A Map for Navigating Change

It happened almost 20 years ago, when I was first introduced to the theory of change that came out of the Berkana Institute. Known now as the Two Loops diagram, it was a map of systems change that provided an anchor in the storm of chaos. It set me on a journey to discover the larger patterns of change that give guidance, meaning, and coherence for navigating a rapidly changing world.

That journey led me to the creation of what is now Great Transition Stories.

Understanding the Pattern

The Two Loops diagram shown here conveys a pulse of change over time. The first loop indicates the rise of a culture to a peak point where it begins to decline. This is what we are experiencing now: a culture in rapid collapse, where structures and patterns of life and governance that have held us for centuries are being purposefully destroyed. Chaos reigns supreme. Things feel like they are falling apart.

And they are.

Meanwhile, largely outside of the collapsing loop, others are searching, experimenting, innovating, and incubating new ways of being—alternative ways of coming together to create and scale new living systems through cooperation and collaboration.

At first, not everything tried works. But slowly a new loop begins to coalesce, and a whole new possibility and vision of the future emerges as the new loop grows, becoming stronger and stronger.

Four Strategies for Change

At the time, I had recently joined a group called the Tipping Point Network, which drew together a multigenerational group of people committed to strategizing how to help tip humanity toward sustainability—to transform the culture of greed and extraction into a more equitable, generative, life-affirming world.

Using the model, we began to formulate four strategies for change:

Hospice the Old: Engaging in whatever was possible to slow down the collapse, including stabilizing what was working and resisting some of the more violent changes.

Midwife the New: Paying attention to what is emerging, nourishing the seeds of regeneration, creating and scaling new living systems, amplifying new ways of seeing and being.

Foster a New Mythos: Envisioning and naming an underlying story that would help manifest a more harmonious world, challenging our old stories of who we are and our relationship to our planet.

Create Conscious Leaders: Finding, supporting, and training holistic thinking individuals working from new visions of the future.

Finding My Place

I knew almost immediately that my strategy was changing the underlying mythos of our culture. So I co-created that team and began to delve into exploring our collective core belief systems and their consequences. We began to brainstorm what the new story was, where it was emerging, how to tell it, and how to live it.

For years, I had been working with individuals to transform and heal some of their personal stories. But it was a pretty big challenge to search for, find, and amplify the stories that could change culture.

Ironically, shortly after my introduction to the Two Loops model, through a series of synchronicities, I reconnected with Bob Stilger, whom I had met several years before. He was then co-directing the Berkana Institute, and much to my surprise, he’d already been working with Two Loops for a decade.

Moreover, he had also created what was at that point a dormant nonprofit called NewStories.

I was a bit flabbergasted that we were so aligned in our passions. He asked me if I wanted to help reawaken and grow NewStories into a thriving organization. After a very short period of deliberation, I said yes.

Where We Belong on the Map

We started working together almost immediately. I became president of NewStories and replaced “Mythos” with “Stories.” Bob taught me more about the Two Loops and how to work with it.

What most intrigued me was a group exercise of expanding the diagram by putting it on the floor and asking participants, “Where do you place your contribution on the map?”

In a group of about 20 people, each one had a different place. Some were working to hospice the old, helping to slow down what was ending. Others were at the bottom, experimenting, trying out new possibilities, imagining new ways of being. Some were working on the upward loop, actively engaged in creating a new story, like regenerative agriculture. And some were working on the bridge between the loops, helping people cross from an old paradigm to a new one.

I knew at that point that my work was to name, nurture, grow, and illuminate those experiments of new possibilities into a stronger and stronger new loop of a future vision. I also knew that we as humans and societies needed a new story of who and what we are and can be.

I had found my place on the diagram and have been working in it ever since.

All of Us, Together

I know so many people who are working to temper the destruction, as healers, activists, and resisters. I know some of the people and places that are training the next generation of conscious leaders. Many others are creating the future in all areas of human endeavor—from agriculture to governance to healing from trauma. And, of course, there is a universal cadre of folks working to change our collective story: from me to we, from separation to cooperation, from hate and war to love and harmonious living together.

All of these explorations have been my life’s work, and all of what I’ve discovered is embedded in our new Great Transition Stories website.

I invite you to browse what our team has brought together with the hope that something will spark your own journey and be helpful for you.

And I ask you to ask yourself: Where is your work, your contribution, named on the map?

Honor your choice, your calling. It will take all of us to co-create a life-affirming world that works for all humans, all life on the planet, and the planet herself.

Welcome to Great Transition Stories. Let’s find your place on the map together.