Dancing Between Paradigms
Evolving Our Thinking to Regenerate Life
How to approach this article + context
Test all the ideas you read in this article with your own experience. I’m by no means an expert, and have a lot to learn from you as the reader and co-participant in personal evolution! I felt called to further dive into this topic and test my own capabilities to discern paradigms of thinking after listening to a dialogue between Carol Sanford and Josie Plaut around discernment as a core skill in systems change work. This is heavily influenced by Carol’s article around Heeding Einstein’s Admonition : A White Paper on Regeneration’s Significance. I recommend reading this if you want to dive deeper into paradigms!
The impact of paradigms
As systems change agents, whether we’re acting in a large philanthropic organization, our neighborhoods, a social enterprise startup, or a corporation, we dedicate a lot of time and effort to make the world a better place.
However, many times we’re confronted with doubts, conflict in our work, and a nagging feeling that we could be doing more.
First off, we can accept that we are enough in this moment. We are whole, as we were born whole.
But these doubts may have a valid source - that we’re operating from the level of thinking that made our current world in our work to make a better world.
You may be stuck in a paradigm of thinking that doesn’t align with your ambitions for a world where humans and earth live in harmony and sacred relationship with each other.
Paradigms of consciousness, or default modes of thinking are both subtle and sweeping. They are hidden in how you frame the work you’re doing, and have incredibly far-reaching consequences for the level of energy, creativity, and unifying capability you gain.
Many doing work with the intention of truly transforming our systems bump up against the same ceiling - the ceiling of our thinking paradigm and the beliefs, values, and assumptions that underly it. In this article, we’ll develop an understanding of paradigms and examine where we’re at. We’ll learn about the four paradigms of transformation introduced out by Carol Sanford, supported by a developmental framework to support discernment of how different levels of thinking paradigms show up and how to move between them.
What is a paradigm?
First, let’s explore the meaning of paradigms.
In this article when I refer to paradigms I’m talking about them not in the context of a field of study, but a universal perspective on seeing the world. Carol Sanford refers to them in her "Four Modern Paradigms Framework”.
We all dance between these different paradigms in our thinking as we move through our lives. They’re not mutually exclusive fixed categories. They’re orders to our thinking that we move through, many times unconsciously. The goal of writing this article is to provide a process to order the level of thinking you’re engaged in more explicit, so you might apply them with more intention, evolving your thinking so you can more effectively evolve the systems and places you care about.
I’ll use this framework to evoke some understanding for each paradigm. To create the developmental experience from this article, you can answer the reflection questions at each paradigm openly and honestly.
🗺️ Scenario: A scenario or story that illustrates the paradigm at work.
🎯 Aim: The core goal or source of motivation that the paradigm works from.
👽 Being State: The state of being, or characteristics, of people operating from this paradigm
❓Guiding Question: The key question that guides the efforts and exploration of the paradigm.
🕸️ Systemic Effects: The key systemic outcomes of operating from the paradigm in a systems change context
🔍 Source of Truth: The foundation for knowing in this paradigm
🌀Core Shifts Upward: The key shifts in perspective that facilitate a shift to the next paradigm upward.
🤔Reflections: Questions that you can use to reflect on the indicators of each paradigm and develop your capacity to move through each of the paradigms intentionally.
What is a situation or moment when you were thinking from this paradigm? What did it feel like? What disruptive question can you ask yourself to shift into the desired being paradigm?
🙏🏼 If you’re called to share, feel free to put your reflections in the comments! This is a safe space for learning and development.
Extract value paradigm
This paradigm is one that many businesses have been operating from. One way I think about it is the default of shareholder capitalism. Sometimes we can get sucked into thinking from the extract value paradigm when our core physiological needs or identities are threatened, in self protection all we can think about is how to cover our needs without any consideration for the living system in which we’re embedded.
🗺️ Scenario: The CEO of Shell CEO and the Board of Directors shareholders sit down at a meeting. They review the profits from the last quarter and start strategizing on how to cut costs and raise profits. While environmental questions and concerns may enter their awareness, they only consider these questions from the core individual drive for increasing profits.
🎯 Aim: Extract as much value from human and ecological system as possible for one’s individual needs
👽 Being State: ****Lack, greed, fear, jealousy, self protection.
