Eco Ego Spiral

Four imperatives for any eco-centric strategy:

Be Responsible This is the foundational value that solidifies all the others.

Be Trusting Trust the process, trust Nature, trust each other to collaborate and unify.

Be Creative Be courageous to energise opportunities amidst uncertainty.

Be Eco-Logical Transform ego-centric intentions into logical, whole-system strategies.

The above graphics and text by Yoshimi & Jon Brett are marked with CC0 1.0 (OK to copy)

Values Evolve & Emerge Gently

Six Values have guided us for over 25 years. Now, in the ‘next normal’, we share how they have evolved and adapted to meet our challenging times. Please consider these values, questions, and their significance to you personally. The closer we are to living shared values, the greater the acceleration toward a healthier future for all of life.

• Sustainability extends to REGENERATIVE DEVELOPMENT
  Regenerative Development is an approach that encourages communities to support and create positive relationships that will benefit society and our environments by allowing the system to evolve and adapt to changing circumstances. This paradigm emerges from an ecological mindset by embracing uncertainty and change. From Regen Design, Melbourne University School of Design, 2019.
  How might you better embrace uncertainty and change?
• Transparency extends to TRUST DEEPLY
  Being transparent, making promises, commitments, agreements will only thrive with trust that is open, honest, received and given with integrity.
  Where and with who must you build trust?
• Responsibility extends to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR PRECESSION - the ripple effect consequences.
  As we move away from laying blame and denying…let’s pay attention to the precessional outcomes we have or will catalyse.
  What unintended, not so proud of… consequences have you catalysed? How can you redesign your behaviour for more ECO relationships with each other and Nature?
• Inter-dependence extends to MY SUCCESS DEPENDS ON YOUR SUCCESS and our success DEPENDS on Nature’s success.
  Whose success do you depend on? What can Nature depend on you to do for her success...thus OUR success?
• Creativity extends to letting go of certainty and and embracing ADVENTURE.  46 years ago - we met, sailed the Pacific on a 32 foot ferro-cement yacht, got halfway to the desired destination, lived in Japan for 2 years...all the time teaching and learning. We married in 1980 and have been on unconventional, experimental, often radical personal development adventures ever since.  
  Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature ... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.  Helen Keller
  What's your next bold adventure that serves Nature and future gens?!
• Holism extends to SYSTEMS-THINKING   (or being Eco-Logical and seeking the logic of all the nested systems involved). To think and act systemically requires all of the above values reflected in a paradigm that emerges from ecological mindsets that embrace uncertainty and change. 
  What does the future look like for you and gens to come as you eco your ego, work interdependently, and embrace uncertainty & change?

NEXT: Functions Spiral

More on the Principles Spiral  More on the Practices Spiral

Net Zero Shared-Sufficiency Presentation

Video of 2022 presentation when Emergently was still a prototype called TetraMeme.

Ngā Wero

Students
We are nearing our limits to growth. How will you re-story growth=success into a new story of shared-sufficiency? A story where growth is failure and enough=success? ZENET100 may be a distant aspiration, but it’s a TetraMeme case study used to pioneer a new kind of society based less on ego - more on ecological, systemic change. See Emergently case studies and check out the Tanglewood journey that led to the creation of TetraMeme and ZENET100.

Architects
New buildings should last well past 2050, so design now for that future. Emergently is a Buckminster Fuller inspired framework based around the tetrahedron, the minimum structural system in Universe. The process starts much like Bucky’s Design Science approach, with a comprehensive look at the current state of the external systems that your system is nested within. Like the tetrahedron, any system has at minimum 4 sides or elevations that reflect abstract concepts as well as physical buildings. Although elevations can be presented independently in two dimensions, physically they are all interdependent. TetraMeme assumes interdependence and focuses on the relationships between the sides, i.e. the edges of the tetrahedron. Solutions emerge through trying to improve those relationships. ZENET100 is a 2050 building performance standard, achievable now, as demonstrated by Tanglewood. Come and visit us!

