line of solution
The technical hope is to reduce environmental degradation through improved design.
A great deal can be done in this direction. Lovins and Hawken’s Natural Capitalism
shows that in every area from agriculture to architecture to manufacturing we can
reduce energy use and material throughput ninety percent or more. This is exciting
stuff, and more of us should know about it. It is crucial to our future sustainability.
But we may wonder if improved design will be sufficient by itself. Sometimes
improved design means that things are produced more cheaply, making it easier for
more people to people to buy more of them, so there is still a large ecological
footprint. And as affluence increases, many people tend to buy more things.
Reducing overall consumption
Therefore I suggest that we must set as our goal reducing overall consumption.
This requires a whole system change, based on profound changes in attitudes, and not
just changes in specific behaviours such as recycling.
Note that this is not about reducing basic necessities. Nor is it about living bleak
poverty-stricken lifestyles. It is about reducing excess consumption − consumption
that is wasteful through poor design, and consumption of excess stuff that we do not
necessarily need or enjoy. It is about elegant design that is satisfying.
Simultaneously, it is about increasing social connectedness and personal wellbeing.
We can live better with less − exquisite sufficiency!
Factors that tend to increase consumption
To understand the nature of the needed whole system change let’s consider factors
that tend to increase consumption.
Obviously advertising plays a major role in increasing consumption − especially
excess consumption of things we don't necessarily need or enjoy.
But advertising per se does not compel us to buy things. There are psychological
drivers that affect our desire to purchase things.
At a surface level, many of us are attracted by the ready availability of relatively
inexpensive interesting looking things. We are attracted − and we may not be aware
of the associated ecological damage. So we may include both attraction and
ignorance of environmental effects as factors in excess consumption.
At a deeper level, many people lack a feeling of inner wellbeing. Many of us have
unresolved trauma from child abuse of various sorts, or we may have a sense of an
empty hole inside of us associated with parental neglect.
If these feeling of trauma or emptiness were to be directly experienced they would be
extremely painful. Properly done, contacting and resolving such feelings is healing,
and opens us to authentic pleasure and more fulfilling relationships. However, many
people avoid or compensate for the feelings by stuffing themselves with things. Some
stuff themselves with chocolates or indulge in ‘retail therapy’; others buy Lear jets.
Desire for status also drives excess consumption. There is healthy status and
pathological status. Healthy status is earned; it arises spontaneously through one’s
contribution to the community. Pathological status is based on attempting to feel
good about oneself by appearing to be superior, or at least not inferior. This is often
expressed conspicuous consumption and keeping up with the Jones.
In addition, many people have a sense of entitlement. ‘You deserve it’ the
advertisements proclaim.
All of these psychological factors contribute to excess consumption, and hence
increased environmental degradation. Let’s put them on our map.
Many people, based on their experience, hold that the ultimate nature of the universe
is consciousness, and that the quality of this consciousness is love. Words that are
sometimes used to indicate this aspect of reality include presence, divinity, God, and
Being. It has been suggested that many of us, because of trauma and cultural denial,
have organised our minds in ways that prevent us from experiencing the bliss and love
associated with deeper levels of Being. The view is that being disconnected from
these levels of awareness is in itself painful, and we compensate with the surface
pleasures of materialism.
Accepting this view for the moment, we will add disconnection from our deeper
BEING or authentic self to our map of factors that tend to increase excess
consumption.
As you know, our economic system is oriented around continual economic increase
for the sake of increasing shareholder value. A great deal of financial capital is in
superannuation funds, which means that ordinary people have an investment in
keeping the current growth system going. However, the majority of shares are owned
by a relatively small number of extremely wealthy people.
So we may say that our economic system is set up to help the wealthy get wealthier.
They are assisted in this through government policies that they themselves have
influenced – policies that emphasize increasing the Gross National Product. Money
enters the system as debt with interest, and paying off the interest requires everincreasing economic growth. Trade is the engine of growth, and organisations such as
the World Trade Organisation are specifically designed to increase international trade.
So let’s add three more aspects to our map: devotion to economic increase, devotion
to shareholder value, and institutions that support global trade in ways that increase
shareholder value.
The attitudes that underlie the drive to increase shareholder value, even when there is
obvious damage to communities and the environment, are far from benign.
Sometimes there is a link between the willingness to hurt others and one’s own
experience of being hurt in childhood. It is well known that people who have been
physically abused in childhood tend to repeat or ‘act out’ that abuse when they
become adults. This acting out finds expression at many levels, including abusing
one's own children or spouse, workplace bullying, and adopting policies that hurt
groups of people or entire countries. The behaviour of people directing the large
transnationals is at times malicious, even to the extent of being closely aligned with
initiating wars such as the invasion of Iraq.
We may also wonder why some people who have more money than they could ever
dream of spending work so aggressively to accumulate more.