❓Guiding Question: How do I extract value from this system for my needs?
🔍 Source of Truth: The next up in the hierarchy / an external authority.
🌀Core Shifts Upward:
Focus shifts from aim of extracting value to solving problems
Source of truth shifts from the hierarchy to the scientific method
🕸️ Systemic Effects:
The extract value paradigm leads to degeneration of living systems. The extraction of value from a living system is also the extraction of vitality, the source of energy that drives a living system. You can see the systemic effects of the extract value paradigm when you look at how the life gets sucked out of people in corporate settings operating from this level. When they come home from work, they don’t have any energy to contribute to their families, neighborhoods, or communities. Similarly in the Shell scenario, they extract the oil from places, disrupting ecosystems and destroying life - then a lot of that oil will go into plastic production which likely will end up back in the ecosystem as waste, disrupting the functioning of life. If we image the history of capitalism and the concentration of wealth (in a whole sense, financially, ecologically, socially, culturally), we can see a clear draining of vitality from the Earth with biodiversity rates plummeting and states such as cancer, depression, and anxiety skyrocketing.
What is a situation or moment when you were thinking from this paradigm? What did it feel like? What disruptive question can you ask yourself to shift into the desired being paradigm?
Arrest disorder
The Arrest Disorder paradigm is grounded in and limited to the scientific method. Seeing a specific problem or variation from ideals defined by someone higher up in the hierarchy, testing individual variables with interventions designed to create change in a linear fashion.
🗺️ Scenario: A non-profit sits down to create a strategy for solving the problem of homelessness. After some discussion, they end up with the goal of “decreasing homelessness by 50%”. They then start searching for best practices and research backed interventions to create tangible progress on this quantitative goal.
🎯 Aim: Eliminate immediately perceivable problems that hold emotional impact
❓Guiding Question: How can I solve this problem?
👽 Being State: Narrow thinking, tunnel vision, frustration, constant fighting past obstacles. The struggle for good.
🔍 Source of Truth: Controlled research via scientific method and inherited or externally promoted ideals.
🕸️ Systemic Effects:
in the Arrest Disorder paradigm in a systems change perspective, we focus on specific problems in a system, fracturing it and making it impossible to work on the system as a living whole. This leads to the systemic effects of hyper complexity, overlapping but incompatible interventions, and gridlock. An example of this is a program that focuses specifically on the problem of the lack of third grade reading ability. This narrowing of focus prevents us from seeing the whole essence and potential of the third graders and the education system. What if the essence of these children was better supported through more outdoors, project-based, self-guided education? We would never uncover this essence if we fixate on a specific aspect of education for a specific segment of kids (reading in 3rd grade). No matter how far “upstream” you go, if you continually source motivation from a specific problem, the complexity will increase and it may feel like you’ll never make coherent progress on the system as a whole, because you’re splitting it into parts and trying to work on it in parts.
Key shift to the next paradigm: Shifting the source of motivation from eliminating a problem to creating a better future
Bring up a situation or moment when you were thinking from this paradigm. What did it feel like? What effects did your actions and ideas have, immediate and over time? What disruptive question can you ask yourself to shift into the desired paradigm?
Do good -
This is where many of us get stuck as systems change agents- relying on a perspective sourced from the bubble of our own and our close circle’s values/beliefs/assumptions. Our story and interpretation of reality is the source of truth instead of a continual internal rebirthing process where we observe systems as whole beings, test our assumptions, and shift our perspective based on the underlying essence of the living systems around us.
🗺️ Scenario: Charity Water, a leading non-profit works with local grassroots organizations in Global South rural areas to implement water infrastructure, based on their vision for a world where everyone has access to water and driven by their tech-enabled approach.
🎯 Aim: Do good for others as determined by one’s moral compass
🔍 Source of truth: Internal + inherited moral compass
👽 Being state: Caring, empathetic, self-actualizing.
