⛵ Exploration Group to sail the Prosocial World

Renaissance Explorers Exploration Groups
#1

“Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Somewhere in between action and reaction there is an interaction, and that’s where all the magic and fun lies.” ~ Tyson Yunkaporta

As we all know, birthing a regenerative civilisation is a task none of us takes on lightly. Trust, kindness, collaboration and good intentions towards others will be core to doing this. By exploring the Prosocial framework we can guide our coordinated efforts.

To improve individual and group decision-making when dealing with complex challenges the framework combines three foundational pillars of research and design practice:

  1. The evolution of prosociality in humans
  2. Contextual behavioural science
  3. The political economy work of Elinor Ostrom

Ostrom offers 8 principles for how commons can be governed sustainably and equitably in a community.

Watch this 14 min excerpt from a webinar hosted by Joe Brewer to learn more about the Prosocial Core Design Principles:

CDP1: Shared identity and purpose.

CDP2: Equitable distribution of contributions and benefits.

CDP3: Fair and inclusive decision-making.

CDP4: Monitoring of agreed behaviours.

CDP5: Graduated responding to helpful and unhelpful behaviour

CDP6: Fast and fair conflict resolution

CDP7: Authority to self-govern (according to principles 1-6).

CDP8: Collaborative relations with other groups (using principles 1-7)

What is the Purpose of this Exploration Group?

To explore how the Prosocial framework and the 8 Core Design Principles can help us, Renaissance Explorers (and other circles/orbs within the SEEDS ecosystem) manage our cultural evolution, become more internally cooperative, more adaptable to change, and better act as prosocial agents in between-group interactions.

What are the specific Outcomes we hope to achieve?

Everyone knows why we come together and how we participate in psychologically mature and healthy ways that support how the group works overall.

What Process will we use to achieve these outcomes?

We will be using the forum space, conversations, and field-tested tools for our exploration. I am hoping that some rhythm and rituals will emerge for us to arrive at some continuity.

We are lucky to receive some guidance from awesome fellow SEEDizen @keala , who is a trained Prosocial facilitator and has experience in implementing the CDPs. :pray:

There is shared energy among several of us to explore the prosocial world.

Thank you @MaxVBohn and @DaYa for your curiosity and continuos support to give birth to this exploration group. :revolving_hearts:

I hope this excites you as much as it excites me. Please feel free to add anything or anyone that might be missing. :woman_juggling:

Sail on!
Kath :green_heart:

First Exploration:

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Exploration Group : Conflict in Regenerative Culture
⭐ RE Major Restructuring
RE Hypha Quest Discussion
Exploration Groups Overview
#2

Tagging everyone who has indicated their interest on discord: @anahealingwords @niki @Melanie @minos999 @RachelR @joaoestellita @julioholon @guyjames @derjogi @Mila

:dancer::fire:

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#3

I feel open and drawn to be part of this exploration group! Thank you for including me here. :pray::heart:

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#4

How about we explore step by step starting with

CDP1: Shared identity and purpose

What is the RE shared identity and purpose?
(What do we see alive, might not necessarily be what we set out to be)

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#5

Yes, Yes and Yes! I love that, let’s start from the top. :dancer:

Here is what I’ve learnt so far.

CDP1: Shared identity and purpose

The first principle is fulfilled when everybody in the group feels as they belong to the group and they share a belief in the value of its purpose. In practice, people often struggle to identify with a group when they don’t believe in, or understand, its purpose.

Every group needs to (a) know that it is a group; (b) have the ability to distinguish who is a member of the group; (c) have a shared sense of purpose for what the group is about; and (d) direct its actions toward the preservation of identity and achievement of purpose for the group.

I would like to pose one question to kick us off. This will help us to express our personal passion to participate in Renaissance Explorers. The idea is when reading through the answers of our fellow explorers that we will start seeing a pattern of shared purpose and identity.

