Ideas and projects stem from who we are, where we are, what we see and what motivates us. Often, there is a trigger, a call to act, to protect, to contribute to or to change something. Motivations can be deeply personal, but that does not mean they cannot be shared with others. Taking the time to listen to each other and unify around a shared purpose or vision can create bonds that sustain a project for the duration, and that make more and more people want to join in.
- Connecting to purpose
- Finding inspiration and new ideas
- Understanding personal and shared visions and motivation
- Fomulating initial ideas and visions for a new project or initiative
- Finding others who share a similar vision
- Clarifying shared commitment and common ground values
- Creating an initial team willing to carry the idea forward
- Listen to the feedback of the world
- Learn from nature and practise whole systems thinking
- What is our vision for this project, individually and as a team? What will we have achieved if we are successful in 2 years, 10 years, a generation?
- What are some issues we are trying to solve, what is it we want to change?
- How will this project fulfil us, enhance our community and make a positive contribution in the wider world?
- What excites us about this project?
- Who else around us could share this vision and excitement?
- What are our core values? What is important in the way we work?
Phrase describing the core of what the project is seeking to achieve
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Are you a local organisation or group? Are you a collaboration between different organisations? Are you a group of people? Tell us who is behind this project!
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Which country, town, village or community are you working within?
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Projects can aim to solve problems, fulfil needs, or just to make a situation better or different - what is the situation, issue or problem you are wanting to change or improve?
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Get a bit more specific and describe three project goals with a sentence each
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Why is this important to you?
GEN's Areas of Regeneration - Social, Ecology, Economy, Culture and Integral Design - are made up of key principles and practices for regenerative communities and whole systems community design. You can of choose more than one as central to your project.
Ecology
See https://www.globalgoals.org/goals/ for guidance. You can choose more than one
Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
See https://www.innerdevelopmentgoals.org/framework and/or Inner Transition for guidance and inspiration
Done!
- Map of Regeneration
- Instruction Booklet - GEN Design Cards
- Video introduction to the Ecovillage Principles
- United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
- Inner Transition - the internal, emotional and psychological dimensions of creating change
- Inner Development Goals
- Four Questions exercise
- Dyade for deepening conversations
- I - We - World exercise
- Creating and communicating your statement of intention - exercise
- Dragon Dreaming - Dreaming
- Dragon Dreaming - free ebook
- Effective groups - how to start them and keep them going
- A guide to organising good meetings
Voices of Transition, Map or Regeneration, Journey of Regeneration, Dragon Dreaming, Transition Network, Permaculture, Global Ecovillage Network, ECOLISE, Community Learing Incubator CLIPS
Community, Local Authority and other potential partners
Way of Council, Theory U, Check-in and Introductions, Articulating and sharing expectations & aspirations
Here you can include an image of your choice - maybe a photo of your core team, a drawing of your vision, or a project logo
Here, your team moves from dreaming and visioning to committing to your project - crossing the threshold to enter the territory of implementation. To navigate any territory, maps are helpful. Aims, goals, pathways, opportunities and allies, all become clearer and more solid when firmly grounded in a specific context - local as well as global. Other people, organisations and official bodies have their own goals and strategic plans. Making sure you understand and can articulate how your work enriches theirs will help you design a better project, attract more people, gain credibility, and find more support.
- Creating a deeper and shared understanding of how change happens
- Grounding the project in a local context
- Researching local and regional conditions as well as global challenges and risks
- Mapping people, initiatives and opportunities - Identifying win-wins and cross connections
- Creating a rough project plan
- Identifying resources and funding opportunities
- Identify assets, needs and leverage points
- Adapt solutions to scale and context
- What maps and models for change are we using - what do we think is necessary for change to happen?
- Who do we need to have onboard, and in what way, for that change to happen?
- What are the strengths and challenges, or assets and needs, of our community or region?
- Who else is creating change around us or is active in our field, what are their plans, goals and strategies?