So let’s add irrational aggression to our diagram of factors that tend to increase
environmental degradation.
Becoming happier in ourselves
We have talked about inner emptiness and lack of felt wellbeing, as well as about
responses to childhood abuse finding expression as large-scale corporate aggression.
These psychological aspects, although they are rarely discussed, are actually key
drivers of environmental deterioration in developed countries. It boils down to this: in
the developed world environmental deterioration is driven by unhappy people.
It follows that a key point of change for creating a positive future is that people should
become happier in themselves so that we are not driven to excess consumption.
Ideally we should develop such an internal feeling of wellbeing that excess
consumption becomes simply uninteresting.
Improved parenting, strong social networks, personal development, and organising
business, education and government to operate on partnership values can all
contribute to genuine happiness and wellbeing. Other points of change include
improved industrial design, modifying the WTO or withdrawing from it, and reducing
the amount of advertising.
Population
In the developed world, and in the pockets of affluence in other parts of the world, the
more people there are the more the dynamics of and social driven environmental
degradation are exacerbated. Population increase amplifies all the adverse trends.
Even in Third World countries with really small ecological footprints, increasing
population puts stress on food and fresh water supplies. So population increase is yet
another driver of environmental degradation.
The map that we have developed − and the grim prognosis that goes with it − is a
picture of a dominator society. Putting this label on the map complete our big picture
orientation.
Whole system change & leverage points
Now we see why single-issue solutions are insufficient. It is this entire system that
must transform − starting with core values, and finding expression through the many
points of change that we can identify from the diagram.
We can influence some of the leverage points as individuals. For example, we can do
personal development to improve our own emotional wellbeing, and hence reduce the
anxiety that might lead us to buy stuff we don't need. Perhaps we can change a school
culture from authoritarian command and control to one that supports kids curiosity
and initiative, and indeed their genius.
If we are business leaders we can work out how to run the business in ways that
reduce stress on employees, and hence reduce their tendency to excess consumption.
We can also invest directly in industrial redesign that eliminates toxins.
Obviously large-scale national and global policies are not within our personal ability
to directly change. But it is not that these things cannot change. The precondition for
change is that a critical mass of people intelligently and passionately embrace the
need for large-scale transformation. Since this is unlikely to be championed by
mainstream media, we need ways to bypass the media.
A way to bypass the media is for those of us who have become knowledgeable and
who care to initiate conversations with friends and neighbours − the point of Kitchen
Table Conversations. On a small scale this too will be insufficient. So the Transition
Leader Network has been set up to support people in initiating these conversations.
And Be The Change, the organisation that provides administrative support for the
Transition Leader Network, is taking it to scale by organising a global sustainability
Surprise Party for May 2014. During that month tens of thousands of organisations
around the world will put on educational events championing the need for large-scale
transformative change.
One more point of change
There is one significant point of change that is not on our map − and this is the map
itself. Our big picture map, combined with the two core operating principles of a
viable society, provide a kind of DNA for large-scale social change. With this
common understanding we can work for change within our sphere of influence in
ways that are consistent with the need for large-scale transformation.
Thus ‘all’ of us need to understand systemically why we need to change and what the
crucial points of change are. Our common cause is to turn things around, and evolve
an ecologically sustainable society that operates on goodwilled partnership/respect
values.
If we succeed, future generations will thank us for it − profoundly.
So our fourth question is:
How can we shift the aspiration and practical operation of any nation so that
we actually become a sustainable healthy society?
The short answer is: by creating a national educational movement. Not education in
the familiar sense of reading and tests, but living education that engages people in
doing their own thinking and personal development in a way that will lead to
changing the world.
4 Catalysing a national movement
The knowledge and skills necessary to transform to a viable society already exist. In
every sphere people have written well thought out books describing the technical,
economic, social and psychological techniques that will lead to a viable society. We
also have potent techniques for cultivating systems thinking and creativity, resolving
emotional disturbance, and improving our ability collaboratively with others. In short,
we know in principle how to create a viable society.
Our challenge, of course, is that the aspiration for transformation is not widely
distributed in the population, and relatively few of us are engaged in the deep learning
and personal transformation that are needed to change the operating style of
mainstream society
So we need a new educational movement that will ultimately engage millions of
people. Aspects of such a movement already exist, although they are not yet
necessarily integrated into a vision of whole system change. I call people who are
actively engaged in education for whole system change Transition Leaders.
Educating ourselves to be whole system change champions can be conceived as
operating in three phases. In practice it will rarely be this linear.
1 The first phase is forming a working understanding of whole system change.
That is what this manual is about.
2 The second phase is immediately taking people we know through one or a
series of kitchen table conversations. This is how we will seed thinking about
whole system change into the culture. Conducting such conversations helps us
integrate the material ourselves. We also develop the skills needed for
conducting such conversations effectively. We learn by doing.
