Ten Types of Renewal

A Festschrift for Systemic Renewal

In ways that can never be quantified, evaluated or standardised, every human victory is amplified by the Renewal story that sits in its offstage wings.

As a victim survivor, I know the power of Renewal over Change.

There are shadows in my past that I can never change. They happened and the scars are there. Without Renewal, I only have a story of survival, but it is the unexpected plot twists that gift me something so much better; a life richer in colour and deeper in impact. The ability to love a man and raise a child, for example, has been even more miraculous (than it already would have been).

In my leadership across a range of sectors, I gradually discovered that this is no different for whole systems. Our greatest failures can become the material of our best achievements as a human race, and this is why I believe Systemic Renewal is needed in our world.  

Renewal has an edge that is bitter-sweet, no doubt. To embrace it means accepting that there are some things that innovation and change leadership alone will not achieve. It is a bit unsexy to say this, but deep down, we know it.

We can’t change everything, but all things can be renewed. In honour of this great hope, I have written a celebration (a Festschrift) of Ten Types of Renewal (as if they had already happened) …

For a renewed economy

To an earth once arid and crying for justice:

Now there is balance. 

Some eat humble pie and everyone gets a slice of the pie.

Nobody eats flavourless food anymore.

Rich and less-rich are seated together.

One at a time we speak and listen, laugh and glisten.

For renewed professions

To once hushed tones, confidential emails and band-aid solutions:

Your time is up!

Compromise-stained uniforms are washed and ready to wear again.

Expertise and hard work have overridden pride and control.

Men and women, young and old, are valued by their pay grades.

Everyone takes breaks; blessed lunch breaks and do-nothing weekends.  

For renewed enterprise

The ones that felt left behind are now in front!

The small ones are named ‘The Sought-After Ones’.

Lived experience has triumphed over false confidence and marketing strategies.

Empty promises have screamed their last. 

Tall poppies thrive.

For renewed wellbeing

To shaking hands at computer keyboards and over-caffeinated, over-stimulated, over-travelled

war-with-self … “Be still.”

You are loved.

You are safe.

You are free.

For renewed workplace relationships

To eggshells and metaphorical tip-toes in offices where schemers scheme and liars lie:

Welcome to the fun house!

Here we play, lament, make mistakes, try again.

Truth is rewarded now.

Here we grow and know that we belong, even when we disagree.

Our once enemies are the cousins who we’d miss if they weren’t at the family gathering.

For renewed cities

To once empty vessels and concrete jungles and nothing-to-do sameness:

Now you are fully funded.

Every postcode is sought after.

Every postcode.

For renewed vision

To tired, wordy mission statements and lengthy action plans and disenchantment:

Now vision is written on our hearts.

We leap out of bed in the morning to be together and get the job done.

We are ambitious and dangerously so.

For renewed trust in leaders

Once ‘male’ meant misogyny and ‘power’ meant abuse and NOTHING surprised us anymore;

But the untrustworthy ones don’t last here.

Transparency is the fashion now and only vulnerability scores points.

For renewed policies

Things that didn’t used to be things are things now.

Boundaries and rules of play are agreed between nations, industries and management levels.

There is no slave or free. 

For a renewed market

To once sneaky small print and cookie-informed cookie monsters,

Now we know exactly what we are buying, how it was made and who made money out of it.

Nothing remains hidden and everything is in full internet view.

 I recently received some helpful feedback from Ignacio Packer, who is the Executive Director of Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation. He wrote to me, “We should be driven by the light, not discouraged by the darkness.”

My work is about ‘rebuilding broken systems’ but in my efforts to explain this concept I had somehow become tied up in trying to convince prospective clients that brokenness is a thing. It is. Many of us are working in or trying to influence genuinely broken systems.

However, this is of secondary importance to the power of Renewal. Our greatest wounds make our successes all the more triumphant. The light is more powerful than the darkness. Thank you to Ignacio for this reminder. This Festschrift is to honour him and the team at Caux Initiatives of Change.

Photo from Stock Photos, Vitanovski, 2015

Article written by Heather Cetrangolo, 9 February 2024