Thoughts on Thriving #1: Development, Mindset, Grounding

In this new format series on thriving, I share reflections on ideas from my book, as well as bringing fresh insights on thriving and updates on the planned Thriving World Tour. In this inaugural episode, I begin by reflecting on how we need to put development back into sustainable development, to cultivate a growth mindset and to prepare the ground, professionally and personally, for thriving. I also share a new poem called Rise in the Darkness. You can read the full transcript of this video log here:

An introduction to this new series

Well, hello, everyone, I'm Wayne Visser, and this is Thoughts on Thriving. It's a new format and media approach that I'm taking this year, experimenting with. And the idea really is to share with you some reflections, fairly regularly, on thriving. And in each of these short video logs, what I hope to do is share three things.

1)???The first is something from the book Thriving: The Breakthrough Movement to Regenerate Nature, Society and the Economy. Some of you will have read it, others of your I hope will be stimulated to read it, but what I'll be doing is taking it a page at a time. And just drawing out one thought, one idea, one reflection from each page. And so you can also follow along, if you like, look at what's behind that thought. And, of course, add your own thoughts and comments and suggestions and reflections.

2)???The second thing I'll do is share a fresh thought on thriving. This is something fairly personal: what I've noticed in the last day or two; what I've been thinking about, reflecting on, noticing about thriving.

3)???And the last is that I'll share, periodically, updates about the World Tour on Thriving, which is something that will begin later this year, in October; it will kick off with myself and my partner, Indira Kartallozi. And we hope to visit many parts of the world to touch base with some of you, to have you host us, where we might deliver some workshops, some talks, visit some regeneration projects, and really just work together to build the movement for thriving.

And so that will be the format roughly of this very informal video log that I will be sharing with you over the coming weeks, months, and who knows how long it will go on. So, just a sort of health warning, this is completely unscripted. So you can expect some oohs and ahhs, some hesitation, some fumbling around to get to some resources, some things I want to share with you. And I'm going to leave it unedited, fairly raw. Because this, after all, is simply a way of sharing of connecting with you and making this movement about people and about sharing what we're each experiencing, what we're thinking about, what we're finding is working, what's not, what's concerning us, what's giving us hope.

Putting development back into sustainable development

So enough of a preamble, let me dive into this first week, this first day of Thoughts on Thriving. And if I look to the book, Thriving, which as I say some of you may already have, you may be familiar with it, you may have read it or you may not have, either in its hardback or audio version, or in its e-version. But if I turn to page one, this is the Prologue entitled Hope. The one thing I want to focus on this week is the quote by Gro Harlem Brundtland. Now, many of you will know that she's a big name in sustainability, former Prime Minister of Norway, she was invited by the United Nations to chair the World Commission on Environment and Development. And in 1987, issued Our Common Future, the report on the findings of this Commission on Environment and Development. And most famously, in that report, for the first time coined, and definedm Sustainable Development: development that meets the needs of our current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. And of course, that became the foundation for going on and organizing the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, where we had the largest gathering of heads of state ever to focus on these issues.

Now. Why do I start with this? Well, let me begin with the quote itself and I'll reflect a little bit why I think it's so important. In this quote, she says, “In the face of an absolutely unprecedented emergency, society has no choice but to take dramatic action to avert a collapse of civilization. Either we will change our ways and build an entirely new kind of global society, or they will be changed for us.” Now, there's a lot in there, which I could unpack, but I'm not going to go into it in too much detail. I think the most relevant point for me, besides the fact that we are in a time in history of great importance, emergency, crisis and opportunity, what I think is often overlooked when we talk about sustainable development - in fact, we so often talk today about sustainability - is that we lose the development part of that agenda, and of that original definition. In fact, the concept was about development, a kind of development that we need today that's different from the past, that's different from pure economic growth. And its development that's fair and that is sustaining of our Earth's resources. And I think this is something to emphasize again, and again. We sometimes get stuck in the idea that sustainability is all about environmental issues, we forget the human component, the social development element of that. And I just think it's an important framing for everything we do around sustainability. Or as I like to reframe it now: thriving, regeneration. It is ultimately about development and development is what life does: life emerges, it evolves, it grows, qualitatively – first quantitatively, but then very quickly, this turns to a qualitative state of growth. And if we can just remember that, I think this is one of the keys to thriving, is to remember, it's always about development of a certain kind. And that implies, of course change.

Cultivating a growth mindset

It reminds me of a book that I'm reading at the moment, which is called Mindset. And if I just look at my notes to give you the correct reference there, that's by Carol Dweck. And it's all about the psychology of success, if you like. And through her work, she's analyzed a lot of research around what makes people successful in all kinds of spheres of life, from sport, to business to other areas. And what she finds is a distinction between two different mindsets, what she calls a fixed mindset, and a growth mindset. And I just think this echoes very nicely what I'm saying about development. In order for us to succeed at anything, including creating a thriving society, we need to embrace a mindset that is about change, that is about constant learning. We can't assume that we know the answers, we can't cling to the structures and the ideas, the paradigms of the past. We have to believe that we can and will constantly evolve, that we will learn from our mistakes, that we will continue to innovate. So I think that dovetails very nicely with this concept of development. So that's my main message on that from the book for today. And as I say, do follow along. That's literally page one in the book. And I'll get on to how I start the book in the next post, because I start by talking about how I nearly drowned off the coast of South Africa and, and what I learned from that, but for now, it's about development.

