Origin stories orient us humans. Origin stories inform human systems of their core sources of identity, potentiality, and purpose. This workshop deepens participants understanding of what origin stories are, how they work within systems change, and why they are so important for investors, philanthropists, and others seeking to catalyze systems change. The workshop equips participants to both understand the overlooked value of origin stories and actively engages participants in starting the process of revealing and sharing some of their own origin stories. It actively builds relationships of trust between participants; an essential component of any kind of meaningful systemic transformation. The examples and stories shared will emphasize the importance of originating the stories of climate change into the beginnings of European colonization, the Doctrine of Discovery, which effectively centers climate justice, racial justice, and inclusive approaches for how both investors and philanthropists deploy capital.
This participatory workshop has powerfully contributed to other gatherings seeking to move capital to catalyze systemic change. When this workshop was offered at the Family Office Association’s annual gathering in Martha’s Vineyard, it was referred to as one of the best workshops presented, and was seen as directly responsible for a number of meaningful relationships that have lasted for years. When “Origin Stories: aligning capital investments with the Legacy of the Ocean” was offered at an invite-only gathering of investors and entrepreneurs around innovations for sustainable oceans on Necker Island; organizers and participants said it changed the tenor of the multi-day gathering, building trust between participants and supporting subsequent deal flow between entrepreneurs and investors. When the workshop was offered as part of a gathering of Family Offices to catalyze sustainable solutions at Sir Roger Tempest’s home, Broughton Hall, Yorkshire, England in 2023, it was considered to be a pivotal part of the gathering, opening the way for participants to build powerful relationships and to understand their own commitment to sustainability and the possibility of their own, their Family, and their clients’ legacies in new ways.
When possible, we recommend this workshop be offered towards the beginning of a gathering. It is a powerful exercise that deepens relationships across and between sectors; thus it can fit into multiple tracks or in between the tracks.
When imagining creating systemic change, it is common for our ahistorical society to focus on “visioning the future you want to live into” and then imagine some kind of pathway forward – which subsequently becomes strategic thinking. This process risks overstepping what has already happened and what is already there – as well as replicating core cultural narratives, embedded in origin stories, that are part of why the system keeps replicating the same results. Instead, this process helps to reveal worldviews and their origin stories that keep the system from changing. It represents an approach to a largely underrepresented and even dismissed challenge and opportunity.
