Change Collective

Community of Practice

July - September 2026

Next online gathering: Friday 11th September (9:30am-11am)

Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7172829816

Password: nature

Our group directory (profiles, requests & offers, conversation suggestions)

DIRECTORY LINK

Our shared enquiry:

What is mine to do?

We explore this across three interconnected lenses: Me, You and Us. Each lens invites reflection at a different scale - personal, relational and systemic - while returning to the golden thread: what may need to shift, and what contribution is truly ours to make.

Below are a some of the intellectual foundations and frameworks that underpin the sessions we ran during the residential, for you to explore and go deeper.

Day 1: The Moment We’re In - Making Our Internal Stories Explicit

Clearing the Field, Meta-Relationality Institute

This protocol was written as scaffolding to help name what we are already inside of, without demanding immediate resolution or agreement. It offers a way to hold a shared field, however briefly, without turning on one another in the pursuit of being right, good, or safe in the face of systemic unraveling. In doing so, it supports forms of coordination that do not depend on consensus or shared conclusions, but on relational orientation and the capacity to remain in contact across different perspectives and exposures.

We explored the temporal and strategic layers of in our nature sculpture building exercise on the afternoon of Day 1.

Day 1: The Four Archetypes

The Four Archetypes

[Here] is a summary of the four archetypes that we explored on the evening of Day 1:

  • The Sovereign

  • The Visionary

  • The Warrior

  • The Lover

Day 2: Stretching our imaginative capacity for desirable futures

“Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within.”

Ruha Benjamin, Imagination: A Manifesto

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens

Series: How To Think About The Future

The host, Nate Hagens, observes that many people have already settled on a single storyline about what's coming and are filtering everything else through it. He says that our actual reality is much more complex and unknowable. This series is about expanding our perception of possible futures, instead of picking the right one, and about identifying what kinds of responses remain robust across multiple different scenarios.

Podcast: The Long Time Academy with Ella Saltmarshe

This is the 10 minute “Human Layers” visualisation we did on the afternoon of Day 2, when we travelled back to the beginning of the 20th century and forwards to the end of the 21st. We also recommend the other episodes in this podcast.

Town Anywhere

This 6 minute video gives an overview of “Town Anywhere” - a large-scale, participatory, collective imagination experience created by artists Ruth Ben-Tovim and Lucy Neal. Their work is about guiding communities through a physical, hands-on "time travel" process to design and build an interconnected, thriving, and sustainable version of their local town in the future.

This informed the design of our Big Village Fair on the afternoon of Day 2, which we scaled up to be about how we might organise ourselves collectively more broadly; beyond the boundaries of a single town.

Day 3: Systems Change Models

Adaptive Cycle

[Here] is a pdf of the Adaptive Cycle, which we explored on Day 3.

This helps to explain inevitable change in complex systems which was developed by CS Holling in 1986.

Berkana Two Loops

[Here] is a pdf of the Berkana Two Loops Model, which we explored on Day 3.

It is a roadmap for navigating systemic transition and suggests to us that every role matters.

Reflective Journaling Questions

The moment we’re navigating

  • What stories or assumptions are you carrying about the time we are in (for example, around thresholds of irreversible destabilization, the effectiveness of our institutions and the potential for systemic collapse or radical change) and how might this impact what is yours to do? (To delve deeper into this enquiry, see page 17 of Clearing the Field).

  • What were the core insights you got from making your nature sculpture on Day 1 and if you could shift one thing, what would it be?

How we’re showing up

  • For each of the four archetypes (Warrior, Lover, Visionary and Sovereign), when do you recognise the healthy expression and when do you recognise the excess or deficit in yourself, even occasionally or in certain contexts? (You might like to recall specific moments or projects).

  • How does each archetype show up in the wider movement you are part of?

  • What is one thing you could do differently to develop the healthy expression of each archetype, personally and in your sphere of influence?

Our emotional response to this moment

  • What were your key takeaways from our Work that Reconnects session on the morning of Day 2?

  • How might being more connected to your feelings about what is happening in the world help to inform or bring more heart and passion into your work?

Stretching our imaginative capacity for desirable futures

  • What were you most moved and inspired by at our Big Village Fair on Day 2? How might this inform your work or what is yours to do?

  • What commitments might you make to bring more creativity and imagination into your work?

Our role in systemic change

  • Were there any insights from the Adaptive Cycle (growth, maturity, release and exploration) that might inform your life or work?

  • Are there any elements of your work that you feel ready to let go in order to create more space for exploration and something new?

  • Were there any insights or questions you are holding in relation to the Berkana Two Loops model (steward, hospice, compost, pioneer, connect, nourish, illuminate, transition)?

  • Which part(s) of the system do you feel you are giving most energy to at the moment? And are there any places you would like to shift more towards (and, if so, what would be an achievable next step in service to this)?

Online Call 1: Video and Resources

Video Link… Coming Soon!

Our ongoing community of practice

After three days together in person, the collective continues.

For three months, we meet in structured online gatherings and peer groups to:

❈ Deepen our enquiry into the big questions we are holding
❈ Support each other to make the changes we said we’d make
❈ Explore potential collaborations
❈ Provide insight and feedback as we navigate dilemmas

The collective can be a source of invaluable support as you translate reflection into action - providing challenge, accountability and perspective from people who understand the complexity of your work.

Everything feels more possible and joyful with a community of peers.

Programme structure:

❈ Three day residential (1st - 3rd July)

❈ Three whole group online workshops (9:30-11am):

  • Friday 24th July

  • Friday 11th September

  • Friday 25th September

❈ Fortnightly peer coaching (4 sessions)

❈ Monthly action learning sets (3 sessions)