Some of us may immediately go to work − or continue our work − in transforming
organisations to operate on partnership/respect values.
3 The third phase is deepening our knowledge in six key areas.
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Economic reform
Building soil carbon
Industrial design
Organisational change to partnership/respect relating
Cultivating emotional resilience
And, darkly, seeing the many ways that the pattern of corporate injury so
vividly portrayed in the movie Avatar hurts individuals, communities and
the environment.
In parallel with deepening our thinking, we may invest in our own ongoing personal
development. I will talk more about this later.
Introducing the Transition Leader Network
The Transition Leader Network has been set up to seed a working understanding of
whole system change into the culture. It plays an educational role within the larger
whole system change movement that is emerging globally.
Transition Leaders are people who engage people they know and influential decisionmakers in direct conversations about the need and hopeful possibilities of large-scale
transformative change. By talking to people we know who are not already 'members
of the choir' we bypass the media and seed the idea of transformative change into
mainstream culture.
We have developed a Transition Leader Training. We envision running Transition
Leader Trainings for the members of established organisations, with a view that some
of their members will actively champion whole system change.
In order to engage thousands of organisations we are organising a global
Sustainability Surprise Party for May 2014.
Design thinking and a pipeline of engagement
In addition to this face-to-face work, of course there will be articles, presentations,
videos and the like about different aspects of whole system change. Already Be The
Change runs an inspiring Symposium that makes people eager for change
When people become enthusiastic about whole system change, they typically respond
at one of two different levels: championing aspiration and developing immediately
practical projects (along with protest).
Some people resonate strongly at the level of aspiration. This is what 350.org and
Earth Hour are about.
Other people want to jump immediately into campaigns and practical projects. Many
people in the Transition Towns and permaculture movements operate at this practical
level.
Both levels are valid and necessary, but in terms of whole system change they are
incomplete. Neither pure aspiration, nor purely local projects will be sufficient to
achieve the whole system change we need. An extra step is necessary, and that is
thinking through systemically all the things we need to do actually achieve an
ecologically sustainable society. There can be a significant gap between aspiration
and real-world changes that are essential
for success.
Practical projects are important. Whole
system change always shows up as on
the ground real-world changes.
Nevertheless, our current practical
projects do not add up to whole system
change. To make whole system change
work, we need to apply what some
people call design thinking. This means
creating a complete path to action from
aspiration to on the ground changes −
plus in our case adding outreach and an
educational component.
Without a collective aspiration for
healthy whole system change, and a
corresponding vast shift in resource allocation, our specific projects will continue to
fall far short of achieving ecological sustainability. Even as people reduce their
personal greenhouse emissions and plant permaculture gardens, we see state
governments vastly expanding coal exports. This is why we need a national
educational program to shift our direction.
Therefore the people involved in specific projects, if they are willing, would do well
to take the time to think systemically about whole system change, and how they can
contribute. While it makes sense for the bulk of our efforts to go into our current
projects, a portion of everybody's energy should also go into championing whole
system change itself. One suggestion is for 95% to go into our current projects, and
5% into championing whole system change.
The idea of developing a complete action path for catalysing whole system change
can be presented this way:
Starting with aspiration, there may be a gap.
We fill it in the gap by thinking through what is involved in whole system change.
That is what this article is about.
This leads to a number of possibilities for contributing to the needed transformation.
If we start with projects, we may move up to thinking about whole system change,
and go on to include outreach and education as a component of our brief.
This mode of thinking through the whole action path from aspiration to practical
results is common in architecture and engineering. You start with an initial
conception, work out how to make it work, and follow through with actually doing it.
This mode of thinking is less common with people trained in liberal arts, mathematics
and even science, where there is not necessarily a requirement to produce a real world
result that works.
A national movement based on a network centric approach
Two contrasting approaches to spreading ideas are top-down transmission and having
self-organising nodes within a network. This second approach is called a network
centric approach. This idea is increasing well known in the military. It applies to
guerrilla warfare, of course. And it also applies in civil society with a distributed
diverse NGO movement championing whole system change.
Central to the network centric approach is the idea that each node has an image of
what needs to be done − a shared vision, goal and general understanding of the
situation − and they each contribute to that goal operating within their specific
circumstance. Since they have a common operating picture of what needs to be done
they can improvise; they do not need to be directed by some kind of central group.
Like the rest of evolution, healthy cultural transformation follows no fixed blueprint.
But there is an internal DNA to it − the core principles of a viable society. We have
been exploring them. Now we need to seed them into the lager culture as quickly as
we can.
Kitchen Table Conversations
Many of us have emerged from our formal schooling poorly equipped to contribute to
the evolution of a healthy society. And formal education, though it may be changing
for the better, is still far from being an adequate vehicle for education supporting
whole system change.