- How does our project link with existing plans and aspirations for change and development?
- How is our project relevant to others in our community? How does it help others reach their goals?
- What resources would we need to have access to, to start our project?
- How can we build the relationships we need to access those?
- What resources do we already have access to?
- What opportunities do we have for funding from grants, donations, crowdsourcing, loans, cooperatives or community banks, for example?
There are many avenues to change - would things change if people had better information or training, the town square was more inviting, people spent more money locally, iyoung people had a space to be...
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What will you do to make it happen, what's your specific contribution? Look at your answer to the last question and think about what your project can do.
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Have your goals changed now that you have done more research, or are they the same as before? Either way, it's time to get even more specific about what you are aiming for.
Starting a timeline will help you keep an overview of your goals, tasks and milestones
Having a clear and shared picture of what success looks like will help you navigate, evaluate and aim well together
Have your goals changed now that you have done more research, or are they the same as before? Either way, it's time to get even more specific about what you are aiming for.
Starting a timeline will help you keep an overview of your goals, tasks and milestones
Having a clear and shared picture of what success looks like will help you navigate, evaluate and aim well together
Have your goals changed now that you have done more research, or are they the same as before? Either way, it's time to get even more specific about what you are aiming for.
Starting a timeline will help you keep an overview of your goals, tasks and milestones
Having a clear and shared picture of what success looks like will help you navigate, evaluate and aim well together
Mapping assets and seeing the wealth that is already there can help get a project past the feeling that nothing is possible without more money - funds are important, but as one kind of asset and capital
There are basic and more complex ways to undertake a stakeholder analysis, depending on the scale of your activity
Be specific! Is the local council hoping to implement better recycling, does the sports club have a diversity and inclusion policy, is the retirement home looking for more activities for residents?
you can do the assessment at www.ecovillage.org/impact. It has two levels - it's up to you how deeply you engage with it but we strongly recomment that your whole team does at least level 1.
Done!
You can do this online or as an interactive session with your team or a wider group of people using the Ecovillage Design Cards
- GEN impact assessment
- Instruction Booklet - GEN Design Cards
- Exercise to identify aspirations and resources
- The Systems Game - an activity to reflect on systems dynamics and change
- Backcasting from Sustainability Principles
- Video introduction to Organic Project Development
- How to develop a plan for assessing community needs and resources
- A guide to Asset Mapping
- Participatory Community Development Handbook with many approaches, examples and templates for mapping and engagement
- Stakeholder analysis template
- SOAR Analysis
- SOAR Analysis Template (on free platform Miro)
- SWOT Analysis
- SMART goals introduction
- SMART goals template to download
- Project timeline / Gantt chart template
- Empowered Fundraising
- Video introduction to the Social and Solidarity Economy
- Dragon Dreaming - Planning
Voices of Transition, Dragon Dreaming,
Celebrating diversity, Diagram of potential stakeholders across different scales, Planning charettes, Participatory budgeting and consultation, Smart targets, Dragon Dreaming
Facilitating collaboration, The Political Compass, World Cafe, Mapping on the land, Dragon Dreaming, Participatory Mapping, Mapping on the Land
Here you can include an image of your choice - maybe a photo of your core team, a drawing of your vision, or a project logo
With your maps, goals and deeper understanding of the people and places you interface with, it's time to strengthen your team and make sure you have everyone onboard that you need. That includes understanding taking a deep look at perspectives and people who might lack voice or representation, in your team and in your community. It also involves the work you can do to address issues of power, rank and privilege. As your circles take shape, you will also need clear governance systems and project roles, as well as ways of listening, communciating, working together and facilitating meetings and groups. Inclusion, skillful governance and a collaborative and respectful group culture will help you create strong circles able to carry your project forward with dedication and creativity.
