Regenerative Funding Portugal

Case: Conscious Startup, “Being” as a Facilitation Style, and How Land Informs

SUMMARY: Collective Transitions provided support to the convener and host of a kick-off dinner for people working in Portugal’s regenerative finance sector, with the aim of bringing fresh energy, hope and greater collaboration across this network. Through a facilitated “system sensing” approach, we helped the client gain clarity on how to host the dinner and a follow-up event in a way that built stronger relationships and best served the intention of catalyzing meaningful, long-term collaboration.

Recognizing that the financial system can serve as a major barrier to required regeneration of the planet, but is also a potential enabler of it, Gil Penha-Lopes, a researcher and lecturer at the University of Lisbon, decided to host and facilitate a dinner to bring together people working in Portugal’s regenerative finance sector. The aim and long-term intent of the dinner was to launch a continuing series of events to deepen cross-sector and multi-stakeholder collaboration in this area.

Prior to the dinner, Gil had several calls with members of the network and noticed a sense of burnout and fatigue, due to the dedication and level of effort this work had required over the past decade. There was a shared sentiment that something needed to shift in the way the regenerative finance sector operated, both for individuals and across organizations. Uncertain of how to initiate and deepen cross-sector and multi-stakeholder collaboration within the existing network, Gil called on Collective Transitions for guidance. 

Gil invited us to support him in how to design and host the dinner event, as well as to create conditions that could best service the intent of member collaboration over the long term. While Gil is an experienced facilitator and knows how to design sessions, he wanted to better understand how to catalyze a meaningful regenerative network—one that brings forth the wisdom, capacity and potential of the whole.  

Main challenges: how to focus the event

The group of attendees consisted of highly driven people with strong impulses and agendas within specific arenas. Each was coming to the event with unique personal motivations, longings, agendas  and strategies. Some people knew each other from previous collaborations, while others did not. 

A main concern was that focusing this initial meeting on mapping or sharing ideas —that is, going right away into strategy discussions—would likely generate a wide scope of approaches, strategies and topics, rather than building a collective field that would support the path towards the essence-based potential of the whole.

Secondary issues: a mixed group and complex history

Some people in the group had long-standing relationships, while others were new to the group. There was a desire to both acknowledge past and new relationships (including existing dynamics) while also building cohesion for the long term. A concern was that tensions from previous work relationships might hinder an otherwise open and curious atmosphere. 

The location selected for the network’s first get-together was a former factory that had produced rope for Portugal’s shipping industry during the age of discovery in the 15th through 17th centuries. These “discoveries,” focused on Africa, Asia and the Americas, aimed to build trade networks and markets across the globe and to spread Christianity, which were considered progressive movements at the time. However, there is now acknowledgement of the pain and trauma that resulted from the colonization, wars and exploitation of labor—while Portugal’s elite profited. 

What we did 

Collective Transitions facilitated a series of conversations with Gil and his business partner Constanca to support planning for the kick-off event, and later for a second event. We used a system sensing approach known as Systemic Constellation, which builds on systems thinking and system mapping by including the “felt senses” to provide additional inputs and other ways of knowing. By including other embodied senses, we have a wider range of context to better understand the dynamics and patterns at play to design a meaningful process with everyone involved. 

To begin, we collaboratively designed a calling question and intention to dedicate the process. A calling question acts like a spotlight, defining the territory of focus. We then selected elements or aspects of the system—i.e., the people, places and qualities being spotlighted—to “sense into.” 

During a facilitated Systemic Constellation, the sensing process names and makes explicit signals and insights that were felt or experienced, especially how each element relates to another. This is an experiential process of emergence, co-created through sensed input from each participant, representing an element. General patterns and subtle dynamics can emerge, creating clarity and a  better vision of the collective field—uncovering what is actually at stake and what is most important to include in next steps and actions. 

Planning for event

In planning the regenerative finance dinner, the guiding question was: What’s important to know for the event to catalyze the most benevolent outcome or potential of the group for the long term? 

We designed this calling question to inquire into the potential of the system and to better understand what preconditions are important to take into account. We also asked: How can the elements of this system co-create together meaningful next steps? 

The system elements identified were: Gil, Shadows, Potential, Place and Resources. In selecting the elements, we included the case giver, the potential of the group, and resources that could support the most benevolent outcome. We also included the element of shadow to understand the various relationships at play: 1) to wealth and power from Portugal’s history as it relates to commerce and finance, 2) the group dynamics, including previous stories, projects and relationships, and 3) Gil’s own inner dynamic as the event facilitator. 

Constellation 1

During our first Systemic Constellation session, the following aspects of the various elements were brought to awareness:

Shadows: The topic of finance brings in a lot of history, including how to fund regenerative intentions and projects. There is an aspect of wanting to do something new and better, yet sometimes “plot twists” arise, and outcomes do not always end up as good as originally intended. 

Being with “what is” and acknowledging what may be painful, intense or challenging, in a supportive way, creates the preconditions for restoration, re-alignment and reconciliation. In this way, the shadow that shows itself is not there to block us, but to ask us to work with it and see its hidden messages to us. If there is not enough felt safety or support, to ease the intensity, there may be a numbing quality that shows up in different ways. 

