Jenny Andersson
on being Really Regenerative
“We are all expressions of life regenerating, and we need to relearn once more to be regenerative. Always evolving and developmental. Always creating greater complexity. Always looking for future potential. Always inter-connected. Always igniting and shifting fields of energy.”
Ever since childhood, Jenny Andersson’s curious mind has never ceased to ask ‘how?’, although her favourite question will always be ‘what if?’ Zooming out to the big picture and zooming in to the next possible action has been her passion, combined with a deep fascination for how life unfolds and patterns play out: https://lnkd.in/d6qw7EQ3
The complexity of humans is an endless source of inspiration to her. Jenny is a regenerative designer, strategist and educator. In translation: a dot-joiner, systems seer, catalyst of future potential and weaver of bioregional communities. She connects leaders, visions and stories to help them grow their influence, community, or activities and expand their viability to create the conditions conducive to life, by realizing their systemic potential.
If you consider regeneration an abstract or intriguing concept, Jenny is here to offer a very blunt, yet sensitive definition of it: “Regeneration is what life does and is. In a billion ways, every single day. Life creates the conditions conducive to life. The process of doing that is regeneration through the core principles that have kept life going on Earth for 3.8 billion years.”
Regeneration isn’t a trend, but something that has always been with us. We have just forgotten it: “Only indigenous peoples have held on and remembered what it is to be part of the evolving flow of life all around us!” Be mindful, though, because regeneration is not some new version of sustainability either, a “label or badge that can be put on a LinkedIn profile. It is a living-breathing way of being in the world that is part of your every cell.”
Jenny set up a CIC called Really Regenerative, as the foundational question is always “But is it really regenerative?” Through her Power of Place, a collective learning journey in regenerative place-making, she helps design communities in which humans can fulfil their potential and all life thrives in harmony: Places For Life.
Read Jenny Andersson’s answers for Inspirators and absorb her brutally honest piece of advice: “Regeneration isn’t just an intellectual exercise. It's the embodiment of spirit and soul. It’s a practice. We come into regenerative work from many different fields: psychology, biomimicry, biology, systems thinking, living systems theory, anthropology, and even cosmology! Find your essence, the work that’s yours to do and dive into all the adjacencies that affect the living systems in which you want to work.”
Thank you, Jenny, for being Really Regenerative!
#INSPIRATORS QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Jenny Andersson
Company / Institution: The Really Regenerative Centre CIC
Title: CEO
Website: https://reallyregenerative.org
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anderssonjenny/
Country of origin: UK
Country you currently live in: UK
Your personal definition of Regeneration: Life.
Regeneration is what life does and is. In a billion ways every single day. From the cells in your body to the landscapes we live in, the places we hold dear. Life creates the conditions conducive to life. The process of doing that is regeneration through the core principles that have kept life going here on Earth for 3.8 billion years – and more if we look out into the universe for inspiration.
Always evolving and developmental. Always creating greater complexity. Always looking for future potential. Always bioculturally unique across fractal place. Always relational and inter-connected and nested relationally across place and system. Always igniting, growing, shifting fields of energy in self-organising patterns. Always nodal. We (humans) are expressions of life regenerating. And we have to relearn once more to be regenerative.
Main business challenge you face: Seeing so much rich and wonderful potential in everyone and every place that could be activated in a billion different ways that I never get any sleep and always struggle to focus on any one thing, place, or activity.
Developing a ‘business’ model for Really Regenerative that means we’re not constantly chasing funding, having to do ‘self-promotional’ work that makes us cringe, and can get on and help as many regions, places and people in the world to get into this work. And remembering to do ‘admin’ – which I really, really loathe!
Main driver that keeps you going: The sheer resilience of life. Microbiological. Plant. Animal. Human. The amazing ability to regenerate that flows through all of us.
The trait you are most proud of in yourself: That I’m not overly proud of myself; it goes before a tumble - so, I try really hard to stay humble and curious and always open to new learning. Plus, just never giving up that I might be able to catalyse regenerative futures – somehow, somewhere – at whatever level or scale I am able – even when it never feels ‘enough’.
