Mid Sweden University

Purpose

In light of the current “triple planetary crisis”, referring to increased pollution, climate change impacts and biodiversity loss, what is called for is a transformative change of our ways of managing operations, relationships and resources. The facilitation of such a transformation cannot be limited to only one part of a supply chain or network but will have to be ecosystemic. The transformation will also have to include an important shift in mindset from just being sustainable (reducing negative impacts) to becoming regenerative (creating life-affirming outcomes that enhance flourishing for all concerned stakeholders, including local communities, wider society, and the interconnected fabric of life on earth) (Hutchins, 2022).In doing so, a promising new approach is the use of “ecosystemic enablers” (Hutchins, 2022), which is a team of people gathered from across the stakeholder ecosystem into a community of learning by playing an active sensing-responding role in the emerging living ecosystem.The purpose of this paper is to explore how regenerative skills, capabilities and a shift in mindset for ecosystem facilitation can be built together in a team of ecosystemic enablers.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on an ongoing research project including case studies and interventions in two interconnected ecosystems of stakeholders. The first ecosystem is2connected to the Swedish national resource centre for artisan food, and the second to a tourist mountain destination. The research project applies an interactive research process were two “practice teams”, consisting of ecosystemic enablers (Hutchins, 2022), have been gathered from the ecosystems, respectively. The ecosystemic enabler teams come together frequently in order to collectively sense into, learn, and transform the ecosystem by designing and conducting interventions, tests, and demonstrators. The data has been collected using a combination of qualitative methods including interviews, observations, and document reviews. The analysis of the data, making sense of and understanding the complex interrelationships and dynamics, have been done collectively together with the practice teams and within the research team.

Findings

The project presents insights from the collective journey concerning how skills, perspectives, and capabilities for regenerative ecosystem facilitation can be built together in a team of ecosystemic enablers. The insights concern the practical exploration of various facilitation frameworks and tools from for example Regenerative leadership, Theory U, Appreciative Inquiry, and Dialogic OD.

Practical implications

The paper contributes with new insights concerning how to practically face the challenge of simultaneously moving on the level of ecosystems, by building regenerative skills, shifts in mindset, and capabilities across the ecosystem of actors.

Relevance/contribution

The world is clearly calling for new regenerative ways of facilitating and leading, in sharp contrast to traditional mechanistic ways of command-and-control. This paper contributes to bringing such a shift into life in practice as it contributes with new insights on the use and gathering of “ecosystemic enablers” into communities that collectively facilitate ecosystem transformation.