The Work That Reconnects

An empowerment process that leads from despair to constructive, collaborative action
Deep Ecology Work, Active Hope, Despair and Empowerment Work

The Work That Reconnects is a four-stage experiential approach to inspire and empower participants to take part in the healing of our world. It fosters courage, solidarity and positive action to collectively bring about the “Great Turning” - the transition from our industrial society to a life-sustaining society.


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About
What is The Work That Reconnects?

The Work That Reconnects helps transform despair and apathy into constructive, collaborative action. Its aim is to connect with each other and with all life. This deep connection allows participants to simultaneously feel love and awe for life alongside the pain and the wounds of the world, toward ourselves and our fellow species. The Work That Reconnects gives space and voice to those frightening feelings of pain, numbness, rage, sadness and fear without the need to turn,  run away, gloss them over, or be paralyzed by them. Helplessness gives way to an inner freedom and new perspectives from which  motivation springs forth, along with a capacity to engage in a  collective healing process for the earth. The work that reconnects is permeated by a deep love and care for all life. If you facilitate this process you should be able to connect with this as a foundation.

The Work That Reconnects follows a spiral sequence, flowing through four stages: beginning with gratitude, honoring our pain for the world, seeing with fresh eyes, and finally, going forth. Each stage comprises a certain quality and intention, that can be carried forward with different kinds of experiential exercises. Though Joanna Macy offers a wealth of suitable exercises, she encourages facilitators to find their own style and make use of their  creativity to best suit their audience.  Here we feature a combination of Joanna Macy’s method, along with others linked in this toolbox.

The spiral can be repeated several times in a workshop or just once; the process can vary from several hours to a whole month.

Joanna Macy
Lit: Joanna Macy, Molly Brown: Coming back to life: The updated guide to the work that reconnects.New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island 2014.

https://www.joannamacy.net/main

Here is a series of 17 videos describing the methodology, core ideas of the approach, background and attitude, as well as selected seminar recordings of some of the methods.

 This Video is in english.
Categories
  • Appreciative / Community building
  • Awareness Raising
  • Ceremony / Ritual
  • Collective Intelligence
  • Empowerment
  • Group communication
  • Integration of input into daily life
  • Mindfulness & Meditation
  • Problem Solving
  • Reflection
  • Social skills
  • Sustainability
  • Team Building / Trust Building
  • Understanding complexity
Innovation Phases
  • 1 Understanding the challenge
  • 2 Creating an Innovation-Friendly Culture
  • 3 Fostering New Perspectives & Ways of Thinking
Train the Trainer seminars including The Work That Reconnects can be found here:
Target Group
Is participant experience relevant?
It's okay if participants haven't seen the inside of a classroom in years.
Physical trust needed
Mental trust needed
REQUIREMENTS
Experience level of the facilitator
routine as participant OR professional facilitator
How stationary?
It depends
PHASES

1

Gratitude

The process starts with gratitude for the wonder of being alive and of being surrounded and interwoven in the web of life. The process invites us to express personal gratitude and also reminds us of what we can collectively be grateful for.


Intention

Grounding as a preparation for the next stage: Gratitude helps us to be fully present, grounded and prepared for the next challenging stage. In that stage we open to the pain of the truth that we are hurting our world and ourselves - taking that in and taking that to heart is huge, and is best done in a groundedstate.

Regaining the ability to act: Gratitude is not dependent on external circumstances. It is our own, inner, deliberate decision to be grateful, and can be done no matter how difficult and hopeless the situation may seem. Starting with gratitude therefore helps us regain the ability to act.

Freeing from a consumption mindset: Gratitude helps bring participants away from society’s consumer attitude which is rooted in not feeling good enough, smart enough, and not possessing enough, which creates a profound dissatisfaction that deludes us to buy more stuff we don’t need. Gratitude helps people realize that they are sufficient and therefore are free from constantly needing something else to be happy.



2

Honouring our pain for the world

This phase invites participants to feel uncomfortable feelings like grief, fear, anger, outrage, numbness or guilt towards what is wrong in the world while in a protected space. In most people’s lives there is little to no space to express those feelings. So here it is possible to face them. This phase is about taking down inner protective walls against our own feelings.


Intention

• Reconnecting with the pain in order to use it to fuel our actions
• Extending the capacity of suffering beyond one’s one pain extends the capacity of compassion and interconnectedness with each other and all life.
• Learning not to fear one's own painful feelings, and to be blocked by fear is an enormous liberating force. If we are not afraid of those painful feelings, then nothing can stop us.