The trait you most value in others: Unflinching courage to say what needs to be said (with compassion and clarity) and do what needs to be done (with radical inclusivity, joy and active hope). The humble, quiet, unseen regenerators who are out there doing this amazing, wonderful work with integrity, honesty, dedication and love.
Passions & little things that bring you joy: People who care deeply about bringing life, vitality, and viability to the places we love and work in.
My Power of Place community and the work they do.
Wind through the leaves on a Summer’s day; a splash of a seal when I’m out on the ocean on my board; the glory of spring bursting out; vibrant colours of autumn; antics of my dogs and cats who don’t give a flying fishcake about climate change, biodiversity loss or collapsing human systems.
The look of sheer delight on someone’s face when they ‘get’ the power of a universal framework for the first time.
Morning mists over the South Downs where I live. The whales and dolphins of the Azores. Leafy greens of any kind in homemade soup.
The #inspirators who determined you to take the regenerative path:
Animals: all my wonderful spiritual horses. The whales and dolphins of the deep seas. The teeming life of the grasslands of East Africa. The disappearing birds of the air. The butterflies that are gone; the insects that are now quiet. The soaring rainforests I’ve been lucky enough to experience. The vast oceans and the tumbling waterfalls. The brilliant, humble, ancient mushroom family.
Humans:
Joanna Macy
Janine Benyus
Pamela Mang
Donella Meadows
Satish Kumar
Stephan Harding
Daniel Christian Wahl
Carol Sanford
Yvon Chouinard
A hint or starting point for companies or professionals that are taking the first steps in the regeneration journey: Do a deep dive into the fractal potential of place. Study the dynamic relationships between you, your place, and the nested systems you sit within. Understand how all those relationships have the potential to create greater viability and vitality and how your work can play a part. Then go out and build the capability and the will to transform those relationships into vitalizing, regenerative relationships to create the conditions conducive to life – for future generations and all life - within them.
Most used and abused clichés in sustainability that bother you: Sustainability, period.
It was only ever ‘better than bad’; a mitigating hand-break on the runaway damage we have done to the life support systems that sustain us. We will only be sustainable as a species if we become regenerative. Sustainability is a result of regeneration.
Sustainable Intensification when applied to food systems. It’s a complete oxymoron, a sneaky way for systems-as-usual to keep adding to their profits and causing untold harm to the prospects of future generations, our life-giving soil and millions of animals.
An honest piece of advice for young people who lose hope: Life is both pain and joy, light and dark and all things in between. Hope sometimes fades, but it springs eternally, but practically.
Find a few friends and create a solidarity crew. Find something you all love doing, and do it regularly together whilst having a chat about all the shit that’s happening in the world. Then choose one small thing you feel capable of doing together - and #jfdi!
Hope is a muscle that needs constant exercise through experimenting and learning to love the learning that comes from those experiments which means you will always do it better next time. With friends there to support you. I would be lost without my solidarity crew. They lift me when I’m feeling hopeless and useless and hold me to account when I’m being an asshat.
Books that had a great impact on you:
Active Hope by Joanna Macy & Dr Christ Johnstone. If some kind soul hadn’t put it into my hands at one of the lowest-ever ebbs in my life, I would have given up and checked out.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I named my cat after him.
Reinventing Organisations (illustrated) by Frederic Laloux. He so beautifully expressed developmental psychology and the illustrations brought a complex subject to life. I am always reminded by it that we learn in many different ways and that words aren’t always the best way.
A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander. I’m a pattern geek.
Limits To Growth by Donella Meadows. Vision and foresight. Why is it that we still can’t embrace this lesson? There is no future on a dead planet.
Steps to An Ecology of Mind by Gregory Bateson
Most recently, I’ve absolutely LOVED Nora Bateson’s Combining.
Must-reads for any regenerative professional: Learn to read the patterns and processes of life in the world. Look. Watch. Listen. Learn. How does life do it?
Regeneration isn’t just an intellectual exercise. Read, yes. Nothing like a good book. But it’s also about the embodiment of spirit and soul. It’s a practice. So look to somatic practice, too.