:fire: Question: What do you aspire to become by being a Renaissance Explorer?

Share a little about how you are showing up; what you are seeking in your life as a person who wants to help regenerate Mother Earth; and how you hope to embody this effort based on your current knowledge.

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#6

It‘s not fully clear to me, why I wanted to become a Renaissance Explorer but one thing is clear: I did not „just wanted to participate“. From the beginning I wanted to be and fully embody the Renaissance explorer persona.

Both words really attracted me: Renaissance and explorer.

I feel I want to create a story that we can share. I want to create a world we all love to live in.

And of course, as I am coming from the finance industry I want the people to remember what the Art of banking really is about. I‘d like to bring the fully regenerative finance system into the world.

The Quote of Antoine de Saint Exupéry comes to my mind:

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

I want to learn how to teach this. And I know that my little peace of wisdom is just a tiny little peace.

As we are exploring together my hope was and still is that all the differt pieces and colours come together and create a beautiful rainbow.

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#7

Thank you for this beautiful gift @Melanie and your invitation to create a rainbow together. :rainbow:

I feel this quote from Tyson Yunkaporta is a wonderful metaphor for what is alive in me thanks to your inspiration:

Every viewpoint is useful and it takes a wide diversity of views for any group to navigate this universe, let alone to act as custodians for it. I stand in this gully and see Rainbow in one place; you stand on the hill and see him in another, and he gives us different messages that we are supposed to share with one another.

Going forward I would like to adjust the question slightly. Thank you Melanie :pray:
:fire: Question: What do you aspire to become by being a Renaissance Explorer?
Share a little about how you are showing up; what you are seeking in your life as a person who wants to help regenerate Mother Earth; and how you hope to embody this effort based on your current knowledge.

#8

As a Renaissance Explorer I aspire to become a Kaitiaki (Te Re Māori for Guardian) for this regenerative civilisation we are collectively birthing. I embody this effort by weaving the wisdom shared through me into the World of SEEDS and the other playgrounds (Earth Regenerator and PlanetHive) I regularly visit, by going on discoveries with other Explorers in an attempt to constantly sense new pathways to walk along.

I show up wholeheartedly with the spirit to share purpose energy wherever it adds value to our collective journey. I find comfort in the trust that everyone comes to the space with the best of their abilities and purely good intentions in their hearts.

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#9

Thank you @Kath.PlanetHive and @Melanie I don’t feel like the question is really addressing the exploration of our shared identity and purpose in a direct way looking at your responses.

The question “What do you aspire to become by being a Renaissance Explorer?” requires one to specify a role/archetype/object one strives for to be but is not yet. I don’t think this applies to everyone, certainly not to me when looking at ‘Shared identity and purpose’.

As you wrote Kath, the shared identity is born out of the mutual believe and understanding of the groups purpose.

In these answers I can only interpret the purpose seen of this group which in the end means the accumulated collective purpose is even more so an interpretation.

I think ‘we’ in RE know we are a group (a :white_check_mark:) but already the ability to distinguish who is member of the group (b :x:) is a bit harder for everyone. Even the list of people we have who applied doesn’t represent the Explorers active and other people move in and out of the group.
Hence there is no distinguishable membrane.
(c) is about having a shared sense of purpose.

The RE Purpose is stated in the RE Codex.

To find out what is the shared sense of purpose I don’t know what is the best way to go about it.
Is it better

  • to directly ask what everyone thinks the purpose of RE is and their own in being here?
  • to refer to the written purpose statement in the Codex and ask everyone if they align with it?

I only see the question so far give me very little explicit insight into it.

#10

Cheers @MaxVBohn for sharing your tensions. I have some thoughts to it on different levels and I hope I am able to unpack them properly.

  1. How I see it, this question is just one of several questions/exercises to explore our shared identity and purpose. I don’t think that we can come to a shared identity and purpose with a single question to be asked. I believe it takes many avenues of explorations. I invite you to see this question as the one that travels with us while our boat is leaving the port.