- Accessing the skills, capacities and allies needed to implement the project
- Creating plans and understanding of how to enhance diversity, equity, justice and inclusion in throughout your project
- Learning about rank, power and leadership
- Creating an inclusive and affirming group culture
- Learning about participatory group processes and gaining experience in group facilitation
- Creating a rough project plan
- Clarifying roles, responsibilities and governance
- Sharpening the project design concerning organisational structures, roles and flows
- Be aware of privilege and use it for the benefit of all
- Build alliances across all divides
- Do we have the skills, capacities, competencies and connections needed in our team, or do we need to recruit more people or get trained?
- How are our own positions (gender, race, age, background etc) affecting the way we think about how change happens, who can create change, and where the barriers and challenges lie that have to be faced?
- Are we missing important experiences and perspectives in our team and project design? Who else in our community might have additional competencies to offer?
- What kind of group and team culture do we want, what kinds of agreements and practices would support us to create it?
- Who decides what we do and how we use our resources?
- How can we make clear decisions and hold ourselves accountable to what we decide and say we will do?
- How can we reach the people we want to engage with, influence or work with?
These are any organisations that are actively involved with designing and implementing the project
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These are the people and groups your project will touch, affect, engage with or involve
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Do you have working groups, a coordination team, specific roles? Who makes decisions about what, and how?
Done!
- Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion toolkit
- Why diversity is important, and how to work towards it
- Circle of Trust and Unconscious Bias Exercise
- From stakeholder mapping to stakeholder engagement and impact pathways
- A guide to good publicity and outreach
- Introduction to group process
- A guide to making group agreements
- Checklist for encouraging people to stay involved in your group
- Effective groups - how to start them and keep them going
- Art of Hosting
- Resource Library for Facilitators - Art of Hosting
- Resource Library for Facilitators - Hosting Transformation
- Resource Library for Facilitators - Training for Change
- Resource Library for Facilitators - Hyper Island
- International Institute for Facilitation & Change
- Sociocracy for all - about consent decision-making and governance by peers
- A guide to consensus decision-making
- Defining roles and responsibilities exercise
- Who-what-when matrix for keeping track of tasks
Dragon Dreaming - do you have a dreamer, a doer, a planner and a celebrator?
Sociocracy
Sociocracy, Competencies, Developing Collaboration, Deepening Diversity
Anything you want to share - an image, map, file etc. It will be public so by adding it you promise you have the rights and consent of all involved.
You are ready to act and implement - with a plan, a team, wider circles of support, and several maps in hand. Now it's time to learn from doing. Acting, evaluating, learning and improving, you refine your project through testing your assumptions and plans in the real world. By daring to act and test your ideas, you can get quick feedback on everything from how people react and engage, to how your team functions, and if you are having the impact and results you were hoping for. By acting sooner rather than later, you can learn and improve in multiple steps, instead of spending too much time making perfect plans.
- Designing and implementing a prototype
- Carrying out the initial steps of the project and assessing how it is received
- Learning through doing things together
- Setting up systems for tracking and evaluating impact, internally and externally
- Refining project plans through iterative learning
- Adapt solutions to scale and context
- Engage all stakeholders in designs for the future
- What's a small and easy way to bring our project alive for us and our stakeholders?
- What can we do to test how well results and feedback match what we are hoping to achieve?
- What are the assumptions underlying our project, or things we are not sure about? How can we test to see if they are right?
- What are creative ways to gather data and learn about how our project is working in practice?
- Whose feedback is extra important to us as we start to implement?
- How is our collaboration working now that we are doing things together? Do we need to refine our governance, roles or communication?
- Did something surprise us when we started to implement the project?
What did you test, what did you want to learn? how did you test it, who did you test it with?
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Who was involved, what did you ask? How did you gather information?
What will you do to keep learning and gather feedback on how your project is developing from now on? Who will you engage with, and how? What are you measuring and what data will your be gathering? Do you want to document your activities in some creative way, using video, images or art?
