Regenerate, Relate / Transmit, Tranform

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend a forum on the future of regenerative ranching in the hills of northeastern Napa County, near Lake Berryessa and the newly expanded Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.

The event gathered regenerative ranchers (many of them women), soil scientists, land developers, conservationists, movement-builders, food purveyors, venture capitalists and technologists - a uniquely California blend. I had designed an interpretive center, brand and collateral for the event - including a field guide to the ranch hosting the event - and was helping to facilitate discussions about the future of ranching along with other members of the consultant team.

As a country kid turned decidedly city woman, the message that kept rising to the top among discussions of perennial grass mixes, supply chains and soil microorganisms, was that doing the work of regeneration isn’t the hard part - the hard part is the human relationships that need to shift in order for regenerative practices to become the norm. Participants relayed that, in many instances, we actually know what to do to care for landscapes and animals. Its people and the structures we create that resist transformation.?

Human relationships are intense, sticky, mysterious, enraging, beautiful and deeply fulfilling. Sometimes they are many of these things at once. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word “relationship” comes from 14th century Latin, as the "act of telling or relating in words," or "a bringing back, restoring; a report, proposition."?

Relationships, then, are inherently about communication. They involve transmitting daily logistics and proposing whole world-views. When going well, they involve being able to express what one feels and believes to be true and being able to listen and respond to what others feel and believe to be true, even if that contradicts one’s own perception. We negotiate our sense of reality through relationships.

So what does this have to do with design and storytelling? Shouldn’t we all just be going to therapy?

The answer to the second question is, yes! I believe that self-inquiry can heal the individual and, by extension, the world. Design and storytelling can too! It matters how and what we communicate and how confident we feel in our transmission.?

When I work with clients to communicate their work and offerings to the world, we begin by getting super clear on the purpose of their project and develop strategies, messages and materials that feel easy and true. We choose visual signals, such as colors typefaces and image styles that align with our culture’s understandings of symbol and meaning. If relationships center on communication, I strive to improve and transform them using the tools of a designer, writer, strategist and artist.

And ultimately it is my relationships with people, who sometimes become my clients, that allow me to do this work. Drop me a line if you are ready to describe what you do in the world and enroll others in your project, product or theory of change.