  2. Why did I choose this question to start with? First it is a question that worked well in several others similar groups I am part of. But more importantly, I think our own identity is a crucial part that is often overlooked in settings like the Renaissance Explorers.

  3. I find this following statement of yours challenging.

The question “What do you aspire to become by being a Renaissance Explorer?” requires one to specify a role/archetype/object one strives for to be but is not yet.

I can see how you might feel the need for this requirement when looking at this question in isolation and when it’s been taken out of context. The explainer/prompt for this question is essential and shouldn’t be overlooked as it makes a big difference:

Share a little about how you are showing up; what you are seeking in your life as a person who wants to help regenerate Mother Earth; and how you hope to embody this effort based on your current knowledge.

  1. I also think there is a big difference between ‘I think ‘we’ in RE know we are a group’ and having a shared identity. I personally struggle to identify with the group itself but it easier for me to identify as a Renaissance Explorer. I hope I am making sense here.

So in other words, I would argue there is more to having a shared identity than simply knowing you are a group. This is where (d) comes into play:

Every group needs to (a) know that it is a group; (b) have the ability to distinguish who is a member of the group; (c) have a shared sense of purpose for what the group is about; and (d) direct its actions toward the preservation of identity and achievement of purpose for the group.

I agree with the last point you are making if you purely focus on the shared purpose:

I only see the question so far give me very little explicit insight into it.

I see that I could have been more concrete with explaining the intention of the first question I posed and that it is aimed towards shared identity mainly. Apologies for not being as clear as I could have been.

I only can assume that others felt similar tensions like you to answer this question and therefore only Melanie and I responded.

@keala could I seek your advice here? I am very keen to learn from your expertise re exploring identity and purpose.

#11

I hope my writing didn’t read too dismissive, it was not something that made me tense.

I was mainly looking at the steps read about Prosocial and that you also displayed as (a) (b) (c) (d) where the identity (of the group) seems to be born after the group takes shape. That makes sense to me.
People came together (core group), made a group (invited others), gave it a purpose and then called itself Renaissance Explorers (identity).
The steps were all there but the reflection on the purpose and if we share the same understanding of such did not happen well and therefore the shared identity seems to lack.

I’m also aware that there is a big difference between an online-group and a in-person-group which Elinor Ostrom probably didn’t research :sweat_smile: and following these steps might not be the same in this setting.

So all I wanted to point out is that seems to me the question also with context doesn’t provide the (a) (b) (c) (d) but goes straight to the personal (d) and I don’t know how to evaluate that.
But that is just me in doesn’t mean it is not possible or not in line with the Prosocial principals.

So yes, I’m also keen on learning a bit more from Keala and maybe how the matrix comes into play here.

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#12

Hello @Kath.PlanetHive

Shall I respond to all the questions you are asking on CDPs? :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Warmly
Mila

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#13

Hello dear @Mila :wave:

feel free to answer any question you might feel called to :woman_cartwheeling:

For our shared purpose and identity question I wanted to kick us off with this:

:fire: Question: What do you aspire to become by being a Renaissance Explorer?

Share a little about how you are showing up; what you are seeking in your life as a person who wants to help regenerate Mother Earth; and how you hope to embody this effort based on your current knowledge.

#14

Thanks @Kath.PlanetHive.

I don’t resonate as much with the word Renaissance. For me, it reminds me of the Renaissance era from history that was more of an intellectual movement (from my limited understanding). It is also a French word that means rebirth. I am guessing these are all semantics but language do have certain energy and vibrations to it and can influence people, consciously or unconsciouly. Think marketing messages and the way language is used, sometimes in a manipulative / subliminal way.

I am more inclined to work with an explorer/ experimenter of Regeneration - Continuity of Present and Future, co-creating nurturing conditions for all life forms to flourish and regenerate. Part of regeneration is also birth including death. In regenerative development, it is simply part of evolutionary process of life. It’s a natural evolutionary process whether humans intervene or not.