Place: There is a sense of feeling split, stretched or being caught “in the ropes,” which reminds us of the history and understanding of the event site. There is a desire to be seen both in the good things that are happening and also the things that contributed to pain in the past. 

The space wants to serve but needs to be invited by Gil to co-shape the event. With an invitation and acknowledgement, it can help direct the energy so it is undistorted and clear to serve the higher potential. 

Gil: As the convener and host, what’s called for is mere presence and a sense of being centered, versus creating structure. It’s as if inner stillness and being steady creates conditions for an inherent structure to emerge. It is more important to be “eye to eye” on an equal plane than to guide the group or hold space for them: “Be present. Be here.”

Resource: Event attendees are invited to take a more intimate and personal approach: “Don’t go in with your brain, build relationships first.” They want to be seen as people first, not simply as a role or function. Ways to support this include small 1:1 conversations and opening questions such as: What motivated you to come to the event? What motivates your work?” These entry points address the person and what they are longing for, not just their role or expertise. 

Food also can be seen as a resource. Connecting at the heart level is potentially a more vulnerable space, so while there is a desire to be visible, the day-to-day routine of food adds a bit of safety and comfort. Also mentioned was water as metaphor or vehicle of something that can flow. For example, how can capital be a vehicle to facilitate and connect to what matters? 

Potential: Here, the question is, what is the shared vision? Rather than focusing on “what can I do or what can you do?” the invitation is to lean in to “what can the group care for together?” The shared potential can become visible once the necessary relational ground is cultivated.

Event debrief

During a follow-up call after the dinner, Gil and Constanca shared how the event went. Constanca rejoiced: “This meeting was Gil’s highest-level performance. He just invited people to a dinner and magic happened. It was so simple, fluid and organic. It looked like months of work, and people agreed it was the most successful meeting ever.”

Gil shared his experience: “Yeah, it really felt like a big sense of accomplishment, like I published a book or something.” 

He explained how, before the dinner, he had decided to go on foot to the event location, to connect to the land and place. He’d passed by the famous statue of Marquês de Pombal, who rebuilt Lisbon’s downtown to be earthquake safe after major destruction from the 1755 quake and tsunami. “It was interesting to start with this story, knowing Portugal’s history,” he noted. 

From there, Gil began to connect to the journey of arriving at the event space: “I met people outside, and as we entered, we admired the space. It was a magical type of room with a lot of colors and walls of mirrors on the side. The room represented joy to us. At the same time, the main table where we were to convene, strangely resembled an MRI––used to create trust in children that need to do an MRI scan–– and I acknowledged the pain and hurt from the past.” 

Gil explained that the event table was filled with drawings and messages such as “I love life! I’m good at something.” He observed that: “These messages seemed to dissolve sadness. I connected to this sentiment and feeling about transmuting sadness into something good.” 

As attendees started arriving for the event, he felt that many people were longing for this type of transformation from sadness or struggle to something good. “While there was a sense of excitement to be together and connect for a shared purpose, many people also seemed to be really tired inside. It was as if the spirit was alive and wanted to be the change, while the physical body and emotional body seemed blocked or weighed down in some aspects.” 

As people were getting seated, Gil provided some of the framing for the event, explaining that the dinner was informal and without a lot of structure, and that the focus was to connect as people for a common vision. During the introduction round, he invited participants to pair off and share a bit about who they are and what connects them to the topic. He encouraged them to be bold with their questions.  

Gil then described what happened next: “After about an hour or so, it seemed the group started to resonate. After dinner, we went outside and people could meet organically in small groups. The conversations went off-topic to personal topics, including openness to explore ways to be more connected to themselves, and to go to places they may have otherwise avoided, in order to accomplish more or be better prepared for the potential and deeper calling of the work.” 

Things coalesced as participants came back inside toward the end of the event. “There were still a lot of insights coming,” Gil explained. “Next steps for how to support funding initiatives became more clear and concrete, and the group proposed another event a week later, along with a weekend retreat the following month.”

The second event

Gil kept the momentum going by arranging to bring the stakeholders together for a second event. There seemed to be more at stake and more of a desire to collaborate than there had been in the past. This event had more of a strategic focus, and while Gil knew the attendees well, he had little specific experience with the regenerative finance sector. He wanted to bring his unique capacity to invite people to connect on a deeper level and to create the alignment needed for strategic design. 

Constellation 2

Collective Transitions supported Gil with a second Systemic Constellation process to understand how to best plan, design and structure this follow-up event. Two areas of focus came out of the planning session together: 1) attuning the inner state of the convener (Gil) for this context and event, and 2) needing to bridge connections between older members of the group and newer members who were joining this second event.

Inner attunement 

“The success of an intervention depends on the inner condition of the intervener.” —Bill O’Brien. 

Gil’s challenge now was to design an event that supported the development of strategy, but without a prescriptive agenda or promise of what the event would bring. 

