When we try to apply regenerative design at a project level, it can feel like our hands are tied.
The building regs won’t allow it.
I’ll never get insurance for that.
This project is too small to create that sort of change.
These constraints are real, but they are also information that the leverage need may not sit at the level of the project itself.
This is why we talk about aiming higher in the system.
To aim higher in the system is to look at the system of constraints that surround a project — the operating rules, procurement processes, risk appetite and supply chains — and work to change those.
This work may look different to the work we normally do. It might involve creating new relationships, developing new processes, challenging big assumptions.
It may not look like regular design.
Which is why ‘aim higher in the system’ sits at the top of the Brief for Thriving. If we can influence over the higher shelves on the Systems Bookcase — the operating rules, mindsets and goals — then we can begin to change what gets built, and critically, the impact of building stuff.
Regenerative design is systems change. We have to work higher in the system to ensure that what we build actually makes the world better.