🕸️ Systemic Effects:
The effects of a do-good paradigm are ‘good’, especially on the surface! More people with drinking water is undeniably good in most people’s eyes. However, initiatives sourced from the do-good paradigm can have the effect of diluting the unique essence of systems because it’s source of knowing is from one’s internal perspective. This can lead to systems failing to develop from their core essence, instead developing capabilities that are sourced from an entirely different worldview that may not fit their unique context. This results in long-term degeneration because an intervention wasn’t sourced from the essence and unique potential of the system it’s addressing. Another example of the do-good paradigm is in ecosystem restoration in the form of reforestation. Many tree planting efforts have a vision of thriving forests, but fail to truly listen to what the ecosystem needs before they start planting. This leads to many trees dying because the efforts didn’t aim to evolve the lands inherent ability to steward life, but to implement their vision.
🌀Key Shift Upward: Shifting source of truth from internal and socialized moral compass to a compass attuned to the essence and potential of living systems
Bring up a situation or moment when you were thinking from this paradigm. What did it feel like? What effects did your actions and ideas have, immediate and over time? What disruptive question can you ask yourself to shift into the desired paradigm?
Regenerate Life/Evolve Capacity
The highest, and most subtle paradigm to achieve is the Evolve Capacity paradigm. In this paradigm, we open ourselves into the unique essence and potential of other individuals and living systems. We sense into each situation as unique and craft an approach that adapts to the needs of the current moment and aims to help others develop their inherent potential.
Carol states in her whitepaper:“It also requires moving away from standardized ideals and projections of our personal or cultural standards on others.”
This paradigm requires a capacity called essence thinking, seeing beyond the thoughts, ideas, and physical manifestations of a being to the essential core of what makes it unique. It’s a
🗺️ Scenario: Regenerat.es developing capacity across the world for practicing regenerative design and development through guiding students to practice living systems frameworks through real-world projects.
🎯 Aim: Grow the capacity of living systems to manifest their inherent potential
🔍 Source of truth: Observation of the essence of living systems
👽 Being state: Caring, open, expanded awareness that connects, essence to essence with the life around you
🕸️Systemic Effects:
The effects of the regenerate life paradigm are in the name - evolving capacity for life to flourish in it’s unique expression. Many thriving landscapes and the vast majority of terrestrial biodiversity remain from the activities indigenous people who have held a regenerate life paradigm as their cultural default. In a systems change perspective, operating from the regenerate life perspective leads to a cascading evolution and abundance in capability for communities. For a reforestation activity, a regenerate life paradigm would look like working with local human communities to image the expression of their ecology over a period of time - examining what roles do trees play in the ongoing evolution of the ecosystem? What other partners did trees work with to generate abundance for the whole ecosystem? What is the unique role of the community in stewarding the ecosystem? This leads to the ongoing flourishing of an ecosystem over generations, creating higher orders of value for the places in which it’s nested. The regenerate life paradigm leads to the deepening of awareness within the individual human, recognition of unique potential, and expression of that potential on higher orders over time.
What is a situation or moment when you were thinking from this paradigm? What did it feel like? What effects did your actions and ideas have, immediate and over time? What disruptive question can you ask yourself to shift into this paradigm?
Detached Discernment - Reconciling self-judgement
We are all human, and even though I took the time to develop my thinking through this writing, I’m still very much learning and practicing how to keep my own thinking paradigm elevated. At first when I did this work, I’d catch myself dropping into Arrest Disorder or Extract Value and beat myself up. It’s a natural response of expanding your awareness to new inner potential while being very much encoded by the paradigms that have created human systems that are so disconnected from the rhythm of life.
However, there is another way. This lies in a detached discernment. Where we’re able to reflect on our thinking without identifying with our current level of thought. In this lies self-acceptance of wherever you are on the spectrum. A loving care for yourself because you’ve chosen to do the hard, humbling work of self reflection. From this being state, we’re then able to shift into the aims of a higher paradigm. However if we remain in the heavy space of self-judgement it is difficult to elevate our thinking.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this writeup on the different paradigms and their systemic effects. It’s no small feat to commit to thinking, acting, and cultivating a regenerate life paradigm and I share my gratitude with you for taking the first step of reading this article and hopefully answering the reflection questions.
If you want to evolve your thinking with a group of like-minded systems change agents, consider joining the Evolution Space!
We’re hosting spaces for intentional movement, learning, and collaborative masterminds to improve our capacity and care as systems change agents.