Therefore let us envision a fresh wave of informal education, analogous to the selforganised consciousness-raising groups of the feminist movement, and the each-oneteach-one initiatives of the American civil rights movement. Throughout history such
learning groups have appeared outside of mainstream orthodoxy. Let's reinvent this
ancient model on a mass scale.
Our framework provides an integrated overview of whole system change. It is
sufficient for getting started in hosting Kitchen Table Conversations. We are in an
ecological emergency requiring unprecedented rapid change. So, although it is
natural to want complete mastery before we talk to people, is important that we
engage other people in the conversations right away. This is a barefoot doctor
approach; mastery will come later. So please invite friends to a conversation about
whole system change as soon as you can.
Personal development
In addition to external technical changes, whole system change is about self-chosen,
self-directed internal transformation. This internal transformation is a crucial aspect
of evolving a healthy society.
None of us is perfect, and few of us operate at anywhere near our full capacity.
Therefore we would do well to continue our own personal development. Investments
we make in our own personal development now may pay off later as greatly increased
joy of living. We also become more capable in our personal and business lives, and as
social change agents.
There are six areas that are especially relevant:
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Developing enhanced partnership relating skills
Systems thinking
Resolving emotional disturbances
Mental creativity and play
Somatic awareness
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Becoming leaders
Developing enhanced partnership relating skills
This section is about modes of expression of training that enable us to become the
kind of people who can create and enjoy a viable society.
From a neurological point of view, all skills are functional patterns of coordination in
the nervous system. This is important to note, because skills are not acquired by
reading, but by experiential practice.
We all have the capacity for both partnership and for dominator style of relating.
However, in many areas our culture emphasises dominator relating, either in the form
of exerting power over other people, or in the form of being subservient to other
people's power. So by and large many of us are not as skilled at partnership/respect
relating as we might be.
There are forms of training that can help us increase our capacity for
partnership/respect relating. Experiential training that involves movement forms
‘templates of coordination’ in the motor system of the brain. Sometimes these are
applied spontaneously in other situations. Thus there is carryover from the training to
spontaneous real-life applications outside the training room.
Top of the list I would put improvisational acting. Through improvisation we learn
how to be in the moment, accept and build on initiatives that come from our partner,
and activate our own creativity.
The Japanese martial art Aikido trains us to blend with an incoming attack rather than
trying to block it, while maintaining our own centre. Like improvisation acting, it is
about going with rather than blocking. We help the attacker go where they are already
going (while getting out of the way ourselves), but we guide them in such a way that
finally the attacker falls down.
Techniques such as Conflict Resolution, Non-Violent Communication, Crucial
Conversations and assertiveness training also help us develop partnership-relating
skills.
Systems thinking and improving human functioning
The Ecological Equation and our Big Picture Map are natural forms of systems
thinking. They are ways of connecting the dots to see how things work.
In The Fifth Discipline Peter Senge presents a form of systems thinking based on
identifying feedback loops that either amplify or dampen a trend. Understanding
feedback loops is important, because when restraining limits are removed from a
living dynamic system the system will inevitably amplify certain behaviours to the
point where the system self-destructs. This is occurring both environmentally and
economically at the present, but few people are equipped to see it.
Peter Senge’s work, and Donella Meadows’ Thinking in Systems, provide analytical
approaches to systems thinking. This is valuable. They enable us to see patterns of
connection that we might otherwise not have noticed.
At quite a different level, the Awareness Through Movement (ATM) lessons
developed by Moshe Feldenkrais provide a way of learning systems thinking through
the body. ATM lessons look a bit like yoga, but their inner logic is different. By
doing a short series of ATM lessons we discover how the whole body is connected.
Releasing something in the shoulder helps the hips move better. This sensory
discovery that things are interconnected creates a neurological template for seeing the
world as integrated rather than as fragmented.
The Feldenkrais approach goes beyond analysis. It is about improving function −
making things work better. A key Feldenkrais question is how does the system operate
to produces the difficulty we experience? At a body level this question might show up
as how does this person organise their whole body in such a way that they put painful
stress on their left knee, but not on the right? We might see that it has something to
do with an imbalance in the way they hold their shoulders, or what they do with their
hips. The Feldenkrais practitioner then helps the client discover how to mobilise their
shoulders and hips in a way that allows their overall body movement to become more
coordinated, thus removing the stress from the left knee.
This Feldenkrais question was the basis for our approach to the big picture map.
Starting with the Ecological Equation, which shows the connections between the
production of stuff and associated ecological damage, we asked how does our system
operate in ways that make environmental damage worse? This translates into: what
factors in our society tend to increase the amount of stuff we produce and consume?
By answering these questions we are exploring one of the Senge/Meadows amplifying
loops. Dampening influences, which we sorely need, are increased financial
regulation, more inner wellbeing (and hence less compulsive consumption), and a
culture-wide aspiration for materially modest lifestyles instead of pursuing everincreasing economic growth.
