We’re an inconvenient SPECIES!

(Adapted from “Thriving in a world of Inconvenient Humans” originally posted on the blog An Inconvenient Species.)

We’re not in an environmental mess because we don’t have better, smarter, safer (and increasingly profitable) technology solutions.

The innovators and entrepreneurs of the human race have been building technology solutions for centuries.

Solar panels have been around since the 1880s and EVs were already on the market in the early 1900s. Regenerative practices such as Biochar and Indigenous Forest Management go back thousands of years.

Project Drawdown’s 2017 initial report on today’s top evidence-based climate solutions found that just 80 existing, commercial solutions (already scaling globally) could be accelerated to deal with the climate crisis. (And in 2022 their updated count was 93 solutions offering trillion dollar global savings.)

Drawdown only models commercial solutions available globally with significant independent, peer-reviewed supporting data sets.

Many, many more commercial regenerative solutions are in the market today – along with the systems design solutions to multiply their impact.

What’s really going on?

The underlying reason we’re in multiple environmental messes is that the self-conserving human systems we call “business” and “the economy” are stuck in 19th century, 1-way extractive design thinking.

The same evolutionary biological forces that maintain mature forests in stable ecosystems also dictate the behaviour of human systems.

It’s time to work WITH that reality…

We are running out of time if we have to upgrade the global human psyche before we can upgrade our systems.

However, we may not have to…

If we leverage the leading edge of the expanding “soft tech” revolution, our power to make the improvements we need to make to human systems is multiplied. We can accelerate the technology solutions we have to day without needing to upgrade the neurobiology of human species first.

Following quietly behind the Information Revolution is a whole new world of human understanding. Some examples include:

• Psychology, from THE DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS to INFLUENCE: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSUASION.
• Marketing, from CROSSING THE CHASM to DON’T MAKE ME THINK.
• Neurobiology and Neuroeconomics, from NUDGE to PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL.
• Systems Thinking, from THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE to SYSTEMS THINKING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE.

It’s easier when you acknowledge ANY reality

When we acknowledge what the human race is (and especially what it ISN’T) – then we can get on with the job of systems innovation, applying the wealth of solutions we already have.

And accelerate the process using the soft technology explosion of the past 70 years.

It’s time to take a good dose of Radical Acceptance, then get to work applying the best solutions from fields as disparate as Positive Psychology, Systems Thinking and Generative Innovation.

Within multiple disciplines – old and new – the tools exist that can help us make the human systems changes that will regenerate the ecosystems we need to survive.

And that doesn’t just make a better world

If you decide to skill up, you win in the short term anyway (regardless of how the future develops).

The “soft” technology skills that will shift us more rapidly to a smarter, safer, fairer Regenerative Economy will also enhance your relationships, your career and your working life today.

Why? Because improving your overall ability to get things done in human groups will help you thrive in any environment – from a corporate jungle to a small, rural community.

I’ve been building a library of resources on both Regenerative Business solutions and Innovation Delivery skills for years, and now I’m building Think Act Regenerate – to explore the human accelerators in the regenerative business equation further.

If your looking for more opportunities to make more impact, listen to the podcast or sign up for the free email INSIGHTS.