Regenerative Communications
Case Study
What does mental wellbeing mean in today’s world? This inquiry served as the starting point for the creation of Masawa’s visual identity. The result is a collection of artworks that depict flourishing states of being.
By relating human wellbeing to planetary health, I tried to tell a different story; one that recognizes mankind’s intricate interconnection with the more-than-human world and the interdependency that exists between all species. In this sense, to pursue human flourishing simultaneously entails the pursuit of planetary health, for our thriving depends on the thriving of the larger ecosystems in which we are active participants.
© Masawa Fund
Communications plays a crucial role in creating businesses and economies that are future-proof and in service of life.
As marketers, we are no longer tasked to just discover market trends and adjust business strategies to them. We are initiated as listeners to the seismic shifts and changing patterns of our planet in rapid change. We are guides in our collective mission to realign business and the economy with ecological principles. Humanity’s future depends on it.
Marketing has a marketing problem
Traditional marketing focuses mainly on reacting to consumer trends and external events.
Greenwashing and the shifting of full responsibility to individual consumers are common, yet deeply degenerative practices. They hint at the absence of a regenerative organizational culture that puts life at the center of all decision-making and creative output. This results in marketing that lacks integrity and authenticity and a loss of trust and loyalty among stakeholders aware of the climate emergency.
We are bringing to life a new paradigm in marketing and communications. One that has co-creation, ethics, and enlivenment at its heart. We call it regenerative communications.
In essence, regenerative communications focus on two things: inner discovery and creating communications that enliven.
“People are fed up with greenwashing and other deceptive practices. They want to support organizations that take an honest and proactive role to addressing the climate crisis and act as caring stewards of our planet. ”
Case Study
Flourish! is a youth learning journey for resilience and regeneration, organized by One Resilient Earth. To promote the Flourish! short-video series, Sympoiesis developed and executed a social media strategy that shared key messages and artworks. We curated unique natural images to reflect the visual identity and values of One Resilient Earth and provide an enlivening experience to those interacting with them.
© One Resilient Earth
Regenerative communications is an inner discovery
Regeneration starts from within. An organization’s inner world precedes and inspires outer action and communication.
In the process of inner discovery, Sympoiesis helps you understand the essence or the inherent qualities of your organization that make you unique — such as your values, guiding principles, and evolutionary purpose, while evolving the inherent potential of your people and the stakeholders you serve.
Inner discovery is at the center of creating a regenerative organization that nurtures a culture of trust, compassion, self-and systemic-awareness. These qualities are essential to develop products and services that respond to the genuine needs of your stakeholders, taking into account the needs of more-than-human beings and future generations.
This process forms the basis of any communications strategy, campaign, or visual identity.
Case Study
For Masawa, a mental wellness impact fund, Sympoiesis’ Niels Devisscher co-initiated a series of co-creative sessions to uncover the fund’s core values and guiding principles. They formed the foundation for Masawa’s visual identity and communications strategy and design.
© Masawa Fund
Regenerative communications enliven
Regenerative communications seek to inform, enliven, and initiate.
Sympoiesis creates regenerative communications grounded in three core design principles. They:
Generate aliveness in those who engage with them
Life begets life. Communications are only regenerative if they produce aliveness in those who engage with them.
We use language that enlivens because the language and metaphors we use are never neutral or value-free. Words create worlds. Old metaphors structure present-day experiences.
We recognize that awareness is a precious resource that should not to be manipulated at the expense of an audience’s wellbeing. We are conscious about the content we produce, and don’t use people’s psychology against them or wittingly play into their cognitive biases. We curate content that unites rather than divides.
We acknowledge that working from a regenerative place is about taking action that feels right and evolving our practices as we learn.
acknowledge place and community and create whole systems value;
Regenerative communications care about the ecological and communal context in which the organization is embedded. It’s a shift from ego to eco, from monologue to conversations.
Regenerative communications promote the stories of those closest to the issue. It’s an attempt to decenter the hero, challenge the myth of the savior, and reappreciate the field of relationships that enable agency and transformation.
How can we serve life through everything we do? How do we create value for whole systems? How does our work develop the potential of our stakeholders? These questions are at the heart of a regenerative communications strategy.
embrace emergence, seek out creative edges, and focus on what feels true instead of what others are doing
The poly-crises require unlearning and radical innovation originating from a different level of consciousness. This requires organizations to break through the walls of habitual and normative thinking and acting, and experiment with novel approaches to imagination co-creation.
Regenerative communications start from what feels right by tuning into the essence of the organization, rather than by “tuning into the noise of the world”.
Imagine what is possible if we see “customers” for the multifaceted beings that they are and involve them as creative collaborators. What if we replaced networking events with place-based community art projects?
