Debriefing capitalism of late
My recent engagement with business for good and how I'm recovering from busy times.
Permission to debrief the last three months with you as my witness? If so, read on.
The best way to describe my year so far is fucking busy. I cringe when I say the word busy because in my 20s I wore it like a badge of honour when really it was just burnout fuelled by overachievement and distraction.
My body remembers this time of chronic throat infections, too much alcohol and an overstimulated nervous system. It's a form of PTSD. As I've been navigating these recent full-calendar-times, I've had to remind the fearful parts of myself that we are not going back there: I have grown and changed and I now know how to rest, and say no, and look after myself.
Being busy again has been an opportunity to rewire my body's patterns of overcommitment and overstimulation (all the while not having gluten to ground me – one of my greatest achievements to date).
Reflecting, I can see that it has taken me years of slowness, rest, decolonising myself (still ongoing), detangling myself from capitalism's norms (also still ongoing) and consolidating my values – to feel ready to jump back into a full calendar at full steam.
Truthfully, I have had to learn to trust myself again.
I even have scientific data to back up that I've supported myself properly and regained this trust. I recently got a blood test that showed my iron levels increased by 50% over the last ten years since my burnout. Go me.
So what have I been up to? It's actually fascinating stuff, and I am proud of the ways in which I am consciously engaging with capitalism; learning how to weave love, regeneration and hope through its extractive claws.
Let's start with philanthropy
This year I have taken on a role two days a week as Foundation Manager at the Morris Family Foundation. Philanthropy as a sector is quite obviously flawed, and I am very lucky to be working with Hayley Morris – who gets this, and is pushing for a new paradigm of giving.
She has written about Why Philanthropy Needs to Be More Than Granting and she is teaching me about how systems change can be supported through a portfolio of giving that address all Three Horizons (see the Framework here). This means giving to a cluster of orgs that each enable change at different points of a system. Individually all of the organisations have an impact, but collectively, the impact is systemic in a way that moves the needle on the current paradigm, towards the Third Horizon.
The way giving happens, matters too. To really enable and empower nonprofits to do their best work, trust is key (there is a movement started in the US called trust-based philanthropy). For example, rather than bogging people down with grant applications and progress reports, relationships built on trust allow for granting with much less paperwork. This means more time and headspace for people to do the important work they set out to do.
A big part of my role is meeting with the nonprofits the Foundation grants, and I get to learn about their challenges, strategies, successes and theories of change. It's an absolute honour, and I feel like I am sharpening my strategy and social impact skills through exposure to so many incredible people and organisations.
This role is also calling me into a deeper relationship with wealth and power dynamics. My proximity to the Foundation’s pool of funds pool gives me a power I aim to be aware of when speaking with nonprofits. Yet relatively, I am not a wealth-holder myself. This is all endlessly complex. Ultimately, I see it as a privilege for me to have the capacity to engage with these dynamics, and work alongside people who really care about distributing wealth to enable long-term systemic change.
Business-for-good updates
Here are the highlights. I questioned why I want to share all of this, and I came to the conclusion it’s because I am proud of myself, and also because I am finding clarity and flow in the ways in which I believe business can be harnessed for good.
I want to capture this for myself, as much as share my learnings with you.
Board room dynamics have been a big topic recently. I'm on the Board of a wonderfully complex nonprofit social enterprise with $18M turnover and we are making some big strategic decisions. It's kind of a wild experience to be having huge discussions with people you barely know, and now meet with once every six weeks. Small Giants describe a Board as "Guardians of Purpose" which I love, because it brings the human aspect of Governing into the room. While decisions are data-informed, it is ultimately humans who are making them, and especially in the nonprofit world there is always heart and a social conscience in the room too. I just love that in the instance of this nonprofit, Governing – with all of its formalities and legal structures – has been a profoundly human experience. One with tears, tension and so much integrity and care.
The theme of difficult conversations (which I wrote about a few months ago here) has continued. I recently facilitated a conversation between two business owners who were experiencing some conflict about money. Testament to their emotional intelligence and love for each other, they were able to share their feelings, hear each other, and discuss options for moving forward. Because tension between humans is inevitable, I truly believe there must be space and time for it to arise and be addressed within business, and in business hours.
I also facilitated a conversation with a family last month. With absolute credit to them, they wanted to improve their communication skills and processes to help family decisions go more smoothly. This was a multi-month process of agreeing on communication structure, learning some theory and then practising it together. For me, this goes to show how us humans are still learning so much about how we relate to each other. Colonisation tore apart social structures and relational lores, and now we have the task of re-learning deep communication.
And lastly, I worked with a brilliant thought leader to design, write and build their website. For my clients, I make the experience of creating a website a personal journey as much as it is professional. The process of defining, articulating and presenting who you are and what you do to the world calls for clarity of personal values and identity, as well as market positioning and audience definition. It's a process of belonging.
The Regenerative Leader
The Regenerative Leader (the business I co-founded with Marike Knight and Hayley Morris last year) continues to take root and grow. Last month we concluded our program with 14 CEOs of environmental nonprofts with a three day retreat. This nine month journey of Inner Work for Outer Action is all about new and restorative ways of leading teams and businesses. This includes bringing the Five Wisdoms into the workplace: Earth, Body, Heart, Mind and Collective. We've seen some profound transformations from our leaders who have been learning to feel, sense, grow and let go in new ways.
We have now onboarded 12 new CEOs into our next program beginning in June.
And yes, this newsletter is a late again. The moon was 100% full at 10.22am AEST and it’s now past midday so I’m a behind schedule. Full moon, full calendar, full brain.
I want to acknowledge all ways in which my privilege, education, nervous system and able body afford me these experiences, as well as the capacity to reflect on them.
My task now is to continue learning to embody the ancient principles of regeneration that have guided all of life so well – and continue to rest and repair my brain and body; nourishing it, and thanking it for all it has gifted me over these past months.