In this episode pioneering regenerative thinker Carol Sanford rejoins me to share a living systems framework she calls The Seven First Principles of Regeneration.

Sketch by Dan based on Carol's description

Resources to Deepen Learning

My first chat with Carol (also see these follow up words from Carol)My second chat with Carol where she shares her four levels of paradigmCarol's websiteThe Deep Pacific Change Agent Community (That Dan is part of)A series of articles in which Carol applies the Seven First Principles to educationCarol going through the principles in a different way on her Business Second Opinion PodcastCarol's book The Regenerative Life in which she goes through the seven first principlesWholeness and the Implicate Order by David Bohm

Carol Sanford.

A few transcribed lines from the episode

Thanks to MPS patron Jon Buttery for pulling some comments that stood out for him from the chat (with approx times):

13:36 – "I don’t want you to be disappointed that after a year you haven’t got them [the seven first principles], that’s a good sign"

18:57 - "You can’t go do – in the sense that you’ll change something – you have to go think a different way and you have to start in a different place"

22:43 - "The word ‘systems thinking’ is thrown around for a lot of things that are machine based"

23:23 – "There are no feedback loops …. we impose those kinds of ideas"

24:05 – "A fragmented view … we assume … if we get good enough … somehow we’ll see how they all relate"

26:53 – "What is the work this place does in this planet? … what is its story?"

30:23 – "Watch yourself making lists"

32:26 – "Fragmentation is the basis of every problem on the earth"

38:40 – "It took me literally a couple of decades to learn to see essence. … it’s a different way of seeing the world"