Insights from a conversation with novelist & regenerative economist Manda Scott Host: Silke von Brockhausen • Podcast: The RE:Generation Collective – The Next UN: Visions for a Regenerative Future
When Manda Scott talks regeneration, she starts with people, not policies. Her core message to the UN: systems change when the people inside them become internally coherent—calmer bodies, braver conversations, humbler decisions. From that coherence, smarter structures and better outcomes follow.
Below is a field guide distilled from our episode—practical moves UN staff and managers can start this week, plus a 90-day pilot you can lift and run in any team.
Why this matters for UN staff—right now
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We’re operating in polycrisis conditions; “more of the same” accelerates burnout and brittle decision-making.
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Islands of coherence (Prigogine) can shift whole systems—your team can be such an island.
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Regeneration ≠ “doing less harm.” It means creating conditions for life—for people, programmes, and the more-than-human world.
The playbook: 10 concrete moves
1) Start with nervous-system literacy (arrive before you perform)
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3-minute arrivals at the top of every meeting: feet on the floor, lengthen exhale, notice three sensations.
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Try “barefoot breaks” where possible (garden/green space), or a 2-minute pause in the UNHQ rose garden.
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Green your office: real plants on every floor; normalize 30–120 second nature micro-pauses between meetings.
2) Make meetings regenerative: try Noting (10–15 minutes)
A simple practice Manda recommends to shift from reactivity to presence:
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Pair up.
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Alternate brief, present-moment observations (“shoulders heavy”, “breath settling”) for 10–15 min.
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Return to the room. Result: calmer physiology, better listening, fewer knee-jerk reactions.
3) Values as a living conversation (not a poster)
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Co-create 3–5 team values (e.g., integrity, compassion, generosity of spirit).
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Add a monthly values retro: Are these still true? Where did we live or miss them? What evolves?
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Borrow Gandhi’s spirit: Commit to truth, not consistency.
4) Decide like a living system (sociocracy basics)
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Shift to consent: “Good enough for now, safe enough to try.”
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Devolve authority to the closest point of impact (country/field/front line).
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Keep a decision log with planned review dates. Decisions are prototypes, not tablets of stone.
5) Listen at scale: run internal citizens’ assemblies
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Random, representative groups (weighted toward field staff).
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3–5 day container (phones off) to connect, listen, sense what the UN is needed for now.
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Output: priorities for short learning cycles (prototype → learn → adapt) across the system.
6) Measure what builds adaptive capacity (count what counts)
Alongside outputs and spend, track:
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Trust (pulse checks), agency (who can act without HQ?), decentralization (decisions made at the edge),
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Idea velocity (time from field insight → pilot → iteration), learning cadence (how often we adapt). Where mandates touch ecology, pair human indicators with eco-proxies: soil health, water quality, biodiversity presence.
7) Regenerative reconstruction after conflict
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Map trust networks first (often grandmothers and quiet anchors, not the loudest voices).
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Right-size community units to historic patterns of cooperation.
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Co-design livelihoods + ecological restoration (regenerative agriculture, water retention, pollinator habitats).
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Create imagination containers (trauma-informed spaces for agency, creativity, cultural repair).
8) Do the inner work together (end the “internal civil war”)
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Normalize short, voluntary inner-work circles (IFS-informed, embodiment practices).
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Offer peer support & coaching; integrate with HR wellbeing (not as “extra”—as strategy).
9) Decolonize mindsets & knowledge flows
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Include indigenous and local knowledge as peers to scientific expertise (knowledge dialogues).
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Adjust procurement & partnerships to prioritize local value webs and more-than-human considerations (e.g., nature as a named stakeholder in project charters).
10) A 90-day micro-pilot for any UN team
Weeks 1–2: Launch arrivals + Noting; co-create values; pick 1 decision to run by consent. Weeks 3–4: Add decision log; schedule monthly values retro; identify one front-line authority shift. Weeks 5–8: Convene a mini citizens’ assembly (1 day) with diverse staff; agree 2 prototypes. Weeks 9–12: Run prototypes with paired human+eco metrics; hold biweekly 45-min learn-and-adapt huddles. Week 12: Share a 1-page “what we tried/learned/changed” note with peers; invite two teams to copy-adapt.
What you can start today
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Book a 10-minute Noting segment into your next team meeting.
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Put a living plant on your desk or in your common space.
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Choose one upcoming decision and make it a consent-based, time-boxed prototype.
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Spend 10–15 minutes outdoors, shoes off if you can; breathe down to the ground, up to the sky.
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Ask your team: “Which value mattered most this week? Where did we live it—or miss it?”
A short reading/listening shelf from Manda
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Vanessa Machado de Oliveira (Andreotti): Hospicing Modernity; Outgrowing Modernity
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Tyson Yunkaporta: Right Story, Wrong Story
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Robert (Bob) Falconer: The Others Within Us
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Podcasts: Future Learning Design (Tim Logan); Love and Philosophy (Andrea Hyatt)
Closing thought
If small islands of coherence can shift whole seas, the UN is the coastline where they’re needed most. Start small, start humane, and start now: calmer bodies, braver conversations, humbler decisions—and more life in the room. That’s how firefighting turns into future-making.
🎧 Listen to the episode with Manda Scott:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3AupneuHiW0e21R6fWAhpj
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-firefighting-to-future-making-how-un-teams-can/id1841851629?i=1000728983108
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy8PhK_UUm3Ix9cThYdgXsEk8idRSEEFc
Find out more about Manda Scott:
Accidental Gods Podcast: https://accidentalgods.life
Learn about Thrutopia: https://thrutopia.lifeAbout Manda: https://mandascott.co.uk