Remarks

• Make sure there is an atmosphere of trust in your group and agree as a group to be confidential and non-judgemental (towards the others AND themselves). ork from safe space to step into despair.
• Don’t tell people what they should feel. Instead give them the opportunity to speak their fears/feelings/perceptions.
• Don’t judge by one’s demeanour. Don’t jump to conclusions because someone seems unmoved or so. You can’t always tell by a person’s demeanor or behaviour what they are feeling inside.
• Don’t take people away from their experience by overly consoling them (and also stop other participants from doing so). Comforting others can often come from a discomfort in ourselves to be with their pain. We can also have a tendency to want to avoid contributing to anyone else’s grief and comforting may unintentionally inhibit someone else’s authentic reaction.


3

Seeing with new eyes

This phase widens our perspective, sees our situation in relation to our history and our future. It seeks to understand causes, effects, and interconnected systems to comprehend a bigger picture . It is about looking at difficulties without sarcasm, exaggeration or stereotyping - from compassion (experienced in phase 2), but in a clear and unvarnished way. The purpose is to understand what is going on at this particular moment in time. It is about widening one’s perspective by opening to other points of views, including past and future generations, and non-human views that help overcome limited ways of thinking, e.g. anthropocentric, short-term-growth-driven mindsets.


Intention

• Being able to act from a point of understanding that includes a wider perspective and allows more sustainable decisions.
• Understanding systems and interdependencies.
• Breaking free from (some of the) unconscious assumptions dominating our current society



4

Going Forth

This phase is about using and enhancing power and motivation to contribute to take action towards new and better ways of dealing with ourselves, our cohabitants on this planet, and the planet itself. In this phase the participants find out where they want to be active and what they want to contribute as well as commit to a first concrete step.


Intention

• Use the power of the previous phases to boost concrete action
• Let the participants experience the empowerment that is possible in moving from grief into action.


Remarks

It is of absolute importance to channel the previous phases into some kind of concrete action, as the participants have bravely faced what needs to be done and must take empowering steps to avoid getting stuck with feelings of helplessness. Make sure to lead the process in a way that everyone leaves the process with a concrete first action step, preferably with SMART criteria that can be done within the next days or weeks, even if it is only a baby step. It is also recommended to let the participants speak their commitment aloud to the group.


ONLINE & VARIATIONS

It was originally designed purely for face-to-face settings. Blended and fully online learning is possible, but needs extra attention to ensure participants feel safe, held, and connected. The use of breakout rooms for pairs or three-way sharing can be particularly useful, followed by feedback to the group to ground the experience. While in breakout rooms, prompt questions, instructions to switch speakers, and time-checks can be given. Writing prompts can also be incorporated to blend exercises and avoid entirely screen-based sessions. It’s worth considering if the honouring our pain phase is better to be held in a face-to-face setting to make sure no one is overwhelmed by feelings of grief, fear, anger, outrage, guilt, or a sense of powerlessness without being able to avail of support while in a delicate state.

Online
online facilitation possible
Blended
blended facilitation possible
Screen needed?
Mobile ok
Quality of Internet Connection
stable (video conferencing or collaboration tools like miro)
MATERIALS

Empathic Interview questions

Future Music Canvas

Future Music Canvas Guide

Evolution Line Flags


unten

Project Tree template

Perspective Carousel video

Online Transformative Learning
- a practical guide


Click on cover to read or download.

Overview BLAST

Online Transformative Learning Enquiry

A transformative Edge

Click on cover to read.      Get the real book here.

 

 

Risk Assessment

A simple way to get an overview of possible risks, and how to deal with them.

IMPACT
Hidden curriculum

*All life is worthy of appreciation. We are living beings and our natural state is connectedness and compassion.
*Feeling pain is not a sign of weakness, but an expression of our capacity to feel the immensity of who we really are our compassion for suffering.
*Facing painful feelings has an enormously empowering effect: if we are not afraid of those painful feelings, then nothing can stop us.
*We are embedded in our history and called to contribute to what is needed in this moment.




Does The Work That Reconnects promote collective learning?

The core of the Work That Reconnects is being together in the face of this massive challenge, and seeing this as a collective evolution and healing process. By extending our awareness beyond our personal self, and towards compassion for all life, this strengthens a sense of interconnectedness. Furthermore the process embraces mutual support by allowing participants to express their intended next steps, listen to one another and even collaborate in the stage “going forth".


2
Well done, you made it to the end!
If you have a personal story to share you may go on, but the following part is even more optional than the other parts. In fact this is an invitation to other authors to share their stories. So if you know of someone experienced, please ask her or him.