Resolving emotional disturbances
Most of us have unresolved emotional issues from childhood relating. They affect our
adult relationships both at home and in business. Even the world of NGOs committed
to the public good there are lots of dysfunctional relationships.
Emotional dysfunction is stressful and counter-productive. It reduces our
effectiveness as activists, and in the larger culture it is a driver of compensatory
excess consumption. Therefore both personally and culturally it serves us well to
invest in resolving any emotional baggage or reactivity we may still have.
In the West the classic way to resolve emotions is through counselling and
psychotherapy. Buddhism has introduced Insight Meditation, where by clearly
observing our emotional reactions we can resolve them. Will This approach is
advocated by Eckardt Tolle in The Power of Now.
There is a new discipline of energy psychology that speeds up the process of resolving
our emotional triggers. It works by rebalancing the flow of acupuncture energy (chi)
in the body. One of the more accessible energy psychology techniques is Emotional
Freedom Techniques (EFT). EFT is a do-it-yourself technique. You can download
the Quick Start Tapping Guide – EFT Manual from the web, try it on a minor issue,
and see if you experience a shift (www.thrivingnow.com/tapping).
Gary Craig has a brilliant, clear on-line EFT tutorial at www.emofree.com. I strongly
recommend it.
Emotional insight and resilience are too important to be left to professional
psychologists. I would like to see EFT and other techniques applied widely. They
work as emotional first aid, and some people have used them to resolve very deep
issues for themselves.
Creativity and play
Creativity, play, impassioned learning, enquiry and sheer pleasure are antithetical to
authoritarian rule. Better to keep people emotionally depressed than to allow enough
enthusiasm to arise that people might wake up and rebel against their oppression − or
even worse, in our age, take the high ground and create a healthy culture.
There are a number of creativity techniques take people out of silo thinking and
enable us to see more patterns of connection. These techniques are spontaneously
used by great innovators, and they are quite teachable. My own book, Creative
Conversations, is the best book I know of for this. It gives games and exercises to
teach the skills.
Three seminal books for cultivating creative thinking skills are Viola Spolin's
Improvisation for the Theater, Keith Johnston’s Impro, and George Prince's The
Practice of Creativity.
Cultivating somatic awareness
This may seem like an odd one to put on our list. But it is profound. Ultimately
wellbeing is a set of pleasurable body states − inner feelings that feel good, not
transiently, as with enjoying an ice cream cone, but as deeper ongoing body states that
include calm aliveness, joy in life and bliss.
When people experience such feelings they no longer ask what is the meaning of life?
Life is already meaningful to them. Likewise there is no need for antidepressants or
other compensatory mood altering substances − or indeed for excess consumption.
Hence the connection between somatic awareness and achieving environmental
sustainability.
There are a number of approaches to becoming grounded in ongoing pleasurable body
states. To some degree it may happen simply as a process of maturing well − or better
yet as a result of having been loved and well nurtured in childhood. A feeling of inner
wellbeing should be our natural state.
A simple approach is the inner smile. Just as we can send a smile outward, so we can
send a smile inward to our own body. This is a direct technique for accessing what
Eckardt Tolle calls our energy body.
Clearing emotional disturbances through EFT, as described above, is one approach to
taking ourselves out of negative states. Somatic psychotherapy can release muscular
holding that impedes energy flows in the body; so can acupuncture. The Feldenkrais
method of body awareness and Thomas Hannah’s Somatics, along with martial arts
such as Tai Chi and Aikido also cultivate body awareness.
I find that people who have done inner work of some kind are generally more
pleasurable to deal with than those who have limited access to their insides, as it were.
Some people are cut off from their feelings, and therefore tend to be purely practical
and even mechanical. I spent years in such a cut off condition myself; I'm so glad I
have done the work to become embodied.
There is a lovely Buddhist prayer:
May you be free of suffering
May you know the joy of your own true nature
May you be happy
May you be at peace
Becoming leaders
Our modern educational systems developed in authoritarian Prussia in the 1700s.
They were intentionally designed to make most people passive bystanders who would
do their jobs and be subservient to authority. Today, however, we need self-initiated
citizen leadership. Masses of us need to move from being passive bystanders to being
active participants in creating a sustainable society.
Many of us are concerned about climate change and our exploitive economic system,
but still fairly passive. We may contribute to NGOs, write protest letters, or show up
at rallies.
What is needed now is to rise to a new level, and contribute actively to the mindset
shifts that is necessary for achieving sustainability. Kitchen Table Conversations are
obviously a way to do this.
We can start by inviting one person we know to a series of kitchen table
conversations.
The prospect of inviting people to participate in the kitchen table conversation can
bring up considerations such as
I don't know enough.
People will think I'm weird.
I don't want to proselytise.
