From ecovillage to Regeneration Island…
a new way to change the world :-)
Often we are asked, by people understanding the upcoming mess:
- Where should we go ? (read: where can we hide to survive the shocks coming up)
- What shall I invest in ? (read: I’m afraid to lose my belongings and savings)
- What job can I do or business shall I go into ? (read: how can I bring my talent to positive change the world)
Basically, lots of us are secretly dreaming of that “lost paradise”, this “garden of Eden”, to go and hide, and finally live a happy life.
Well, we too. We have seen lots of those attempts, with nice, and also limited success. We did a survey to understand why those “ecovillages” were not more successful and popular in these periods of time.
True change starts from small spaces with committed people
On the other hand, we have observed and understood that true and deep change will not happen overnight “inside the system”, but with courageous creative changemakers, in the margin of the system. Time-space, with visionary people and a few resources, smart entrepreneurship… can produce miracles. All changes, anytime in history, started small. So we have something here, for sure.
Escaping from… to hide from… is marginalizing
I have seen those people running away from their daily life and motherland. Three scenarios:
(A) Buy autonomy. They have good financial resources, and buy property in for ex. New Zealand, South Africa, Central or South America, or even huge pieces of property in the West. These moves are “survivalists”, of all kinds, with militia, bunkers, million dollar houses in the middle of nowhere. We wish them good luck, but these will not be studied in this article.
(B) Backpacker style, in sabbatic years, hippy’s or nomad workers, in ecovillages or nomad workers paradises (Bali, Valencia, or numerous ecovillages). They cluster in more marginalized communities, with our without basic financial means. Started half a century ago in May 1968, communities gathered everywhere on an energy of freedom, with no attachments, no rules, wanting to build their own “paradise”. Findhorn, Auroville, ecovillages all around the world, are nice examples of them. Mostly based on food autonomy, ecohousing, participative governance, equality and freedom, and on another education system and subjects.
Both scenarios are create isolation, marginalizing.
(C ) Start something new, embedded inside the system, like for ex. in cities like Atlantech in la Rochelle, or in Ghent), as participatory city experiments, or in the countryside like Acadec in DRCongo, or Permaprojects in Belgium, are meant to test, inspire a new way of life and empowerment in autonomy, whilst creating paid jobs, and well connected to the “real world”. These are, in our view, the most interesting initiatives, because they are not marginalized and disconnected from the rest of the population — even though we need all kinds of experimentys to learn.
The interviewed projects are facing challenges. Here they are, in summary.
Financing and new businesses for new jobs, economic viability
Most initiatives struggle with finances and economics. It is essential because money is “the blood of the system”.
Succeeding in creating new economic models, spaces, systems, with jobs and products/service is a true challenge. They are all based on a common dream, totally justified when we see the facts & figures, and bad results of our existing “extractive-capitalist” system. But the paradigm shifts have to be on all levels: business models, psychology and values, management styles, currencies, etc… If we change only the brakes or fuel of the vehicle, it starts to run badly. We need to rethink the whole car and driving style of our society.
It starts with our relation to money and our capacity to create value on multiple levels. The first asks from us a serious personal introspection and healing if necessary. If money is “dirty”, in our eyes, guarantee your business will not be healthy. The latter is important too, as we need to be able to detect and value assets and liabilities (needs) on multiple levels, and also, understand how they connect to finally create material/financial positive flows. For ex. How does a healthy vision connected to the right knowledge, well communicated, engaging, and implementing efficiently to finally create a multiple cash flow, resilient, adaptive business model ?
We cannot eternally count on external financing sources like foundations, grants, subsidies. This is financially unsustainable. We need to pull-in new business intelligence into those beautiful initiatives.
Governance
To make a long story short:
Millennia ago, nomads were piloted by women, because they intuitively knew where to stop and survive with resources on the spot. Men were hunting and protecting herds and families. At some point (I wonder when and why by the way …) men decided to settle, plant houses, with fences around, put their women and kids inside, and decreted the land and families as theirs. Patriarcat was born.
Now, patriarcat has grown to its limits. Why ? Because today, we need to recuperate all of our talents, engagement, motivation, creativity, to answer the historical challenges. We cannot rely on our boss, our governments, our patriarch, our guru. Command-and-control or dependance is super unefficient.
We need to work in collective intelligence, as sovereign empowered individuals. We need to be able to work together in both “energies”, inside ourselves, and collectively: patriarchal, masculine, to work in a strong drive and vision for common good, achieving and doing, and matriarchal, feminine, as caring, nurturing, connecting transversally, in true sharing and solidarity, for creating continuous abundance.
This is where it all bugs… :
- New guru’s have, in those “communities” a field to manifest their ego’s. And this is the major obstacle to collective thriving in sovereignty for everyone. It can be found, very subtly, in lots of those “new spaces”.
- On the other side, the members of those initiatives often are afraid to become sovereign. They lack self-confidence and carry undealt neurotics and sufferings impeaching them to thrive. We all need to agree to become autonomous and sovereign, and humbly accept to do the job. Each one its responsibility, but solidarity and helping each other when necessary. Nobody is going to save nobody other than oneself.
So this is where new management and governance is so difficult: finding balance between a strong, enlighted vision, truly serving common good (and not one’s ego) — and — a constant wave of empowerment of all, so everyone can bring specific talent and input, individually and collectively. It asks a very high dose of humility, maturity and consciousness of the leadership as well as of the participants. And all the “techniques” of new management like sociocracy, holacracy, and other collective intelligence are useless if collective psychological progress and autonomy is not seriously taken care of.