Depending on your project this can look very different - maybe a community workshop, a first treeplanting action, a mini citizens assembly, an experience of a smaller version of what you envision your final result to be, a trial run of a local currency during market day, new recycling bins in one neighbourhood - get creative and see how you can create the same conditions as you want to with your full project, but in a way that is quick and doesn't use a lot of resources.
Do you need feedback forms, focus groups, observations of how people interact, data on use... it will depend on what you are doing and what you are testing. Make sure to ask and involve all your stakeholders
Take photos, get testimonials, document a gap in research or practice... whatever makes sense for what you are planning to do
Photos, stories, podcasts, articles - anything that will help you remember, celebrate, learn, create publicity and disseminate
Done!
Documenting things along the way will help you see what you have achieved, and show it to others
SDG activities, Constellation work to explore systems interconnectedness
Anything you want to share - an image, map, file etc. It will be public so by adding it you promise you have the rights and consent of all involved.
Daring to act means daring to potentially fail, and meeting the world can mean meeting resistance, challenges or unexpected setbacks - especially when we are trying to change the status quo. By acting together with others, we also meet ourselves and our team members in new and deeper ways, which can lead to uncomfortable realisations, conflicts and disappointment. At the same time, research shows that previous failure is one of the best indicators of success, and many schools of thought consider the dark night essential for something truly innovative to come into being. Knowing that challenge, conflict, doubt and fear will be part of the journey, you can prepare - not to avoid it, but to walk through it skillfully together. If you are here in your journey, it's time to stop for a moment and let the deeper levels of your collaboration come to the surface, finding out what needs to be heard, resolved or transformed for your project to rise like a phoenix from the ashes and your team to find renewed committment and resilience together.
- Noticing and sharing resistance, doubts and fears
- Learning from success and failure
- Addressing tensions and resolving conflicts skilfully
- Letting go of preconceptions, expectations or assumptions that have proven false
- Making necessary adjustments to team culture and project plans
- Strengthening personal and project resilience
- Building stronger networks of safety, care and connection
- Listen to the feedback of the world
- Adapt solutions to scale and context
- What challenges have we faced in our team and with collaboration?
- Are there any issues or dynamics that we are not talking about? How can we create safe spaces for doing so?
- What is making us feel hopeless, angry or sad when we think about our project, our team and the world?
- Where have we hit resistance and inertia in the world?
- What are the external issues that we cannot control and how can we be resilient and adapt to these?
- What do we need to let go of, and what are we committing even more strongly to?
- What kinds of infrastructure and practices can we create to support more safety, transparency, sustainability, care and connection?
- What are our sources of hope and resilience, individually, as a team, and as a community?
This could feel vulnerable to share. Remember that setbacks are not failures, they are inevitable learning-opportunities and by sharing them we help each other learn and lower the bar for others to take initiative.
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Done!
- Community resilience toolkit - videos, inspiration and tools
- Nonviolent communication
- A guide to giving and receiving feedback
- Inspiration for responding to tragedy through the heart and poetry of adrienne maree brown
- Grief and Joy on a Planet in Crisis, podcast with Joanna Macy
- Introduction to Transformative Justice
- Presencing and Theory U
- Regenerative Activism
- Group process to surface what's beneath
- Stinky fish exercise
- The 5 whys exercise
- Solving complex problems through diversity and inclusion - a process guide
- A transformative approach to conflict
- Inner Transition conflict resilience resources
- A guide to working with conflict in grassroots groups
- GROW coaching model to explore obstacles and pathways forward
Voices of Transition
Dealing with conflict
Non-violent communication, 8 shields, Presencing, Responding to change or challenge, Forum
Anything you want to share - an image, map, file etc. It will be public so by adding it you promise you have the rights and consent of all involved.
Sometimes when things seem stuck, even a small shift in perspective, a single conversation or a tiny step forward can reveal abundant new possibilities. More resilient, with a deeper understanding of your project and team, and space for new ideas where old assumptions and expectations used to be, this is the time to welcome new directions and connections that will let you take your project further. In this phase, it is time to think and act creatively to bring your project into full bloom. You have tested your ideas and been tested by the world, you have learned. Now you are ready to really create something truly new and scale your action!