Giving in to these fears means accepting the status quo, even though we know the
consequences of continuing the status quo.
Probably the most direct way to get past our fear is to just do it. It is not hard − and
the second time will be much easier!
If you know how to apply EFT, you could use EFT to resolve your fears. The
inhibitions you have here about acting on something you care about probably affect
other areas of your life as well.
If you have taken someone else through a series of KTCs, it is appropriate to ask if
they would be willing to take somebody they know through the conversations. This is
how the understanding spreads. Perhaps you can use EFT or some other modality to
help them resolve their reservations about exerting this leadership.
Inviting people to a thoughtful conversation is not proselytising. We are not enrolling
people in a party line or ideology. We are inviting people to think deeply about the
major issues of our time and come to their own conclusions. True, we offer
frameworks, ideas, and an overall approach. But we are asking them to be responsible
thinkers, not conformists.
Jean Houston said
We are among the most important people who ever lived. We will determine
whether humankind will grow or die, evolve or perish.
So let's get on with it!
A guide to conducting kitchen table conversations is next.
Conducting Kitchen Table Conversations
Contents
Introduction
Conversation 1: The core values of a healthy society and how to embed them
into mainstream culture
• Conversation 2: The essence of environmental sustainability − and
implications of current trends
• Conversation 3: Developing a big picture map
• Conversation 4: How can we catalyse a national / global movement?
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Introduction
The purpose of Kitchen Table Conversations is to help participants build an integrated
mental model of what is involved in whole system change. The general procedure is
to draw out their ideas, and then introduce an integrative framework. In other words,
we are aiming to build up their understanding, starting with what they already know.
In the processes, at times we introduce ideas that may not have occurred to them.
And we ask questions to extend their thinking.
These are genuine exploratory conversations. Although they are structured and have a
didactic goal, they wander a bit, and the learning goes both ways. As the facilitator we
generally listen more than we talk.
The conversations take about one hour each. What follows are suggestions based on
my experience about how to conduct each conversation. I have also appended a series
of follow-up e-mails that can be sent to deepen participant’s appreciation of whole
system change.
Conversation 1: The core values of a healthy society and how to
embed them into mainstream culture
I start by simply asking: What are the core values of a healthy society?
There are many ways of expressing the core values of a healthy society. They include
love, compassion, respect, and right livelihood. Abraham Lincoln talked about
government “of the people, by the people, and for the people”. Psychologists talk
about self-actualisation. Educators talk about bringing out the best in children. You
will find more.
Usually people bring up their insights into core values as a kind of free association.
Their ideas are not systemically connected − and nor should they be at this point. Just
letting ideas come up is a typical first stage of creativity.
The Partnership-Dominator contrast
After we have drawn out the person's ideas, it is appropriate to suggest the distinction
between partnership/respect relating and domination/control relating as an integrative
framework for grasping core values.
Your introduction might go something like this:
We are looking for a way to synthesise these ideas into a form that makes them
intellectually manageable. One way that some people find useful is the
contrast between partnership/respect relating and domination/control relating.
(You might give a short explanation of the difference here.) In terms of what
we've just been discussing, does this contrast makes sense to you?
Everybody that I have had such conversations with tells me that this framework
makes sense to them. If introduced before the conversation the Partnership-Dominator
contrast might arouse resistance because it seems too simplistic, seems too black-andwhite, or it seems to be imposing an ideology. If it is introduced after we draw out
people's ideas it is immediately clear that it is a useful thought tool for managing
complexity,
Connecting the Partnership-Dominator contrast to our own experience
You can go on to help people integrate the Partnership-Dominator contrast into their
thinking by asking questions about their personal experience:
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Can you recall experiences where people were on your side, really trying to
help you do what you want to do?
•
And can you recall experiences when people were attempting to boss,
intimidate, control or manipulate you?
•
What is the difference in feeling between these two kinds of experience?
An important misconception that needs to be clarified is whether a partnership mode
of relating can include hierarchical relationships. It can.
Although I sometimes use the indicative phrase goodwilled collaboration, I do not
conceive of partnership relating as implying that everybody is equal: there are real
differences in authority and responsibility.
The difference lies in how authority is exercised. In terms of parenting, psychologist
Robin Grille distinguishes between authoritative and authoritarian parenting. In
authoritative parenting the parent helps the child develop while also setting ageappropriate rules. In authoritarian parenting the parent bosses the child, often
attempting to get the child to live up to the parent’s expectations.
This distinction applies in hierarchical organisations. Are staff treawe ted with
respect, and given as much autonomy as possible, or are they bullied, and at times
exploited?
Finding social examples of Partnership and Dominator relating
So partnership/respect relating is a style of relating. It applies not only to personal
relationships, but also to how organisations, international relationships and whole
societies operate. To take the conversation to these levels, you might ask:
•
Can you find examples of partnership and dominator relating in the worlds of
business… education… and global governance?