Communication inside the community, stakeholders system, and towards outside
We have never communicated more than ever in human history, but, we have never had so much confusion and difficulties to share insights and projects, everyone screaming louder and louder, and thus, ambient noise rising exponentially. Whether inside or outside the projects. Most projects surveyed also are suffering from that problem, and thus, stagnate internally as well as on the external inspiring and mobilizing dimension. More than ever, we have to connect with players around us, public and private, citizens and communities.
Communication is becoming a major skill and key to success:
- Strategic: what is the message, to whom, which alliances, which core values, …
- Operational: how, which leverage, which tools, what timing, what regularity, live or online,…
Inside the community or team, as well as towards exterior stakeholders. It asks enormous skills of discernment, purpose, sensing, validation, empathy, feedback loops, silence too — for inspiration (once in a while), …
Communication:
- inside the team
- in stakeholders ecosystem
- to the outside world
is of strategic importance. Try to make a smart mix between :
→ regular information on the social networks
→ physical meetings and workshops, entertaining and fun, to share progress and plug in their percepotions of the waves
→ once in a while, media coverage with important successes or milestones
→ mouth-to-ear mobilisation, with positive energies
Managing communities is the ultimate key to success of those new “regeneration islands”. Create your new families.
Timing, “spiritual” ego and dogma
Time is money, and all these “new spaces” need investments. As we are re-inventing functionalities, we need patience, as well as business intelligence and lots of psychological skills to boost people into their sovereignty and autonomy. There are some countries where rules and regulations take enormous amounts of time. So, accept and deal with it, or move to another country. We could lose patience, energy, money and faith, if it takes too long.
Leadership too, should include basic skills, and deeply serve common good instead of ego. “They” will never admit it, but it can be seen in lots of those “emergent initiatives”. If we lack those skills: business intelligence and psychological/spiritual intelligence, we will lose lots of time and money.
Dogma are non-negotiable, fixed beliefs. They become a blocking force when it comes to progressing together. At first, we can agree, but as we evolve at different rhythms, we all need to move the lines. We always start with exterior references in our nice justified projects, but slowly migrate to personal, psychological and spiritual evolution — whether we like it or not. As an example: “We may not take airplanes any more” — or political dogma, or even religious, or extreme ecological, become a block when it comes to inner evolution, human, healing, psychological, and progressing with the project.
The impact of inner shifts, more coherent or ethical behavior, personal empowerment and sovereignty, positive constructive energies — instead of energies of frustration, limitation, fears, anger, on our human and environmental surroundings, is colossal. Its all about unleashing positive, constructive energies. So, let’s choose good vibes, instead of negative ones.
Some of the answers could be:
- Save time : Do not waste time trying to reinvent the wheel, but start with experiences of others, with best practices, adapting them to local parameters and improving them. In all projects we have seen and coached, that is where they perform the worst. Why ? It is very time consuming, and needs lots of curiosity and sharing (this is why we created our Kairos Multisolutions Bank). There is also lots of ego in it: “my” solution, “my” project.
- True leadership : comes from people who stand straight, with ethics and vision — way above personal and ego-driven agendas. People who have been learning from the events of their lives, healing especially the tough ones. It makes them wiser and stronger, more inspiring.
- Vibes : In how we work and live, let’s choose for positive vibes, constructive, without being naive on what liabilities or challenges we have to deal with. Lets learn day after day from our ordeals, and become stronger and wiser. This will enhance the flow, the quality of collaboration, the clarity of the vision, so everyone can feel its place and how (s)he can contribute.
Scaling
Mostly those projects start with eco-housing, agriculture, personal development and workshops.
Sometimes they do not even realize, but those models are perfect “sandboxes” for experimenting new ways of life, of “making society” — we have a lot to learn from them, and get some of them “to the next level” — so we can build the new near the old, without wasting more time trying to “change the system”. The “system” will not change. At best, it will adapt gradually, in “homeostasis”. No surprizes, “the old”, will have to die off with their generation of people running it.
Now, lets broaden the scope with the “regeneration islands”: health, living biotopes, energy autonomy and local smart grids, art & culture, nextgen jobs, waste and resources, smart agile management, new education, multimodal mobility, … . But also, broaden the surface of the eco-villages, or multiply them elsewhere, with new communities. Inspire and multiply. But above all, gather all possible functionalities so people can make their life there, without marginalizing. It is time to share experiences and successful models.
Building the new, in between, on basics of new paradigms, in collaboration with surrounding ecosystems — as a fully scalable systemic regenerative models
This is how we intend to have our impact on the world, with Extrapreneurs and their “Regeneration Islands”, Club of Brussels with “Systemic Economy” and the Kairos with its “Multisolutions” platform, investment fund and community.
24 October 2022, we start in a dozen places on 4 continents, in 2 timezones, on land of 1 ha to 1 million hectares. And in spring 2023, at least on 40 pieces of land. In fall, 160, and so on. Fully scalable. We will learn fast, scale well, and inspire a positive future for those who are willing to get their guts in gear. Regenerate and motivate people, regenerate biotopes (on the leads we have, we have already the possibility to plant 40 million more trees), create the nextgen jobs, in food and energy autonomy, whilst create healthy thriving as happy communities. Collectively, with thousands of systemic, regenerative multisolutions and business models, with their performant jobs, we will offer millions of regenerative solutions for the 20+ challenges of today and tomorrow.
But, it will only work if: we stay humble, we empower people, we learn from everyone and upgrade at every cycle, and last but not least, if we make it profitable and fun.
More information: hello@wiseholding.net
Rebecca Ndomba and Prof. Michel A. de Kemmeter
