Remembering, reembodying, and reenchanting what it means to thrive together.


‍Saving the planet is now a communication challenge, David Attenborough said. And indeed, most of the solutions we need to tackle our multiple existential crises have already been successfully tested or are on the table. However, we seem to have lost our capacity to share these solutions meaningfully and to build common pathways into a better future. Against that background, regenerative communications offer a living-systems approach for sustainable, holistic and regenerative pioneers of change.
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By Jean-Philippe Steeger

Today’s destructive trends are accelerating – from global warming to the return of authoritarianism. At the same time, many advocates for a better world struggle in building, engaging, and empowering a larger followership for their ideas. There is a lack of clarity, care, and coherence.

Many ask:



• ‍Why do people not seem to understand the urgent need for sustainability, well-being, or regeneration?


• Why do they not sufficiently invest in their future (now that it’s still possible)?
• How can I best put my wisdom at the disposal of clients and audiences to support them?



Communications mean “to make common.” And yet, we are moving ever further away from each other, from nature, and from the wisdom we have within us. Our modern understanding reduces communications to “getting an idea out” and marketing as selling that idea or product.

If communications are our way of relating to the world, we clearly have severe communication skill gaps: in listening (to ideas, root causes, needs, and potential), in expressing (our role, beauty, and wisdom), and in enabling greater potential (by relating to communities, places, and ecosystems).

With a regenerative approach to communications, we will look at how the consciousness that connects “travels” within, between, and beyond us. That means that we also consider what is yet unexpressed, unconscious, and unimaginable.
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The shift to regenerative communications

In my research and practice of regenerative communications as over the last years as (co)founder of Perspectivist, re:storied, and the Regenerative Communications Collective I found:



• That we need to learn to see each other, listen to each other, and trust each other again to be able to build a common future, as I lay out in my new substack series.
• Today’s monopolizing attention economy harms our attention and capacity for compassion. “Repurposing” militaristic marketing tools “for good” supposes that the end justifies the means, while assuming there is a common end.
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• Unless we work on refertilising the toxic soil of modernity’s mechanistic and action-obsessed narratives, we risk reproducing violent patterns in our language, stories, and other communications.

• Our static ideas of “identity” lead to “ego-chambers”. That’s why I embrace the more fluid and evolving, yet clearly distinctive notion of (brand) essence.

• With the notion of a Communication Ecology I look at how clients can heal connections, fertilise the soil for their future success, and enable sharing their dream (fruit) generously in their stakeholder system (see application for policy communications here).
  

Coming back to the initial questions I shared, I want to make a bold claim: your potential clients understand the need, they want to invest in their future, and you actually would know what to do. But you and your clients have forgotten. You have forgotten to listen to what matters.

You have forgotten because you have come to understand communications as a one-way street, as a slot machine, or as the supposedly magical messages that comes out from your AI. But they are not.

Communications are the umbilical cord that connect you to the world. They mean reciprocity, compassion, and achieving something that you couldn’t achieve alone. They are everything beyond the intellectual cages of the ego. 


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So what can regenerative communications do for you?



1. Remember: today’s innovation imperative can blind us to existing solutions, wisdom traditions, and inner knowledge relevant to solving and moving beyond the problems you’re working on. Reconnecting to the wisdom of our body memory, ancient traditions, and the collective history of why we are where we are is key to sourcing energy needed for transformational change. Do you remember what it means to thrive?



2. Reembody: you are unique and the experience and wisdom you bring to the world are unique. Embodying the change you want to see in the world means to unleash your natural creative flow and allows you to express your whole being and potential. Audiences will intuitively feel, read, hear that you are the right person for them. It will be crystal clear because what you offer is crystal clear. You know that you embody what you do when it comes with flow, inspiration, groundedness, and determination. What does your body tell you right now about your value proposition?

3. Reenchant: imagination activates the same body response as “real life” experiences. That means that visualizing the future you want to give life to can rewire how people think and feel. Instead of “talking to” people “where they are”, you learn to talk with people “where you could be together.” Learning to become the companion that helps you clients in building a bridge between where they are and could be can provide them with the necessary confidence, motivation, and feeling of safety that they need on their courageous journey. When was the last time you were so deeply inspired that you looked at the world in a different way?

Are you ready to shine the light of your wisdom?

Reach out to me!

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