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The Core Practice Areas Of Thrivability

In every sphere of society, the change that is needed requires a thoughtful, comprehensive approach, in an ever-deepening cycle of action and learning. To this end, the Core Practice Areas of Thrivability framework represents a process and pathway for cultivating generative and regenerative capacity at multiple levels of the project or organization you’re working within. This is how we make more and better things possible. This is how we get to wiser action together. 

Each practice area contains a set of principles and approaches, and each offers a lifetime of unfolding practice. You’re likely to be at different stages of development in each practice area. As your understanding, toolkit and skills grow in each area, so will the wisdom and effectiveness of your actions.

You can work through these in any order, but you may find that there’s a natural starting point and flow. You’ll naturally circle back to each of them, as new insights continue to emerge, in an unfolding spiral of continuous learning and growth.

USE THIS TOOL TO:
Make more sense of your context
Recognize more possibilities
find courage to challenge and reshape existing assumptions and structures
improve shared discovery & decision-making
grow in trust, confidence & creativity
discern what is most needed of you
follow inspiration to safe-to-try actions
create the conditions for change to take root
NEW WAYS
OF SEEING
Integrating a
living systems
worldview
2
NEW WAYS OF BEING
Practicing wise stewardship
At the heart of the practice of thrivability and regeneration is recognizing our organizations and communities as dynamic, self-organizing living systems. Only something that is alive is capable of regeneration. Here, we find guidance in life’s universal design principles, as well as other sources, such as Indigenous wisdom or permaculture. We recognize the complexity and potential that are present wherever there is life, as well as the need for new approaches and even new language. And we examine our narratives, assumptions and lived experiences for new insights about purpose, power and possibility.
3
new WAYS OF INTERACTING
Drawing on more system intelligence
At the heart of the practice of thrivability and regeneration is recognizing our organizations and communities as dynamic, self-organizing living systems. Only something that is alive is capable of regeneration. Here, we find guidance in life’s universal design principles, as well as other sources, such as Indigenous wisdom or permaculture. We recognize the complexity and potential that are present wherever there is life, as well as the need for new approaches and even new language. And we examine our narratives, assumptions and lived experiences for new insights about purpose, power and possibility.
4
new WAYS OF SERVING
Discerning more system potential
At the heart of the practice of thrivability and regeneration is recognizing our organizations and communities as dynamic, self-organizing living systems. Only something that is alive is capable of regeneration. Here, we find guidance in life’s universal design principles, as well as other sources, such as Indigenous wisdom or permaculture. We recognize the complexity and potential that are present wherever there is life, as well as the need for new approaches and even new language. And we examine our narratives, assumptions and lived experiences for new insights about purpose, power and possibility.
5
new WAYS OF actinG
Experimenting with agility
At the heart of the practice of thrivability and regeneration is recognizing our organizations and communities as dynamic, self-organizing living systems. Only something that is alive is capable of regeneration. Here, we find guidance in life’s universal design principles, as well as other sources, such as Indigenous wisdom or permaculture. We recognize the complexity and potential that are present wherever there is life, as well as the need for new approaches and even new language. And we examine our narratives, assumptions and lived experiences for new insights about purpose, power and possibility.
6
new WAYS OF SENSING
Monitoring what matters most
At the heart of the practice of thrivability and regeneration is recognizing our organizations and communities as dynamic, self-organizing living systems. Only something that is alive is capable of regeneration. Here, we find guidance in life’s universal design principles, as well as other sources, such as Indigenous wisdom or permaculture. We recognize the complexity and potential that are present wherever there is life, as well as the need for new approaches and even new language. And we examine our narratives, assumptions and lived experiences for new insights about purpose, power and possibility.
7
NEW WAYS OF EVOLVING
Cultivating a learning ecology
At the heart of the practice of thrivability and regeneration is recognizing our organizations and communities as dynamic, self-organizing living systems. Only something that is alive is capable of regeneration. Here, we find guidance in life’s universal design principles, as well as other sources, such as Indigenous wisdom or permaculture. We recognize the complexity and potential that are present wherever there is life, as well as the need for new approaches and even new language. And we examine our narratives, assumptions and lived experiences for new insights about purpose, power and possibility.
1
1
new WAYS OF SEEING
Integrating a living systems worldview
At the heart of the practice of thrivability and regeneration is recognizing our organizations and communities as dynamic, self-organizing living systems. After all, only something that is alive is capable of regeneration. This practice area explores the implications of such a shift to an ecological worldview. Here, we find guidance in Life’s Universal Design Principles, as well as other sources, such as Indigenous wisdom and even our own sense of the world. We explore the complexity and potential that are present wherever there is life, along with the need for new approaches and even new language. And we examine our narratives, assumptions and lived experiences for new insights about purpose, power and possibility. In these ways, we come to see more of the true nature of the systems we’re working with, including ourselves.
2
new WAYS OF BEING
Practicing wise stewardship
With this practice area, we embrace the art and practice of stewarding life and learning at multiple levels in the systems we serve. Such a practice is an individual and collective deepening in wisdom, compassion and the ability to sense what is needed and to respond with effective action. In place of command and control as the default mode, we develop habits that help us show up curious and attuned to system potential and to opportunities for development of what is "ripe" and ready. Here, we find support from the Light Guide to Stewardship Practices, as well as from the Project Ecology Map, a framework for making sense of the system we're stewarding and for cultivating coherence across its multiple aspects. 
3
new WAYS OF INTERACTING
Drawing on more system intelligence
In this practice area, we draw on more of the intelligence of the systems we're stewarding by developing our capacity for effective collaboration, information sharing and decision making. These are methods of honing our collective discernment on behalf of life, in all its complexity. They enable us to work skilfully with life’s core principle of emergence, rather than expecting full prediction and control. By creating more connection, awareness and alignment in these ways, we grow the system’s adaptability and resilience, and ultimately its regenerative capacity and thrivability. 
4
new ways of serving
Discerning more system potential
Drawing on the first three practice areas, we are well equipped to envision expanded ways of contributing to life's ability to thrive, in response to more of the potential of the system we're serving and to more of the true scope and scale of what is needed. In this way, we find the rationale, the means and the courage to evolve the purpose of our efforts and even to shape our purpose as an ongoing responsive inquiry. 
5
new ways of acting
Experimenting with agility
Here, we recognize that wise, effective action is an emergent property of a connected, cohesive life-aligned system. This means that actions must emerge from system conditions and input. Therefore, we draw on methods for identifying the obvious next action and for engaging in safe, iterative experiments. We discern and deliver the next natural, “native” action that is "good enough for now, safe enough to try" in service of our shared curiosity, connection and capacity.
6
new ways of sensing
Monitoring what matters most
With this practice area, we identify new signs that the system is growing more capable of thriving at multiple levels. Beyond “how will we measure it?” we ask: “how will we know?” How will we know if our efforts are adding generative and regenerative capacity at multiple scales of the system? To discern ways to know the system is more thrivable, we ask bold new questions about what really matters and what’s worth paying attention to. And we grow connection and capacity in the process of monitoring, asking "how can our process of evaluation be regenerative in itself, building enlivening feedback loops and capabilities into our work together?"
7
new ways of evolving
Cultivating a learning ecology
Importantly, all of this must be supported by a deliberate process of learning, storytelling and celebration, in a continuous spiral of deepening practice. This is the skill and practice of “harvesting” the unfolding story of what is growing and coming to life within the project or organization you’re working with. It calls for dedicating resources. And it is most effective with an appreciative stance, tending what is most alive within the system in a spirit of shared curiosity and care.
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