Authors: Loïc Delcros, Emmanuelle Katz and Andra Morosi
3.8 billion years of life on Earth. 3.8 billion years of experimentation, production, exchanges and evolutions have given us a planet Earth which is a source of abundance. 3.8 billion years of development of Living Systems.
And we, women and men, are part of the Living Systems. We are the Living Systems, together with the birds, the trees or the mycelium - more than a bond, a belonging, a union and a co-responsibility.
What if reconnecting to the Living Systems was the key to our future, given the context of uncertainty we are currently facing? A collective reconnection of individuals, communities and organizations, geared towards abundance.
At Seedlings, we believe in reconnecting thanks to the power of our inner transformations, reconnecting in service of abundance in our organizations, reconnecting through the opening of our imaginations. What if…
What if... for each one of us, leader, team member or partner, reconnecting to the Living Systems was an immediately accessible opening towards something greater than ourselves?
Caught up in the hectic pace of our lives made of a continuous succession of actions and reactions, we are more than often trapped in an automatic, mechanical, and sclerotic functioning. And yet, at any time, each of us can reconnect to the closest and most accessible part of Living Systems: life itself or nature in the vicinity.
Instantly and at any moment, I have the possibility of feeling life through my breath and through the air (some speak of Prana: the energy contained in the air). This air connects all living beings on Earth. By simply connecting to my breath, I connect to the Living.
Instantly and at any moment, I can also sense life through my bodily sensations which provides me with precise information about what I am experiencing physically and emotionally. I can then connect to a deeper dimension of myself, as a source of information and inner wisdom. Everyone can learn to rely on this "inner compass", in resonance with the Living in the depths of his or her being, to guide ourselves in existence, to find and anchor our bearings and establish fairer and more harmonious relationships with self, with others and with the world.
Instantly and at any moment, I can connect to others, starting with my close circle of friends, to contact what is most alive in each of them: in particular their emotions and their needs, as Marshall Rosenberg's Non Violent Communication invites us to do. Connected by the universality of our emotions and needs, we are able to better understand each other and to team up, to move forward together towards greater solidarity and fraternity and navigate the ecological and societal transition that is ahead of us.
Instantly, when I have the opportunity to go out for a few minutes in a natural setting, I can also strengthen and increase my physical, cognitive, emotional and creative capabilities. And this without any effort, only thanks to the beneficial effect of the presence of a natural environment (and in particular trees) as demonstrated by numerous recent scientific studies (1).
Reconnecting to the Living Systems within and around us makes us individually more anchored, more creative and more joyful, without additional resources other than our awareness, awareness of ourselves, of others and of nature.
What if... for organizations, reconnecting to the Living Systems was a source of abundance?
"Go see nature, that's where your future lies" said Leonardo da Vinci. Today engineers, designers or architects are inspired by the extraordinary diversity produced by living things to imagine the products and organizations of tomorrow.
In a biomimicry approach, they seek the answers provided by the immense library of life to ensure essential functions (protection, movement, communication, exchange, organization, etc.) in order to adapt them to their problems. For example, close observation of the structure of shark skin prompted Speedo to develop a bathing suit (the fastskin) the hydrodynamic properties of which have made it possible to beat numerous swimming records (even if they have subsequently been disputed).
What if, for a business, for an organization, beyond the biomimetic inspiration, reconnecting to the Living Systems meant giving itself an ambition of abundance, in the long term? Abundance for each of the stakeholders, including for the planet? Only the Living Systems have the ability to self-construct, to self-organize, to self-repair. Only the Living Systems have the capacity to evolve. What if our organizations had the ambition to leverage all the available potential by reconnecting to the Living Systems?
Here’s an example. Did you know that permaculture combines a very fine knowledge of the principles of growth and collaboration between species with the analysis of the existing ecosystem, in order to optimize the natural cooperation of plants and their environment? By observing the characteristics of the existing land, permacultural farmers favor the planting of species whose collaboration will be the most fruitful for their own growth. Once the organization is in place, the natural cooperation of the species makes it possible to obtain exceptional yields with a minimum of human intervention, and without any industrial inputs.
For an activity that has been practiced by millions of people for more than 8000 years, that is agriculture, the first permaculture farms showed a value creation up to 3 times higher than traditional farms.
It is an extraordinary example of an alliance between human intelligence and the Living, an alliance that creates abundance, a major innovation. What if this innovation was applied to all sectors of activity, and all organizations, based on what already exists, in alliance with the Living Systems?
And what if we also … in our language and our interactions, we strengthen this link to create the conditions for constant inspiration?
How can we sow the seeds of hope for a desirable future for ourselves, our ecosystems and our planet?
How to water fertile ideas to see the fields of possibilities bloom?
How can we cultivate our points of view to allow the emergence of ideas and solutions that we can only imagine collectively?
How to germinate dreams and watch them blossom?
How do we clear the land for new ideas, welcome new horizons and nurture our resilience?
How to branch out the links between living things, elements of the plant, mineral and animal kingdom, cultures and spaces?
How to fertilize knowledge by recycling elements of the past and present to stimulate innovation?
How to dig off the beaten track to diversify approaches, impulses and know-how?
How to prune the superfluous and the harmful to preserve the positive energy that sets us in motion?
How to take care of seedlings and young shoots to promote growth, development and well-being for everyone?
How can we bud with creativity to imagine new stories, fully develop ourselves and be in harmony with our environment?
How to harvest the fruits of an abundance to be found?
What if reconnecting to the Living Systems was the key to our future? A collective reconnection of individuals, communities and organizations, geared towards abundance?
At Seedlings, we are professional coaches committed to serve the Living with humility and ambition. From where we are, in companies and organizations, let's write this part of history together by reconnecting to the Living Systems.
(1) The American philosopher Eugène Gendlin, a pupil of Carl Rogers, developed in the 70s an approach centered on deciphering the sensations of our body: focusing. This approach can guide us through the ecological and societal transition that presents itself to us, while remaining anchored in the Living Systems.
(2) In "Natura: why nature heals us and makes us happier" (2019, in French) Pascale d'Erm lists the benefits of outdoor work observed by researchers for more than 30 years.