- Overcoming challenges and blockages in create ways
- Harnessing new tools, know-how and wisdom to create a clear path for the broader implementation of the project
- Taking the project into new arenas
- Finding unexpected leverage points and new ways to reach your goals
- Making necessary adjustments to team culture and project plans
- Making visible what the project is bringing into being and seeing that in a wider context
- Accessing resources needed for full implementation
- Learn from nature and practise whole systems thinking
- Identify assets, needs and leverage points
- Build alliances across all divides
- What do we think and feel about the relationship between planning and emergence? How are they playing out in our project?
- Looking at our project so far - what can we see coming into being that we maybe did not expect?
- What changes have we initiated or can see emerge? How can we use that to leverage wider systemic change in the future?
- How can we build on our success and scale our project further?
- Which new possibilities and opportunities can we sense - and how can we open up to sense more of them?
- Who is well placed to help us with new advice, resources or connections?
- What other projects can we develop with the relationships and partnerships we have built?
- Who do we want to inform, include and engage with as we scale?
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there are guides and ideas in the resource list
Done!
You now have new directions, concrete results, established relationships and creative ideas on how to scale - it can be a good moment build on your success and learning to fundraise or access more people, spaces, persmissions or whatever other resources you seek.
- Lifecycle of Emergence: Using Emergence to Take Social Innovation to Scale - Margaret Wheatley
- Cultural Emergence - intro and tools
- Appreciative Inquiry
- Widening Circles Exercise to open up to new perspectives
- Systems Leverage Points
- Systems mapping
- Miracle Questions
- How might we... exercise
- Social & Solidarity finance
- Empowered Fundraising
- Gratitude exercises
- A guide to good publicity and outreach
Visioning tools
Anything you'd like to include and have the right and consent to publish
You are doing it. Your project is in full bloom and you have become skilled and experienced changemakers together. The plans you made and refined are yielding results, and the changes you aimed for are becoming reality. It's a busy time of full implementation, activities and teamwork, but also of paying attention to what you are achieving and how. Making sure to gather your results, you set the stage not only for great celebration, but also for sharing your knowledge in ways that can inform and inspire others to act. If there have been difficulties in the project, this is also a time for forgiveness and reconciliation. Reaching maturity as a team and seeing your collaboration bear fruit, you have so much to harvest and share with others!
- Implementing a project fully
- Tending to anything that needs attention
- Evaluating outcomes and measuring progress
- Making clear how the project is supporting positive transformations at different scales and for different people
- Gathering materials for presentation and dissemination
- Integration and reconciliation
- Making visible what the project is bringing into being and seeing that in a wider context
- Accessing resources needed for full implementation
- Listen to the feedback of the world
- Be aware of privilege and use it for the benefit of all
- How is it going? Are there any areas of our collaboration or implementation that need our attention or support?
- Are there any outstanding issues or questions that we need to address?
- How are we keeping resourced and motivated in the midst of the busyness?
- What is the full impact of our project? What has changed from when we started?
- What are we learning about capacity-building and collaboration?
- Who do we need to connect with to understand the full effect our project is having?
- In what ways do we want to document our results to share them with others?
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Which capacities, how, how did the project contribute to that capacity building?
What has happened, what are you achieving, what have you learned, did your goals and intentions change? If so, why?
You can do this online or as an interactive session with your team or a wider group of people using the Ecovillage Design Cards
Done!
It's time to celebrate! Celebration is often overlooked, but it is vital not only for the resilience and wellbeing of changemakers, but also to let other people know and learn from what you have done. This is especially important when working with partners and with a wider group of people who may not be fully aware of the extent of your project. This is a great opportunity to share your enthusiasms and successes, and perhaps to find new partners for future projects. Sharing your stories helps other groups see their potential, and helps you appreciate what you have achieved. It also scales the impact of your project and what you have learnt, if others can benefit from it.