But, if you love reading, it’s such a long list; see our recommended reading list for Power of Place. Mostly, don’t restrict yourself just to ‘regenerative’ titles. We come into regenerative work from many different fields: developmental psychology, biomimicry, biology, systems thinking, living systems theory, anthropology, cosmology, participatory democracy and process, urban design! Find your essence, the work that’s yours to do and dive into all the adjacencies that affect the systems in which you want to work. If you’re working in a place as I am, always good to start with:
Designing Regenerative Cultures by Daniel Christian Wahl
Regenerative Development & Design by Pamela Mang and Ben Haggard
Movies or Documentaries you would watch all over again: Wish I had time. I don’t. But I did love My Octopus Teacher, and always David Attenborough’s series enthralled me.
Blogs / Websites / Podcasts you visit frequently: I’ve loved Daniel Christian Wahl and Josie Warden’s series of podcasts on Regeneration Rising for the RSA.
I read Charles Eisenstein’s blogs because they come into my inbox.
I like Giles Hutchins's podcast series profiling the work of all the CEOs he works with. School of Lost Borders.
I’ll read things that Anna Birney writes because they’re very thoughtful. Anna Pollock’s LinkedIn pieces are always insightful.
Music that makes you (and your heart) sing: Rock anthems of the 70s and 80s! (I know, I’m a bit of a failed rock chick!)
Places you travelled to that left a mark on you:
Brixton where I was born in the early 60s had nothing other than a real supportive community.
Tanzania, Kenya. Almost anywhere in Africa where there is wildlife to see, love and learn from. I have a deep love of big skies, wildlife and warm, welcoming people.
The Daintree rainforest in far northern Queensland, Australia where I first met and had yarns with indigenous peoples.
Chanthaburi, Thailand – very recently where we are working on a regenerative food and tourism project – love, love, love the attitude and approach to regeneration there.
Falkland, Scotland – which feels like a sacred place and home of regeneration in Fife.
Santuari de Lluc, in Mallorca where we take our Power of Place graduates.
The Azores where I go to spend time listening to whales.
Anywhere there are wild untamed animals. From the humble robin in my hedge at home to the plains of the Serengeti and the deep waters of the Atlantic.
Global Regenerative Voices you recommend us to follow:
Daniel Christian Wahl is probably this field's most informative, established and prolific voice.
I also love:
Nora Bateson
John Fullerton
Lyla June
Tijn Tjoelker
Leen Gorrisen
Anna Pollock
Bill Reed
Carol Sanford
Pamela Mang
Ben Haggard
Michelle Holliday
Tyson Yunkaporta
Joe Brewer
Kate Raworth
Sarah Queblatin
Sahana Chattopadhyay
Nui Sirikul Laukaikul
Sarah Ishioka
Stephanie von Meiss
Tobias Luthe
Carolina Fernandez-Jansink
Giles Hutchins
Laura Storm
Joel Glanzberg
Al Mathers
Anna Birne
Flor Casiragi
Jean-Philippe Steeger
All our Power of Place community – even if they don’t choose to be ‘voices’ because they are out there doing the work….. and so many more, sure I have offended thousands by leaving them out!
Trends in Regeneration we should keep an eye on: Regeneration isn’t a trend. Regeneration is what life does. It has always been with us. We, humans, have just forgotten it. Only indigenous peoples have held on and remembered what is it to be part of the evolving flow of life all around us. And Yoda (oops! he’s fictional). Pay attention to the fact that regeneration is not some new version of sustainability that is a label that can be slapped on a lunchbox or a LinkedIn profile like a badge. It’s a living breathing way of being and doing in the world that is part of your every cell.
In the last few years, every organization, everyone, their cat and dog seem to have ‘regeneration’ in their profile. We set up a CIC called Really Regenerative because our foundational question is always “But is it really regenerative?” We’re still learning, trying to find those answers and so is everyone else. There are no experts in this field only pilgrims doing the work, learning the work, evolving the work.
Best places for business networking (online or offline): Urk. Conjures up hideous images of people looking over your shoulder for someone more interesting and influential!
