Printed with permission from the author

Collective decision-making creates more opportunities to listen and deepen our connections, restoring our human fabric and the ecosystems we inhabit.

The term “regeneration” evokes images of gardens and wind energy, while “governance” sounds like boring decision trees and dusty board meetings. So what is “regenerative governance” supposed to be?

When I think of governance, I think of my colleagues and friends. The things we want to do together. Our ways of doing things that reflect who we are and how we want to show up.

And that’s when governance becomes something deeply familiar and connecting — rather than cold or theoretical. It’s about us. You, me, the people we choose to work with.

But let’s start a the beginning. What exactly is governance?

Governance is for everyone!

Governance is the set of processes that steer our organizations, and that includes:

• Who decides what?
• How do we decide?
• Who has what information, and what do we do with that information?

Governance is like a language — the language we use when we do things as a collective. For example, if you and I go to the movies together, how will we decide what movie to see? Who decides? And how? We will make that decision somehow — and all of those ways are governance.

This pandemic continues to highlight global inequality. For the privileged, isolation is possible. For the vast majority of workers, those fortunate to still have jobs, they risk their lives daily, travelling on public transport, sharing water sources, domestic work, factory work, store work and more.