Local Government
Net Zero is now your mandate, so how can you create an environment for innovation that lowers consumption AND accommodates population growth? Emergently is a new planning framework that begins by looking outside your issue at what the current context is, then the potential for changing that context. There is no attempt to define the desired outcome, but rather, to allow solutions to emerge. Although the process can be challenging for “results oriented” people who need a tangible outcome, ZENET100 is a case study that highlights a tangible outcome whilst shifting the self-sufficiency paradigm to one of shared-sufficiency.

Engineers
ZENET100 is a technical target for ego-centric mindsets to integrate more systematic and eco-centric approaches in order to achieve their goals. You understand the strength of triangles. Take two triangles and make four triangles the same size as the originals – that is synergy: 1+1=4. The triangles must articulate in different directions proving that synergy requires diversity. The Emergently process is designed to reveal the unexpected synergy from the natural diversity within complex systems. There is a strong logic in the process, but it also provokes intuition with the use of metaphor and the study of Nature. Visit Tanglewood to see how solar energy is engineered in Jon & Yoshimi’s home.

Eco Regenerates
To grow healthy food, you nurture a rich diversity below the surface of the ground and a mycelium network to facilitate the sharing of resources. Emergently helps you see below the surface and where the real needs are. ZENET100 is a node or fruit of the TetraMeme mycelium. TetraMeme is a spiral adventure in caring. Small improvements accumulate until a surprisingly beautiful, integrated solution emerges – like Tanglewood and the ZENET100 voluntary building performance standard.

Developers
Future-proof your legacy and design now for 2050: home, office and car that run on sun; solar panels on the roof, but also as awnings and balustrades; microgrids sharing power and lowering electricity costs for the entire development. It is being done now, but hardly anybody is noticing. Remember when double glazing was considered a luxury? Use Emergently to focus your design on imminent human needs (not just their current desires) and aim high, like ZENET100 for example. Not convinced? Visit us at Tanglewood to see how it’s SO easy being green.

 View Ngā Wero Presentation Notes

Many thanks for your kind words!

Germany: EQ Dynamics

Mexico: Alex Villarreal

Singapore: Raymond

Mexico: Hector & Carlos

USA Family

This spiral opens a lightbox

Seeding Metaphor

Try this process to discover metaphors that reflect your project!

• For each Element below, click on a concept relevant to your project. 
• You will land @ asknature.org with amazing Biological Strategies from Nature!
• Explore the options, then record the Organism, Strategy and how your project might incorporate a similar strategy.
• Creating metaphors is a free-flow mind activity...just go with first choices and see what happens!

OR...just explore AskNature.org, a free online resource of more than 1700 strategies developed by living things that achieve thousands of different functions.

Water How will your project unify, bring Nature and Human Nature together for a peaceful, collaborative, fair future for all of life?
Distribute Energy
Distribute Physical Resources
Protect
Distribute Information
Cooperate
Coordinate

Fire How will your project energise,  inspire action; accelerate a better future for all of life?
Reproduce
Generate/Pollinate
Sense/Detect
Navigate
Communicate/send signals
Feedback/Respond

Earth How will your project solidify, build firm foundations for growth and development?
Assemble/Attach
Differentiate
Capture, Absorb, or Filter
Regulate/Prevent
Maintain
Store

Air How will your project transform, change systems, mindsets and behaviours that foster regenerative, sustainable futures?
Cycle
Learn
Break Down/Expel/Remove/Deactivate
Process Information
Adapt/Optimise/Modify/Convert
Purify/Detoxify

Your Project SEEDS

Questions to help you plant in rich soil:

• Water: What are the Unifying values and principles amongst your stakeholders?
  Values: What values will best support all involved to trust, take responsibility, and BE net positive to Nature in every thought and action.
  Principles: What are the 4 Elemental Principles that weave through everything?
  Eg. Water: Inter-dependence  Fire: Synergy   Earth: Ephemeralization  Air: Diversity
• Fire: What is your Energising value proposition?
  How will you be perceived?
  Eg. By your family & friends; local community; neighbouring communities; govt; climate activists, deniers, the world, etc…
• Air: What are the trimtabs for Transforming mind-sets and behaviours needed?
  Eg. Which systems must shift and to where, for our ecological future?
• Earth: What are the Solidifying outcomes you are aiming for?
  Eg. What explicit, tangible outcomes will be created by 2030?