The Challenge We Set Ourselves

Starting a new organisation is always challenging, but it's even more daunting when the mission is to reimagine the economic system itself - shifting values and purpose away from the pursuit of exponential growth towards a focus on sustainability and the well-being of both people and the planet. This was the challenge we embraced after completing Schumacher College’s MA in Regenerative Economics, leading to the launch of Slowmentum: Economy at the Speed of Life earlier this year.

Our approach to regenerative economics stands in stark contrast to global capitalism and its extractive practices. Instead, we are guided by ten core principles that underpin a regenerative economy: Meaning, Wellbeing, Value Shifting, Ecological Regeneration, Colonial Repair, Local Determination, Human Scale, Collective Liberation/Systemic Inclusivity, Holistic Reconnection, and Empowerment/Human Growth.

Six months into the journey, we’re proud to have completed our first Slowmentum project in partnership with The Studio in Bath, a university hub for creative technologies. We collaborated with their leadership team to develop a five-year strategic plan that aligns their values and purpose with the challenges and opportunities ahead. This involved not only exploring the possibility of relocating from Bath city center but also tackling deeper questions about the evolving role of technology and the creative industries.

Throughout this collaboration, our goal was to translate principles into tangible, actionable steps. We fostered an environment for deep reflection and exploration of new possibilities while building on the organisation's existing strengths. Here, we briefly outline the approach we took and share what we’ve learned along the way.

We began with Deep Listening

Our process started by immersing ourselves in the core of the organisation to fully understand its motives, goals, and aspirations. The objective was to help the team develop a framework that could guide them through future challenges while staying true to their values. Early on, we recognised that engaging the wider community was essential - not only those directly involved with the organisation but also the broader community it serves.

Fostering a shared vision was key to deepening The Studio’s understanding of its possible roles, so we designed a workshop using Bill Sharpe’s 3 Horizons Framework. This encouraged participants to step beyond their usual frames of reference to envision a future where the organisation was more inclusive, creative, and regenerative. By temporarily setting aside financial and social limitations, we imagined a new kind of organisation. From this abundant vision of the future, we then worked backward, mapping out the pathways and practices needed to bring it to life.

How we changed the Frame

We recognised the need to confront the larger context in which The Studio operates: the global capitalist economy. This system shapes our interconnected world and stands as a barrier to building a truly regenerative organisation. The path to regeneration is complex but positive steps are achievable. In the tech industry, exploitative relationships, embedded in global platforms and material supply chains, are often hidden by design. By raising awareness of these dynamics, we unlock the potential for transformative change and can chart a course toward a more equitable future.

To foster deeper transformation, we proposed The Studio adopt 'Ecological Health' as a guiding principle and 'Right Livelihood' as a core practice. Bringing a focus on nature and ecological systems into the organisation’s core helps shift the emphasis from scaling-up individual enterprises to nurturing purpose and balance across the whole community - replacing the motivation of ‘acceleration’ that traditional tech hubs prioritise, with a focus on ‘propagation’ and appropriate scale. We introduced frameworks like Doughnut Economics and the Just Transition, alongside resources such as Della Duncan’s Upstream podcast, to deepen our understanding of global material flows. We also encouraged international connections to promote greater reciprocity, solidarity, and a more holistic perspective on impact.

Next, we addressed structure and governance. It became clear that enhancing recent engagement efforts was crucial to creating a more resilient and diverse hub. Our report recommended transitioning to a collective, "hive-like" structure - grounded in shared ownership, inclusion, and deliberative decision-making, underpinned by diverse revenue streams. As The Studio faces key decisions about its future, distributing responsibility and diversifying operations are vital steps to better reflect the broader community. Fortunately, The Studio was already committed to transformative change, supporting local creatives and micro-enterprises tackling social and environmental issues. Our role, through this project, was to strengthen and build on this solid foundation.

Conclusion: Lessons Learned and the Path Forward

At Slowmentum, we aim to embed reflexivity into our practice. So what did we learn from this project, and how might we approach things differently in the future? We have identified three main takeaways.

1. Reframing for a more Radical Re-imagining

“It seems as though most of us have less and less space to think creatively or imaginatively, if at all. Even among people who work within the ‘creative industries’, their imagination seems increasingly harnessed to create demand for things nobody really needs, whose production is increasingly pushing our human and ecological systems to the brink of collapse—almost as if imagination has been co-opted in the service of our own extinction.”

— Rob Hopkins, What Is to What If? (2021)

“We must remake the world, and we can remake it better…. Imagination is a superpower. There is a sad failure of imagination at the root of this crisis. An inability to perceive both the terrible and the wonderful. An inability to imagine how all these things are connected.”

--Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian (2023)

Rob Hopkins and Rebecca Solnit both emphasise the urgent need to reclaim creativity’s transformative power to reshape and reimagine the world. Hopkins warns that imagination has been co-opted to fuel consumer demand, pushing ecological systems toward collapse. Solnit adds that the failure of imagination lies at the heart of many crises, from climate change to global conflicts, leaving us unable to envision positive futures.

In our project with The Studio, we sought to tap into this transformative potential. By supplementing the 3 Horizons framework with a playful time-travel exercise, we invited participants to envision The Studio’s future through symbolic objects "lost in transit". This sparked creativity and set a hopeful tone for the workshop. Participants' labels revealed deep insights: a padlock symbolised inclusivity, a tin heart represented social purpose, and a broken smartwatch was a reminder of failed approaches. A packet of seeds even sparked conversations about The Studio’s future location. This imaginative exercise framed the workshop around values like sustainability, collaboration, and humanity.

Yet, could we have gone further? By focusing on a 5-year plan, we anchored ourselves to a conventional business model where the relationship with tech persisted, albeit in a more evolved form. What if we had dared to imagine a radically different relationship with tech - one where its value was collectively determined and owned by society, not by a handful of corporations? What if organisations like The Studio became unnecessary in a world where a healthy relationship with technology and creativity was deeply embedded in the fabric of society?

We are left with a yearning for more radical thinking about creativity, not just as a means for tweaking the status quo but for imagining futures where current systems give way to new ones that prioritise the well-being of people and the planet. How do we liberate creativity from the grip of global consumerism and use it to imagine an economy that enables all life to thrive? This is a challenge we must take with us into future collaborations.

2. From Linearity to Circularity

As we reflect on our work, we value the 3-Horizons model as an effective strategic tool but we also see opportunity to introduce greater circularity into it. The linear progression from present to future overlooks the complexity of today's challenges - environmental degradation, social inequity, and economic instability, which demand a more interconnected and organic approach.

Linear models often suggest a clear endpoint where the new replaces the old. But true regeneration isn't about reaching a static future; it’s about continuous renewal, adaptation, and emergence. Circularity recognises that the end of one horizon is not a finality but a transition, feeding back into the system, sparking new cycles of innovation and change. It fosters reciprocity, where past insights inform future actions, and benefits are mutual and sustained.

By embracing circularity, we move beyond sustainability towards resilience and ‘just’ regeneration. This shift ensures that strategies remain adaptive and life-enabling, evolving in response to new challenges. As we integrate these principles, we aim to foster systems where all forms of life not only survive but thrive, grounded in a continuous process of renewal and reciprocity.

3. Re-ecologising the Present

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

-- James Baldwin, No Name In the Street (1972)

One other element that was difficult to introduce in this work was recentering ecology in The Studio’s operations. Digging into the material underpinning and role of technology is uncomfortable territory. Inevitably challenging questions arise that push us to imagine the interconnected web of life that create the products that support our livelihoods. They tug on a colonial thread that asks us to take an unflinching look at the fabric of our economy. These embedded relationships are difficult to uncover let alone transform but they are also crucial to untangling the mess we’re in.

The Studio embraced our questions, but we learned that we needed to hold this space with greater care. Recentering ecology takes us to the front door of the highly exploitative global system that makes up our modern world. We need to be more supportive during discomfort, prioritise the systemic over the individual, and be challenging but recognise where there is agency and where there is not. Through our deep listening, we also learned that they have an existing global and local network that can be drawn upon to help them tackle these mammoth questions. And by seeking help from their glocal network to transform these colonial relationships they would not only build resilience within their own organisation but also create resilience within the wider systems that support their operations.

When ecology is re-centred, an interesting thing happens. You start to look at the entirety of a system and see the world as the living breathing planet it is. We start to understand that the seemingly mechanical and technical tools we directly interact with are all underpinned by an ecosystem outside of our frame. By recentering ecology we recognise what Regenerative Business can be: an interactive system that benefits all life. Regenerative Business is a fundamentally different way of seeing the world and the purpose of work. Reimagining work as a means to enact our ten regenerative principles. If there’s anything we should never forget, it’s that there are always alternatives: businesses can be rooted in circular and regenerative design, systems can be relocalised and regenerated, and we can repair our unequal global and colonial relationships.

A public summary of our work with The Studio is available here.

If your organisation is seeking to align its values with a more regenerative and reciprocal approach, we’d love to support and learn from that journey. We believe meaningful change arises from deep, thoughtful collaboration - a core principle of our Slowmentum philosophy. Feel free to contact us to explore how we can work together.

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