Get out in nature and reconnect with the patterns and processes of life. Feel the rhythm of life pulsing around you. Find awe in the brilliance of a single wildflower or the tenacity of the humble dandelion. Stare up at the infinity of the stars in the universe. Online I’m only around now and then on LinkedIn. I go to events that are local to me wherever possible and when I travel it’s to learn or work with people doing this work in the field. We always try to organize a dinner, gathering, swim, paddle when we travel so that we connect with others place by place by place.
Associations, business clubs, tribes you belong to – and why: My own Power of Place community because I love them, their resilience and courage.
Regenesis’s TRP community because you need somewhere to be challenged about whether your thinking and doing is ‘really’ regenerative.
The Klosters Forum community because it’s full of hopeful people taking intelligent action in the world.
Biomimicry community (informal, but we stay in touch) because of the foundational biological knowledge.
Sustainable Development or Regeneration courses, trainings, or certifications that really teach us how to have an impact: I dislike the words ‘trainings’ because they are what I do with my dog when I don’t want her to run into the road, or if I want to learn how to operate a machine. I’m not sure that certifications are worth their salt today, especially if we’re talking about complexity, but I understand why people still want them because they are things we’ve learned to value. I look for something where I will be challenged, changed, and experience something unexpected that gives me another perspective on what it means to be a human in a mutual partnership with all life.
It would be daft of me not to say join Power of Place in 2024, especially if you want to do this work from place – where place is fractal and can be anything from a bioregion to your neighbourhood. Or any of our shorter learning journeys. So I just did!
Also…… Regenerative MOOC series, CAS & MAS by ETH Zurich with Tobias Luthe and Daniel Christian Wahl If you are ready for a deep cerebral crunch, join Regenesis TRP.
Nora Bateson’s Warm Data Labs. Art of Hosting is great if your DNA is drawn to facilitation. Giles Hutchins occasionally hosts open experiences. Much of 2024 is booked up but if you get a chance to go to Springfield Farm – especially if you’re just taking your first dive into an embodied experience – grab a spot. Studying biomimicry through Biomimicry 3.8 is never wasted time.
John Fullerton’s Regenerative Economics is a place where businesses gather in droves to find a way to rethink economics. Again, if you’re in the UK, Schumacher College’s short courses – such as Creative Facilitation – are wonderful experiences.
The Work That Reconnects, Joanna Macy, or Andres Roberts's BioLeadership Project!
Sometimes, better than a course is finding a community to be within inquiry. Like #ODForLife, a group of organizational design professionals exploring regeneration together.
Reasons to feel optimistic about our future in 2030: The ‘really’ regenerative field is growing exponentially. More and more people every day are stepping towards living systems principles and learning how to create transformative change by allowing those principles to flow through them and their work in the world. The scales are falling from our eyes and we are beginning to see the deep, complex integrations across the human systems we have designed and how hard we are going to have to work to reinvent them.
Reasons to feel pessimistic about our future in 2030: The scales are not falling from enough eyes. The power of voices and actors that are dedicated to poisonous polarization is a critical handbrake on our ability to move towards regenerative futures.
Regenerative Leadership qualities much needed today: Healing the stories of separation and polarization that dominate our existence. Embodying living systems principles. Deep commitment to co-mutualism. Upstream Thinking – to be patient enough to find the source of trauma, the essence of place and people, the future potential that is inherent.
Downstream Designing to be able to find the critical nodes and shape the centres of energy that can heal our systems – ecological, economic, cultural. Relational capability building: to stay in the right relationship to self, others, place, and system – for the long haul of transformative change. Deep unswerving compassion for the frailty of humanity and abiding love of life.
The ways in which you are an Inspirator to yourself: I try hard to do and be the above. I fail every day. But every morning I get up and try again to get a little bit better. Day by day. Place by Place.
The Inspirator you are endorsing for a future edition of the newsletter is: Ninian Stuart, Falkland Estate
Damien Allen, CEO of Doncaster City Council
Al Mathers, The Young Foundation
Jane Davidson, Author #futuregen
The quote that inspires you:
"Life creates the conditions conducive to life!" (Janine Benyus)
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." (Buckminster Fuller)
Your own quote that will inspire us:
