Tag: LivingCycles

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Harnessing Waves in Our Work

Sine wave running from trough to trough labelled with numbers 1 through 5 at the first trough, where it crosses the x axis, at the peak, where it crosses the x axis again and finally approaching the next trough

(This post from the archive originally appeared in September 2024, and became a motif in the Pattern Book for Regenerative Design)

Today’s post picks up on yesterday’s theme of riding the waves of human energy in our work. The idea is to create a cycle of working that tunes in to our own and others’ level of available energy to create better thriving for all involved. 

For the regenerative designer, the living world often gives us a good template for how to create thriving systems. And so, whether the wavelength we are designing for is a day, a month, a year or even a lifetime, here are some modes of working inspired by the changes that living systems cycle through. I have organised these into five touch points.

1 – Start of a new cycle 

  • Associated with potential and possibilities.
  • Might be a dream-like state.
  • Might be quite slow or dormant – possibly no activity visible on the surface.
  • Gradually shifting into planning.
  • Darkness, low levels of light or energy.

2 – Ascent 

  • Gathering momentum.
  • Plans transition into action.
  • Gaining confidence.
  • Work becomes visible.

3 – Peak

  • Maximum output or yield. Possibly a launch phase.
  • Everything is visible, a point of recognition.
  • The brightest part of the cycle, associated with clarity.
  • Celebration of achievement and milestones.

4 – Descent 

  • Harvest, where outputs are gathered, enjoyed and shared.
  • Reflection on work done, evaluation. 
  • Taking apart or shedding in readiness for the next cycle.
  • Gather resources for dormant phase.

5 – Rest and renewal 

  • Recovery and restoring. 
  • Lower visibility.
  • Less action, slower movement.

Of course, how we spend our time is a negotiation with others. The invitation here is to look for opportunities to acknowledge the cyclical ways in which we work. And to acknowledge more widely the cyclical pattern to the living systems that enable us to thrive.

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The Great Flattening

Jim Crace’s book Harvest provides fascinating portrait of rural life in England just before the start of the Industrial Revolution. What is so striking is the way the pattern of life is dictated by the availability of light and labour to do work. They make hay while the sun shines and rest in the winter.

The arrival of energy-dense coal was a game-changer. Now we had energy on tap, factories could be set up and run continuously. The natural rhythms and pace that we had evolved with became smoothed out.

Enter Taylorism in the twentieth century and every hour is a productive unit to be optimised.

I call it the Great Flattening. The removal of all the contours of energy, light and even culture in the name of constant productivity, enabled by cheap energy.

Now, I am not trying to be romantic about living 250 years ago. There are plenty of things not to like (not least the dentistry). But I find it interesting to consider what is the impact of this great flattening of our experience of life and the world that we design.

This post originally appeared on eiffelover.com in 2024.

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Use the water on its way downhill

Use the water on its way downhill

Gather the feedback before everyone leaves.

Capture the waste heat before it disappears up the exhaust.

Better to hear it from the horse’s mouth.

Hold the nutrients back before they are washed away down the mountainside 

Learn the lesson straightaway 

Reuse before you recycle

Sort it on the doorstep rather than at the dump.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

When in doubt take the high road.

You can’t stop the waves but you can surf them.

When something concentrated disperses, it loses its potential. Dispersal is inevitable. The skill in regenerative design is to catch the potential on its way down, and cycle it into new life before it’s gone

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Just-in-its-own-time delivery

We’ve become used to just-in-time delivery. The antithesis of stockpiled inventory. 

But when the living world delivers its abundance, it happens all at once. Anyone engaged in community fruit growing in the south of England will know that this season, it has all come at once. 

This is inconvenient — but living systems don’t exist for our convenience. Rather we have the chance to benefit from their surplus. 

Forcing a cyclical system to produce a continuous output diminishes it, reduces quality and stresses the system. The healthier option for the ecosystem is for us to work with abundance when it arrives. 

This applies whether we are gathering fruit or harvesting materials from buildings that awaiting demolition. 

When it comes, we need to drop everything to harvest, distribute and prepare for storage until it is needed in the leaner months.

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Abundance!

Close your laptop. Postpone your meetings!

For something amazing is happening in the hedgerows in the south of Britain. You may have noticed that they are laden with fruit. Crab apples like little red lanterns. The surprise of the yellows, purples and greens of so many mirabels, damsons and plums. Blackberries about to burst on the scene, like the negatives of 10,000 fairly lights. And the fattening of soon-to-be-ripe apples.

Of course, bearing fruit is usually an annual fixture. But in my part of England this year’s harvest in parks, hedgerows and allotments is particularly heavy. Even the tree at the end of my garden which hasn’t fruited for seven years is laden ripening damsons.

Why is this? It could be that the combination of wet and dry that we had in the spring means this is a particularly good year for fruit. This could also be a mast year, one in which trees produce extra fruit in order to ensure the animals that eat them leave some behind to turn into seeds.

Whatever the reason, the fruit is there for the picking, eating, pickling, bottling, jamming and, importantly, the sharing.

That’s the thing with abundance. It often comes on its own timetable. There can be plenty for everyone but we don’t get to control it. Instead we need to swim with the peak and prepare our community for the trough that inevitably follows.

Save your meeting for the dip! Consign report writing for leaner times!