- Reflecting on personal and collective experiences throughout the project
- Acknowledging and appreciating everyone’s contributions - thanking all the people involved
- Celebrating all that's been achieved and learned
- Presenting vision, outcomes and future intentions to broader society
- Letting others learn from your experience and results
- Inviting new allies and opportunities
- Spread core patterns of regeneration
- Build alliances across all divides
- What are we most grateful for when we think about our project, team, partners and the journey we have been on together?
- To whom should we tell our stories? Who do we want to gather? How can we include all audiences?
- What are good channels to reach the people we want to share our results with?
- Are there creative ways in which we can celebrate our project and engage with others - like community art, poetry, music, theatre, photography exhibitions, a street carnival...?
- How can we celebrate in a way that is inclusive to all partners, communities and organisations? Do we need multiple celebrations?
- Can we link with existing cultural events in the region, or honour historical or cultural context in our celebrations?
- What would a fun and nurturing celebration look like for our core team?
- How can we enhance the legacy of our project and provide a stepping stone for future projects?
What did you do? Did you host events? Did you involve any arts and creativity? who attended?
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Did you write blogs, use social media, write pressreleases or articles, attend fairs, set up info stands in the square...?
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Is there a specific moment, event, response or effect that stands out to you? What made it so special?
Newsletters, info stands, public events, street parties, press releases, posters, stickers, open neighbourhood gardens, leaflets, blogs, social media, academic articles, conferences - what suits your project and stakholders?
Your celebration can be a source of further dissemination - take photos, publish stories, involve local media!
They are part of your impact and the story of your project!
Done!
- A guide to good publicity and outreach
- How to write a policy brief
- Writing a press release
- Writing a blog
- Storytelling in community
- Making short videos
- Planning community art
- Planning a community event (in a UK context but full of good general advice)
- Appreciation train exercise
- Dragon Dreaming - Celebrating
- Gratitude letters
- 50 Gratitude activities for teams
Voices of Transition
Celebration, Dragon Dreaming, 8 Shields
8 Shields
Share a picture or other output from your celebrations - make sure you can guarantee you have the right and relevant consent to publish it
Resting is not a luxury or inefficiency, it's a radical and necessary act to break cycles of burnout and sustain regenerative work in the world. Organising in ways that renew or revitalise our own resources and those of our groups is what makes our work truly regenerative. Celebrating is one source of revitalisation, but so is rest. It's time to pause. Integrating stillness, rest, connection and care, waiting a moment before jumping into the next project, and taking time to reflect and listen deeply to what is calling you now, are all part of the essential work of creating change.
- Resting and integrating
- Finding moments of stillness and reconnection
- Nurturing individual and team wellbeing and sense of completion
- Reflecting on your project and its impact on you, your team and your community
- Consolidating the project and sensing what wants to happen next
- Giving space to hear what is calling you now
- Listen to the feedback of the world
- Learn from nature and practise whole systems thinking
- What feels most nourishing and restorative for us to do right now?
- How can we support each other to take a real pause from doing, and rest?
- What's the role of rest, care and mutual support in regenerative change work?
- What did we do well?
- What could we have done better?
- What were our highlights?
- What's our vision of the world and our community now?
- What is calling us into action now?
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- Reflection guidelines
- History Map team retrospective exercise
- Project Wrap-Up exercise
- Listening to the future exercise
- Storytelling exercise
- Dyade for deepening conversations
- 10 Nature Connection exercises
- The benefits of spending time in nature - forest bathing
- Regenerative Activism
- Inner Transition - the internal, emotional and psychological dimensions of creating change
- Self-care as a radical act
8 Shields
Reflection activities, 8 Shields
Any final image, drawing, photo or document you want to share- guaranteeing that you have the right and relevant consent to make it public.
GEN Staff