How can we embed partnership/respect relating into the larger culture?
There is one more question that is valuable to explore.
•
How can we embed partnership/respect ways of operating more into the larger
culture?
There are a number of modes of training that contribute to getting better at partnership
relating at personal levels. They include Conflict Resolution, Parent Effectiveness
Training, Non Violent Communication, Crucial Conversations, improvisation acting
and Aikido.
Members of the organisational development community offer workshops and
coaching for transforming organisations to operate on partnership/respect values.
Ricardo Semler's Maverick describes how he transformed his organisation from being
an authoritarian command and control organisation to one that supported high levels
of personal autonomy and responsibility.
Conversation 2: The essence of environmental sustainability −
and implications of current trends
It is said that there are 1,000 definitions of sustainability. But there is only one
physical reality. So it comes down to this: are we ecologically sustainable or not?
How would we know?
In this conversation we draw out people's ideas about ecological sustainability. I am
interested to know how they think about sustainability, and where they think we are in
terms of environmental trends.
The Natural Step
After a bit, though, the conversation becomes more didactic. I introduce Carl Henrik
Robèrt’s Four System Conditions For Sustainability, which are the basis of The
Natural Step.
A key idea is to look at trend lines rather than trying to establish numerical limits on
what is sustainable or not. Looking at trend lines makes our reasoning quite
straightforward: if a trend line such as increasing deforestation is getting worse, then
we know that the practice is not sustainable. In terms of making policy, we can avoid
contentious issues such as what percentage of the forest we can lose before it
collapses, because we know that it will collapse unless we change course.
The Ecological Equation
I also introduce the Ecological Equation. The Ecological Equation grounds people's
thinking in the reality that the more stuff we produce and consume, the more the
associated environmental damage. It is the essence of Annie Leonard's The Story of
Stuff, which I also ask if they have seen.
If I am doing this conversation on Skype, I coach the person to draw the Ecological
Equation on a sheet of paper. The Ecological Equation is the starting point for our
next conversation, where we create a big picture map of how our system currently
works, and how it needs to change.
Current trends
Our next question is
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What major environmental trends are you aware of? How are we doing?
There are a number of adverse environmental indicators, not just global warming.
They include:
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Deforestation
Topsoil loss
Toxins in the food chain
Genetically modified foods
Excess nitrogen
Peak phosphate
Peak freshwater
Ocean acidification
To me the biggest wake-up call for rapid whole system change is the fact that methane
is being released from Siberian lakes and Arctic seabeds. Arguably this is the
beginning of self-escalating global warming. If so, then if we don't cool the planet
rapidly it is simply all over for the enterprise of a humane civilisation.
One implication is that the goal of 'limiting planetary warming to 2°’ is out of date,
because the beginning of uncontrollable global warming started present temperatures.
Therefore it is not a matter of reducing fossil fuel emissions sometime in the future. In
my view, and that of others, it is a matter of going into an all-hands-on-deck
emergency mode to actively cool the planet.
How can we cool the planet?
We may ask:
•
What means are you aware of to actively cool the planet?
The most direct biological means include:
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Intentionally building soil fertility through methods such as Keyline farming,
pasture cropping, and Alan Savoy's rotational grazing.
Reforestation. Forests transpire water which turns into cloud cover that
reflects sunlight back into space.
Biochar − burying charcoal. This both sequesters carbon and builds soil
fertility.
If we are in an emergency situation with global warming, does it not follow that
governments should directly pay farmers to sequester carbon on a massive scale,
rather than leaving it to carbon credits and market forces?
Our feelings
To be frank, it pains me that ordinary people, the media, and our governments do not
get that we are in a global emergency. A tidal wave is about to hit, and folks carry on
with business as usual. Presumably some of the people we will be talking with do not
get it either. In a perverse way this is good: we should not be talking just with the
converted.
We cannot force ideas on others. And nor should we. But people sometimes change
when they think things through for themselves, see the implications, and get in touch
with their feelings. So we should also ask:
•
How do you feel about all this?
Conversation 3: Developing a big picture map
In this conversation we explore the question: how does our society currently operate
in ways that make things worse? Answering this question systemically enables us to
identify things that must be changed if we are to evolve a bright future, and ensures
that we do not miss anything major.
We start the conversation by referring back to the Ecological Equation.
We recall that the more STUFF is produced, the more the associated environmental
damage.
Using the Ecological Equation as the starting point we ask:
•
What factors in the way our society currently operates tend to increase the
amount of stuff we consume − and hence the amount of environmental
damage, including global warming?
People usually give one of two answers to start with. Some say ‘advertising’. We ask
them to put this on their map above STUFF.
Others say things like ‘emotional disturbance’ or ‘retail therapy.’ We ask them to put
these psychological factors underneath STUFF.
Then we ask questions that help them connect dots and make their map more
complete. All the different institutions that increase trade are part of the picture: the
World Trade Organisation, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and of
course large transnational corporations. Above these we have the wealthy
shareholders and financiers, fractional reserve banking, and finally the current
devotion to economic growth.
Not to be neglected of course, is population growth − especially in the affluent
countries − that increases the production and consumption of STUFF.
Psychological disturbance drives both 'retail therapy' and the drive for excess status.
People consume stuff they don't necessarily need or enjoy in order to avoid the
unresolved pain of past abuse or present loneliness, and also to cover up the pain of
being cut off from deeper levels of their being.
More superficially, people also buy stuff because it is cheap and attractive, and they
feel 'entitled' to have stuff. There are many factors.
This whole system operates as a dominator system. It is intentionally designed to
accumulate wealth at the top. It is well known that advertising creates false needs,
and people with vested interests actively prevent the changes we need to solve global
warming and other environmental issues.
We are constructing a one-page map that includes the major elements that must be
attended to in order to evolve a bright future. The final diagram might look
something like this
The prospect of changing this entire system can seem daunting. And yet, it is a
human construct − a dysfunctional set of mental agreements backed by force and
intimidation. We can do far better. By hosting these conversations we are creating the
pre-preconditions for healthy change.
Conversation 4: How can we catalyse a national / global
movement…
to shift the aspiration and practical operation of mainstream society so that
we actually become a sustainable healthy society?
As before, it is good to start by drawing out people’s ideas. Pay attention to where
they naturally resonate. Are they big picture thinkers, interested in messages, or
practical on the ground people?
In my experience many people want to either inspire aspiration or jump immediately
into campaigns and projects. This is what they are good at, and both are needed.
However, as theories of change, both aspiration and projects are limited in terms of
whole system change. I often say, “Whole system change is different than anything
we've ever done before. Familiar approaches that have served as well do not
necessarily apply here."
Aspiration needs a path to real-world changes, or it remains simply aspirational.
Campaigns and projects need a component that includes a vision of whole system
change itself, plus outreach.
So whatever approach people put forward, I suggest both honouring it and probing it
to test it is adequate to the task at hand: transitioning to a viable society.
If a person is passionate about messages, for example, we might ask: how far do the
messages penetrate into the culture at large? How will we reach the un-engaged? How
will we use messages to affect a critical mass of people?
This is not to dismiss messages as being irrelevant or not important. It is to raise
questions about the delivery mechanism. Similarly with projects or aspirations − what
is the path to engagement that leads to reaching a critical mass of people?
My own vision of a national movement is that we host kitchen table conversations,
workshops, and presentations for both grassroots and senior influential people, and
develop an expanding pool of people qualified to facilitate them.
This too is a slow theory of change − at first. Now that we have the basics in place for
a national movement (a community of practice and the thought starter tools on the
Transition Leader Network website − including this Manual) − I am hopeful that we
can develop an exponential expansion. I advocate stimulating quality thinking for the
simple reason that I believe that if people don't understand what is really needed they
will never do it.
This face-to-face engagement will be complemented by articles, videos, an on-line
course on whole system change, and webinars.
We will work through large networks, publishing articles in their newsletters and
running workshops for their members. Our intent is to support members of networks
in shifting from being passive bystanders to becoming active champions of whole
system change.
Understanding what needs to be done prepares us mentally and emotionally to support
constructive leadership. At the same time, pure understanding is also insufficient. This
is not an academic exercise. It needs to follow through with real-world changes in
business, education, public policy, childrearing and personal relationships.
So I have a mental model of an action path that includes aspiration and on the ground
projects. At its core is understanding whole system change along the lines we have
explored here. And in addition to campaigns and projects aimed at real world changes,
some energy goes into conscious outreach and education. The model looks like this:
Personal development is an important part of the change as well. Most of us, even
though we are good hearted, have unresolved emotional issues that interfere with our
ability to collaborate, and with our own inner wellbeing. Most of us could be more
loving. And most of us, after so many years in the educational system, have not fully
developed our capacity for creativity and systems thinking. Some of us are shy about
exerting leadership, even though in our hearts we know how important it is that we all
rise to a new level. So our own personal development is part of the journey.
The preceding three conversations, plus this one, create a context for the question:
•
What, if anything, are you moved to do to contribute to whole system change
within your sphere of influence and interest?
I put in the phrase ‘if anything’ because I think it is inappropriate to try to motivate
people by guilt or any kind of obligation. We are after something deeper: people’s
caring and passion.
Given that outreach is so important to reaching a critical mass, I think it is fair to ask
if they would be willing to take at least one person they know through the four
conversations we have just covered. They do not need to feel that they are experts in
order to do this.
We − and no other − are the generation that must turn things around.
Yours for a world that works,
Andrew Gaines