In an era marked by rapid change, intensifying conflicts, and a polarized public sphere, how can we communicate with coherence, clarity, and determination? Whether we look at media, politics or business - communications today are not just struggling to keep up with events – they often contribute to division and distrust. As leaders and communicators search for ways to connect meaningfully and respond constructively, a radical renewal in our communication culture is needed. This shift must go beyond surface-level adjustments – we need to explore narratives, postures, and pollination strategies that can restore coherence, inspire trust, and help society envision a different future.

1. Understanding the Landscape of Division

‍The context we’re navigating today is turbulent, with uncertainty and discontent echoing throughout political and social systems. Rather than proactively formulating common pathways, we have entered a spiral of – increasingly agitated - reactions. Artificial Intelligence has massively contributed to automating this reactive and purely outside-oriented way of communicating.
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As a result, we may have lost the capacity to listen and have few spaces where communications can lead to transformation. This fragmentation has accelerated the loss of meaning, feeling of belonging, and orientation at a time of disruptive change.
Particularly for sustainable, holistic, and regenerative voices, it is challenging not to fall into the instant gratification trap, catering to our lowest instincts.  

‍Authoritarianism as a False Solution‍

In times of turbulence, the return of authoritarianism – both in politics and business - promises stability. Leaders who project certainty and control appeal to those seeking security, yet this approach masks the reality: no single leader or government can "solve" the complexities we face. By enforcing uniformity, authoritarian responses suppress the diversity of ideas and voices necessary for adapting to a complex world. Instead of fostering resilience, authoritarianism builds rigidity - an ultimately fragile response to conditions that demand adaptability and pluralism.

Traditional Explanations for Today’s Fragmentation

Typical explanations for today’s agitated environment include socio-economic inequality, a general cultural decline, the polarization through identity politics, and the broader effects of globalization. While some factors may be relevant, they often fall short of addressing the underlying issues, such as the ecological, historical, psychological, and cultural roots of our divisions.

Root-level Explanations: The Underlying Trauma

A deeper understanding of our divisions must consider the traumas that underlie many conflicts. Historical patterns of polarization and fragmentation, rooted in personal and collective trauma, are at play. Today’s communication often mirror these unhealed wounds – marketing and political communications opportunistically take advantage of them. Acknowledging these undercurrents requires a radical shift in how we approach political communications - an acknowledgment that what we see on the surface is often the result of unspoken fears, unresolved grievances, and deep-seated division.
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Toward a Radical Renewal of Communications

To navigate today’s political landscape, our communications needs to move toward more coherence, connection, and meaningfulness. In practical terms, this means reconnecting with our roots, our dream, our posture (how we show up), as well as our contribution to the systems we are part of.  


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1. Rooting: healing the narratives we grow from

The first step in transforming communications is often to acknowledge the incoherence and contradictions within current narratives and communications.
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More and more visible are the gaps between words and actions, as well as the desperate attemps to save narratives that no longer provide meaning, such as neoliberalism, communism, or even sustainable development. The massive adherence to fundamentalistic narratives may be a sign for a great societal for meaning and belonging to something bigger.

A “radical” and regenerative approach to communications embraces the root causes of today’s interconnected challenges. Thereby, communications can contribute to creating shared narratives needed for peace and community-building. Reconnecting with historical, ecological, and cultural roots is a precondition for healing modern traumas. It is no coincidence that our language, narratives, and stories today are infused with militaristic and mechanistic patterns.

Integrative narratives can honor the complexities of our history, embracing both achievements and traumas as essential parts of who we are. Instead of ignoring or concealing contradictions, communicators can humbly, vulnerably and honestly mirror and embrace them to seek a deeper understanding. Importantly however, we need new safe spaces or containers in which the “digestion” of trauma, pain, and can take place.


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2. Reimagining: building bridges to a thriving world

Communications play a key role in creating convergence around the ways we want to live together. Through imagination, we can intentionally step into the unknown beyond divisions and past certainties.

From the realisation of past trauma often comes a clear picture of the world we’d like to live in. Creating space for “dream-weaving” can allow merging individual dreams into a collective one. As our listening capacity grows, this also involves non-human perspectives. How can we create the conditions for all living beings to express their needs and aspirations? What would it mean for this community and place to thrive? Storytelling can play a key role in bringing different threads emerging from that process meaningfully together.

Since imagination triggers the same hormonal and cognitive effects on our bodies as “real-life experiences”, the design of collective imaginative experiences is a key step of transformation. “Imagination activists” like Phoebe Tickell and the solarpunk movement demonstrate the inspirational power and practical implications of conscious collective imagination practice.
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3. Pollinating: co-creating value for our ecosystem to thrive



Our brand and value proposition is the expression of the role we play in our industry and wider stakeholder ecosystem.



However today, value creation often equivalents with extraction and exploitation elsewhere – from child slavery in the mines for our cars to the factories of algorithm trainers for the digital economy. The externalisation of costs and internalisation of profit is a key feature of today’s destructive economy.

Too often, value is understood in purely material terms and from a short term client need perspective. It lacks the understanding of the source of value creation (e.g. mining), as well as the system in which value is being valued (e.g. a materialistic culture).
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Against that background, a regenerative approach to communications can ask how our value proposition expresses holistic, synergetic, and regenerative value – for our clients, for natural ecosystems, for communities, for our culture, and for ourselves. This involves listening to the needs of stakeholders, creating shared meaning through storytelling, as well as reimagining what a life worth living may look like in a place and community.
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4. A posture of power: listening with honesty

Transformative communications radiate when our posture is rooted in honesty, compassion, and humility.
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The ability to show vulnerability, listen deeply, and engage with stakeholders as equal partners in dialogue is crucial. This approach contrasts sharply with the top-down, unidirectional style of communication that characterizes much of today’s communications, marketing, and PR.
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- Radical Honesty: we can learn to speak from the wisdom of their heart, and dare voicing uncomfortable truths at the root of today’s challenges. This fosters trust and shows stakeolders that you are committed to moving beyond partial views and solutions.
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- Radical listening: By actively listening to the needs, fears, and hopes of stakeholders, it is possible to foster genuine emotional connections. This builds a relationship of trust that enables shared meaning, community-building, and collaboration. By listening to what is beneath the surface – for instance of a conflict – it becomes possible to explore what needs care and attention.

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Conclusions

Navigating today’s turbulence requires a radical transformation in how we communicate. It is the opportunity to transform the increasingly visible trauma and pain into opportunities for thriving ways of living and creating value together. The path forward is one of embracing complexity, honoring trauma, and recognizing the role of narratives in making different futures possible. By adopting a more honest, compassionate, and collaborative approach, we can transform communication into a powerful tool for healing and regeneration.
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With this approach, communications are not be about managing public perception or controlling narratives, but about creating spaces for dialogue, trust, and a shared vision for the future.

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