Preparing the ground for thriving

The other thing I wanted to share was the fresh insight. So, it just so happens, I'm back recently from New Zealand and finding my feet again after a bit of a break, getting back into the work swing of things, working through hundreds of emails. And why I mention this is because one of my realizations over the past few days, one of my resolutions, in fact, is that we need to cultivate the land, prepare the ground, for thriving to be able to occur. And this applies at the level of society, but also at the level of our own lives and our family lives. And one of the things I'm experimenting with this year is taking the time at the start of the day to make sure that my mind, my attitude, is enabling a thriving result. So I got up early this morning, I was awake at five, I got up at six. And I just spend some time really reflecting on what's important. And it happened that some creative words were flowing and I wrote a poem called Rise in the Darkness, which I'll share with you in a moment. But the main point, really, is to make sure that you're carving out that time. It doesn't have to be before the sunrise, but just find the space, the time, to ensure that you're prioritizing what's important, that you're thinking about what it takes to thrive, what you need to take action on during the day to thrive.

And, you know, in my case that that's a lot about tuning in to what inspires me. I was listening this morning to the prose and poetry of Kahlil Gibran, one of my favourite authors. And you may get your inspiration and your mindset for thriving in different ways. Perhaps it's listening to music, or reflecting, or mindfulness, meditation, yoga. But I think this is really crucial that we don't rush into the day, or steamroller way through the day, without finding moments where we can reflect on whether we are thriving, whether we are contributing to enabling thriving to occur.

Rise in the Darkness

So let me share with you that poem, just since it came this morning, since it was a little bit of a muse attack. This certainly won't happen every time that I'm doing these video logs. But since you've caught me on a creative morning, let me share that with you. And then I'll say something about the world tour on thriving. As I said, it's called Rise in the Darkness.

I rise in the darkness so that I may know the beauty of dawn, and appreciate the joy of daylight. And when, in the night, I cannot sleep, I listen to the soothing wisdom of poets and conjure the spells of magicians.

I wander in cold solitude, so that I may feel the glow of home’s hearth and celebrate the warmth of friends. And when, in the wilderness, I am lost, I sing the ancient songs of the land and dance to a rhythm of nature.

I move in the sunshine, so that I may be in sync with time’s passing and forget the vast stillness of space. And when, in the day, I cannot wake, I rally to the cry of revolutionaries and shake myself from the coma of routine.

I tremble with fevered passion, so that I may long for quiet solitude and value the emptiness of mind. And when, in spring, I cannot rest, I gather the secrets of flowers and dream the whispered size of autumn.

I rise in the darkness, so that I may know the kiss of waking and appreciate the gift of being alive.

Well, I know hope you liked that. You never know what's going to come when you get a muse attack.

The Thriving World Tour

So let me end today's rather lengthy reflection (I expect future video logs will be shorter), but let me end by saying a little bit about the Thriving World Tour. We're at the stage where we're planning this. My wife, Indira Kartallozi, also a Cambridge academic and fellow pioneer and advocate in sustainability, we will together hopefully travel to many parts of the world to share our insights, our experience on thriving, and of course, that will be largely based on the book. But I have developed Thriving Cards, and at some point in another video, I'll show you those cards. And what we like to do is give talks, but also workshops, which can be anything between half a day and two and a half days or even longer, where we take you through the 36 elements of thriving. And that includes, for example, the six great transitions from breakdown to breakthrough and market opportunity that we need to go through in order to get to thriving. It includes the six scientific principles or keys to thriving, which is a lot about systems thinking, systems science. And it includes the characteristics of regenerative leadership, as well as very practically, very pragmatically, the six steps of integrated value management. This is the methodology that I use and we use to work with companies. For example, I'm working with Johnson and Johnson via and Antwerp Management School, using this as a framework for implementation of thriving.

And so we would love the opportunity to share that with you, with your organization, with your clients, whoever it is that you think might benefit from that. And so we're inviting expressions of interest to host us and do get in touch via LinkedIn, that's normally the best way. And then I'll pass on the form, a very simple form to register your expression of interest to host us, and then we'll figure out whether we're able to fit your city, your country, your organization, or event into the Thriving World Tour. We hope to also visit many regeneration projects on the ground, wherever we may be traveling, so that we can continue to share the inspiration with the movement that is building around this concept of thriving.

So you don't need to know all the details, you don't need to know when you might be able to host us or where the funding might come from at this stage, or who might host us, but if you're interested, if you would like us to visit, please do reach out so that we can start to make the puzzle. The tour will run from October this year, 2023, to September next year. And we're really excited. And it really makes a difference to meet people in person and to share learning and to learn from you as well. It’s very much about gathering insights from what is going on on the ground in your world, in your sphere of influence, in your community, in your society. So we look forward to hearing from many of you.

Thank you for listening to this initial Thoughts on Thriving video blog. And I hope you'll tune in again. I'll try to post these fairly regularly. And feel free to share, to subscribe. The best way is probably to subscribe to my YouTube channel, Wayne Visser. And make sure, of course, that we're connected on LinkedIn and that you've subscribed to the Purpose Inspired newsletter where I'll also on a monthly basis share updates of these video logs. So thanks once again and all the best. I hope that you thrive.