Inviting people to connect on a deeper level and to first align as a group required Gil to build an inner capacity—a capacity within himself to be able to listen to what is really serving the specific context, versus what may seem like logical steps based on his previous experiences. This required him to let go of assumptions and to really see and listen to what the situation called for, both in the planning process and as the event evolved. It’s a relationship with the quality of being. 

The metaphor we landed on for the inner shift was to learn how to move with and float on water. “Don’t carry or hold it, but let it carry you.” The location for this second event was in the historical finance district, in a structure built more or less on stilts “floating” on water. In this way, the land and site became a supportive ally to Gil. 

Bridging connection 

There was an interest in building a bridge between the elders of the group, who felt tired of going against the traditional finance system and did not have energy to push further, and the new initiators of the group, who were bringing innovation and new solutions to regenerative finance. The elders largely believed that “finance tech” could not solve the problems that they had experienced. 

From the elders, there was a sense of wanting others to witness and acknowledge their wisdom and experience, and what they had tried and seen. Gil aimed to begin the event with a story circle from these “elders,” as a way to acknowledge their wisdom and create knowledge transfer between generations of actors in the field. 

What changed 

Originally, Gil had considered starting the event with two rounds of presentations and then a mapping exercise, where guests would populate a shared wall with competencies, projects, opportunities and barriers of the ecosystem. But as the planning process unfolded, we realized that this approach would have kept the group in a more “mental” space, rather than providing a way for people to relate and get to know one another. Focusing on strategy would also create an opportunity to hide behind the pretense of roles, function and position. 

We ultimately created a more intimate space for connection, where people were able show up more as themselves. Relationships were cultivated, and conversations were deeper and more diverse. Ultimately, three potential pathways or a roadmap emerged, which seemed more clear and precise than if specific outcomes had been prescribed through a designed and facilitated process. 

Gil also practiced “being” as a facilitation style, rather than active facilitation of a designed process. To do this, he tended to the conditions of the event, connected to the physical space, and tuned into timing and flow—for example, by prompting “now it’s time to shift to the space outside.” The entire approach to guiding and shaping the evening was about allowing social connections to happen in an organic and informal way, without attachment to an outcome. 

To prepare for the event, Gil looked more deeply at his inner condition as the convener. This enabled him to show up fully in his role for that particular group and context, and to be fully present and to listen attentively for what wanted to emerge.  

What was learned

For both events, Gil learned that he had to drop much of his design, moderation and planning background to create the conditions for relationship and deeper alignment. There was value to actually sitting around the table and sharing food and being in normal conversation, with a few guiding questions. 

By slowing down and taking time to build relationships, the group became more open to something that emerged through the process of being in dialogue together, rather than something that any one person could have conceived. 

This shows us that by acknowledging and including other aspects of a given system, we can create a starting point for how to initiate a conversation, a project, or an idea for collaboration from a more informed and conscious place. This approach doesn’t just acknowledge what is positive and inspirational. It also embraces the parts that may need more of our care to create pre-conditions for healing movements for long-term personal and collective development as well as societal evolution.

How the space is held can ease certain existing conflicts. In this case, many of the attendees knew each other, and acknowledged a difficult past. If the dinner had focused mainly on how the roles or functions of people could contribute, then the motivations and essences of each person present may have been missed. When we show up in specific roles, this can play into a certain level of conflict. But if the space is held to support a higher potential, it is possible that members and the group as a whole can transcend the types of conflicts that might arise in more traditional business settings. 

It is important to acknowledge the interplay with the individual, and to consciously include it in projects and initiatives, especially those that intend to serve a larger whole. How the individual and team members contribute is key—for example, how they show up in a meeting, how they are connecting with others, how and if they are ready to let go of their preconceived ideas. The quality of these contributions will co-create and reinforce what the group can do together. 

Tending to the quality of connections serves a culture of trust, with mindfulness of the group dynamics, involving everyone equally, and staying with the questions. This then leads to a more awareness-based approach. By valuing multiple levels of knowing at the same time, groups can lead to more aligned, or even coherent, collective work.

Our value-added

In this case study, Collective Transitions’ use of a systems sensing approach provided clarity for how to host the dinner and follow-up event in a way that initiated and built stronger relationships among the members, in order to best serve the intention of catalyzing long-term, meaningful collaboration. Through facilitated Systemic Constellation practice, our team supported Gil to consciously work with and navigate the inner and outer complexities and dynamics contributing to the potential of the system, while holding space for reconciling tensions and obstructions.

Key takeaways

This case study resulted in some clear takeaways. For example:

• By sensing into known and hidden elements and dynamics, underlying and older tensions became more palpable. This opened up the space for meeting these tensions more explicitly, while making room for and inviting the potential of the collective to emerge. 

• What surfaced from the process was finding more supportive ways for reconciliation—understanding how land and place can inform and create supportive conditions, while acknowledging underlying tensions (for example, the historical aspect of Portugal’s participation in the exploitations of colonization and its collective traumas that this evokes over time).

• Transformation occurred both through an inner shift for the convener, and by creating a relational space for deeper alignment with the sensed values and trust building of the group. 

Tags and references 

#facilitation #container-creation #blueprint #conscious start-up #co-creation #leading-with-land-and-place