I’d love for us to get away from the illusion that humans are in control of a living system that constantly evolve and pre-existed before humanity. The invitation is to move towards a whole being alignment to life/ living system / nature. Thinking, being, doing AS nature/ life. Not only part of nature.

I am very clear that my work is all about exploring and experimenting existing positive examples integrating timeless wisdom of indigenous and rural communities integrated in this way of being (aligned to life), and modern wisdom technologies and sciences. Why co-create new ones when positive examples have demonstrated beneficial uses for a period of time for all life forms, not simply for humans.

The regeneration that I am subscribing to and stand for is for all life forms, beyond Mother Earth. In my view, Mother Earth cannot sustain itself without the sun, moon, gravity and other inter-planetary and inter-galactic forces beyond our planet.

Regeneration means to me I survive, all life forms survive. I flourish, all life forms flourish. My death is all life forms regeneration, impacting many generations of life forms beyond my understanding. In the indigenous way of co-dreaming, it is about designing, deciding, dreaming, and manifesting, not only for our present generation, but also for all the 7 generations to come - including all living beings.

So that’s what I live and breathe for as my aspirations, inspiration, and intention. Where my intention goes informs my attention, in turn, manifests my actions.

In terms of my identity, it is shaped by these values and in service of universe as my ‘home’, not simply identity of belonging to a human tribe. From my understanding, identity is shaped organically through neural patterns constantly evolving from interaction with our lived experiences and environments. In other words, identity shifts and changes with time and experiences, constantly evolving too.

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#15

Oh dear @Mila sharing your aspirations and values that shape your identity and how you bring these as gifts to our explorations truly speaks to my heart. Very inspiring :sparkles:

I share some dissonance re the word Renaissance with you for a closely related reason, which I would like to describe briefly. While I prefer a Renaissance over a Revolution as I believe how we transition is crucial, I also see the past Renaissance as a European historic period which has little to no positive connotation among the Indigenous People I personally know.

The indigenous world view that was shared with me, was that the Renaissance was also the time when James Cook travelled the Pacific Ocean with colonization in his travel bag, and eventually arrived at their land Aotearoa. Many hundreds years later we still have so much restorative justice to do.

I agree, I feel also more aligned with being an explorer/experimenter who seeks inspiration and guidance from living systems, nature and life. In my heart I know that indigenous knowledge systems and wisdom can reveal many answers on our exploration. :green_heart:

Thank you @MaxVBohn for your additional thoughts. I deeply appreciate your view. :pray: It is interesting to see how the core group came to its shared identity as Renaissance Explorers in your view but couldn’t manifest a shared understanding of purpose.

People came together (core group), made a group (invited others), gave it a purpose and then called itself Renaissance Explorers (identity).
The steps were all there but the reflection on the purpose and if we share the same understanding of such did not happen well and therefore the shared identity seems to lack.

I feel the exact opposite, when I listen into the space and my mind; I feel we have shared purpose but lack of shared identity. From my perspective this in parts has to do with a lack of membrane for the whole RE group and many other valuable remarks @anahealingwords beautifully shared in the forum thread Major Improvements in RE Structure :raised_hands:

I sense our different reflections are one of the reason why this exploration group emerged and we both hear the call. :revolving_hearts:

I am very keen to learn more about your viewpoints in one of our next gatherings. :pray: This also makes me review a,b,c and d, which might not be in the right order, if there even is an order? :thinking:

Every group needs to (a) know that it is a group; (b) have the ability to distinguish who is a member of the group; (c) have a shared sense of purpose for what the group is about; and (d) direct its actions toward the preservation of identity and achievement of purpose for the group.

With deep gratitude,
Kath :green_heart:

#16

I’m so in resonance, with what you are expressing, Mila.
Thank you!

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