How can our Work contribute to a thriving world?

I hear many conversations about protecting the Earth. The tone is that humans need to focus on resilience so that we can recover from the impacts of climate change. Other words that frequently appear in these conversations are maintain and sustain, in reference to human-constructed things: economies, houses, infrastructure and so on, though sometimes also 'nature'. The posture towards a selection of non-human patterns is that these are an external, hostile visitation upon us in the form of disasters, impacts, and scarcity. There is a sense of concern, urgency, maybe even panic.

There’s another conversation I am starting to hear, with words like: Earth has the ability to regenerate herself, and that humans can seek first to understand these processes in a holistic way in order to align with them and participate appropriately. That humans have a contribution to make in these processes, because we co-evolve with Earth. The reason patterns are shifting in a degenerative direction is because we have fallen out of alignment with these larger patterns. The energy here is also concern, but it has a different character. It has urgency, but not haste. It holds the principle of ‘go slow to go fast’.

These respective vocabularies arise from different ways of perceiving our Work to do in the world.

In my regenerative practice learning from Carol Sanford, the framework for this is called Levels of Work. Each level builds upon the one before, such that each successive level both transcends and includes the previous (as was the case with levels of energy. What is being enabled at each level is a greater ability to see patterns at work, to see the complexity of living systems in their dynamic unfolding.

The levels are:

• Extract Value – This level is all about the transaction, and it’s primarily about: What’s in this for me? It’s primitive, survivalist thinking. It is blind to reciprocity, which is at the core of all living systems.

• Arrest Disorder – At this level, we are looking to stop suffering, ‘get things under control’. While it has empathy, it is still somewhat reactive, often coming from vital energy. It is making judgments about a state of disorder. Why is chaos ‘bad’? Is there another way to look at situations of uncertainty or processes in transition?

• Do Good – Here, we are sincerely wanting to make an impact, make a difference, because we care. We believe we understand a situation or a system and have insights about how to ‘fix’ it and make it ‘better’, but the solution design is based in our desires, perceptions, opinions and preferences. We might rush in to offer this assistance without considering whether it is welcomed or needed.

• Evolve Capacity – From this level, the care is coupled with a deep seeking to understand. We are curious, asking: what is it the system wants/needs for its next level of development? We can see that the system has intelligence and can look after itself, but if it has been compromised in some way, maybe it needs a little help. What is our role in that helping? And we apply our energy to doing that.

Let’s think about this with the example of a backyard veggie patch to illustrate what shifts in my intention as a gardener as we move up through this scale.

• Extract Value – I want to grow food in my back garden. I've planted some things that I like to eat, and which I eat all year round. I fertilise and water like crazy to make the plants grow. Anything that says 'accelerate' growth or 'increase' in terms of quantity, I put on my garden. When I am hungry, I go and harvest.

• Arrest Disorder – I notice that my garden is being attacked by pests. Aphids, white moths, ants, grubs, all sorts of things eating the roots, leaves and fruits of my plants. I am very upset by this. I put poison of various kinds on the plants to kill the intruders so that the plants are not under attack and can get back to happily growing and producing the food. I ruthlessly remove anything I find growing in my garden that I didn't plant.

• Do Good – I want my plants to be healthy, and I'm learning that the poison I put on the garden to kill the bugs can also negatively impact the plants...and me when I eat the garden's produce. I'm looking for organic alternatives now, putting fish-based sprays on the foliage and manure on the soil to give my plants strength. Some of my plants are still fragile and need extra help, so I pay close attention to what products they need at different times of the year. I watch and wait for the ideal time to harvest, and I get really happy when I have managed to coax a beautiful tomato or punnet of berries out of my little patch.

• Evolve Capacity – My garden is a little ecosystem. I have planted a range of things based on what works in my area, and the amount of sunlight available in my back garden. I have also used companion planting to inform my choices, even though some of these plants I haven't had as part of my diet in the past. I accept that I will have some visitors in my garden - insects, other plants - and I pay attention to who might be here to help and who is not, and tailor my response accordingly. I know that the plants have their own defense mechanisms so I try to leave them to it but if things get really out of hand, I might spray specific areas with a water and soap mixture to discourage critters that eat foliage, but won't bother the Golden Orb Weaver who has built a beautiful web amongst the leaves. I know that for some of my plants, I can get next year's harvest from saving seeds, so I have a collection of jars where I keep them, ready to start seedlings or plant in the soil at the appropriate time.

Now that you have a sense of it, let’s try something a little more relevant to working at a larger scale in the environment.

Think about a current project that you are actively working on and reflect on these three questions:

1. What level of work am I typically operating from?

2. What would need to change to shift it up a level?

3. What effect would shifting upwards have on my Function/Being/Will:

•       Who I am Being?

•       My Will to show up for this work?

•       How I undertake/engage with this as a Function (a thing I am Doing)?

•       My experience of working on the project (how will I feel, what would I be able to see/understand)?

•       The outcomes I am able to achieve?

What did you come up with as the key elements? Some of the things that come up for me include:

• Working at the lower levels is limiting for me and for others I am working with. I cannot really see the potential in a system unless I am in an Evolve Capacity level of working.

• Moving up these levels requires letting go of my preferences or opinions and trusting in the process that we are collectively engaged in to be the thing that leads us to the optimum outcome.

• Shifting from a well-intentioned place of individual commitment based on what I see as ‘good’, towards that commitment being directed in the service of the larger system is key. It gives me so much more Will to do the work and contributes to more effective Function in the doing.

• It’s also quite important that the others I am working with are operating from this perspective, because if they are not, there may be too much noise in the field for potential to be seen and worked with. So how do I invite others to work from this perspective? What can I do in the way I show up, the words I choose, whether I make a statement or ask a question, the moments I choose to speak or remain silent?

How might you apply your insights from that exercise to your project going forward?

How might you use these questions to observe your level of work on other projects besides the example you used?

How might you use it for non-work-related things? (e.g. relationships? parenting?)

Looking forward to your reflections in the chat.