Regenerative Development

Taking a full body step into the next level of this work.

Taking the time today, on the solstice, the midpoint of the year, to reflect on the last 6 months is humbling me. I’ve changed so much this year. I am about to change so much more. So much of this change has been unfolding within a lineage and body of work that I have longed to be a part of for a long time, and I write to you on the other side of graduation and the early stages of who I am becoming in this next phase of my own development.

Over the past six months, I've had the incredible opportunity to immerse myself in the Regenesis Group's Regenerative Practitioner series. This journey has profoundly influenced my personal growth, community connections, and systemic thinking. Today, I want to share my experiences and insights through the lens of the Three Lines of Work that is a core framework of this lineage: Inner Work, Friends in the Work, and Systemic Work. This framework not only structures my reflections but also highlights the interconnectedness of our inner worlds, our relationships, and the larger systems we are part of.

Inner Work: A Journey of Personal Transformation

If you’ve been here for a while, you’ll know that my journey into regenerative work began long before I knew about the Regenerative Practitioner series. It started as a thought experiment with a partner, where we replaced the words "restorative" and "sustainable" with "regenerative" in various contexts. This simple yet profound shift in language changed how we viewed the world, revealing new possibilities and systemic solutions.

Years later, after graduating college and experiencing some significant life changes, I met David McConville, then chairman of the Buckminster Fuller Institute. Our conversations introduced me to the larger world of regenerative work, including the Regenesis Group. Reading their Regenerative Development and Design textbook while my father underwent an 11 hour surgery was transformative. It shaped my personal and professional development in ways that are clearly still unfolding.

So for the last seven years, I knew about the Regenerative Practitioner course but never felt it was the right time. This past year, following the birth of my child, I felt a renewed calling to regenerative work. A colleague’s recent experience with the course confirmed that it was finally the right moment for me.

So much has changed and emerged through me in the last 6 months. I released working environments, identities, and beliefs that were ready to be composted. I began experimenting with new mediums of self expression, teaching, and supporting others. I was called into a new business partnership (more on that later) and have had to surrender trust to that which I’m devoted to in ways that often made me feel like I was dying. Because parts of me were. They have to sometimes, often, if we are going to give birth to the next whole version of ourselves.

This journey has been profoundly insightful and validating, reinforcing the instincts and intuitions that have guided my work and my questions all these years. It has shown me the importance of being part of a larger relational ecosystem, sharing frameworks and language to bring complex work to life.

Friends in the Work: Building a Community of Practice

From the very first day of the course, I felt that something was different. Connecting with my study group members introduced me to a new level of emotional honesty and maturity. We reflected on our capacities and capabilities with a grounded honesty I had never fully experienced before. This dynamic felt incredibly stabilizing and easeful, allowing us to share leadership roles based on our current capacities.

Our time together in Santa Fe deepened these connections, validating each other’s wholeness and potential. We witnessed and believed in one another, appreciating the complementarity of our gifts and passions. Now, as we move from a cohort of 14 to a global community of thousands, I am honored to be part of this larger ecosystem. The mentors and teachers we had through this course, Joel Glanzberg and Pamela Mang, have been incredibly inspiring. I am so honored to feel a deep sense of belonging within this legacy and lineage of work and I know it’s just beginning.

Systemic Work: Re-Patterning Our Worldview

We live in a world shaped by mechanistic and industrial paradigms, often disconnected from the ways living systems truly operate. Clear frameworks are essential to re-pattern how we see the world, potential, and problems. These frameworks shift our questions, lines of inquiry, and fields of potential, enabling us to pursue meaningful change.

Being part of this global community of regenerative practitioners means sharing a language and frameworks that allow us to collaborate across media, language, and fields. This shared understanding enables us to support one another’s change-making work in profound ways. Already, I have begun a collaborative business partnership with Daje Aloh of the Story Doula. Despite different training backgrounds, (she has studied extensively the work of Carol Sanford, who is a key figure within this lineage focusing on application toward business development and work design) our shared frameworks make our collaboration natural, easeful, inspiring, and productive.

We are co-creating StoryWork Studio, developing community resources and developmental processes for founders in the micro-business phase. Microbusinesses are defined as making less than $350k/year and with less than 10 employees. That describes most entrepreneurs and founders I know, and the potential for development through these frameworks and with deep and real support is huge. Our aim is to help them grow their businesses regeneratively from the beginning, making a meaningful impact in the world at every phase and scale of their work. What we are crafting is incredibly exciting, as it allows us to support many entrepreneurs in their journeys, helping them steward wealth and make impactful changes through their work.

Embracing Regenerative Practices

I am passionate about collaborating with people worldwide who share an interest in regenerative practices. I want to be a perpetual student, continuously learning and applying these frameworks in everything I do. My goal is to see profound systemic change unfold in my lifetime because of this work.

For anyone feeling called to this path, I strongly recommend enrolling in the Regenerative Practitioner Series. It will challenge and transform you, repatterning your mind and expanding your capacities. If you are a founder of a micro-business or a small business, I invite you to join us at StoryWork Studio. Visit storywork.studio to learn more about our community and how we can grow together.

Thank you for being part of this journey with me. Let's continue to work towards a regenerative future, together.

Warmly,

Ganga Devi Braun