Insights > Better World Leaders
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Carol Sanford invites us to disrupt the attachment we have to our current methods, and instead learn to work Indirectly

Today’s guest is the most deeply provocative, developmental and loving regenerative guide  I have been honoured to connect with and be developing within her communities.

Carol Sanford is acknowledged by many as a matriarch within the resurgent global regeneration movement, having been in deep practice in her own life, family and work both in multi-national organisations and in developmental education for over 45 years.

Carol is the author of 6 books, several of which are cited as essential reading at Harvard and Stamford. She is the founder of the Carol Sanford Institute and Seed Communities, a developmental community for business people, entrepreneurs, investors and practitioners to deepen their understanding of regenerative paradigms, engage in developmental work and life-based practice engaging regenerative frameworks.

Carol has done more than any other person to shift my way of being, through my engagement over years with her frameworks, communities and being state. I am immensely grateful to Carol for all that she has brought to the world as one of the ‘deep practitioners’ and most tenured wayfinders of the emergent ‘regenerative movement’. 

Her books, podcasts, and public writing and speaking provide a means for all to shift their thinking around business, investing, parenting, community organising, media creation and more. Her developmental communities and summits are some of the most confronting and enlivening learning spaces I’ve had the honour of participating in. 

All of this being said, I’m delighted to share this conversation on her latest book, Indirect Work, which has we discuss provides an entry point to the greater body of her work, and a pathway to explore the deepest shifting that’s needed for real transformation to occur.

Key Framework introduced:

Consciousness – Culture – Capability, from Indirect Work

Key Concepts discussed:

  • Sensing & shifting Paradigms
  • Exploring Matrixes
  • Re-examining
  • Indirect Work – exploring Consciousness.

Key Prompts provided:

  • Where did that come from? 
  • What was I thinking before?
  • Stop & reflect what framework is limiting you and blinding to you

Suggested practices recommended:

Setting an aim – instead of focusing on achieving specific goals, set an aim to strive towards. This is a developmental pathway you set for yourself which is proximate enough to observe progress. 

Engage in long thought – rather than trying to tackle a problem by solving it and moving on to the next one, re-examine your thinking on an issue or development area over an extended period of time, noting what’s changing in your thinking or broader senses about the issue or problem and how you are approaching it.

Engage with Carol’s work & connect with the Communities she convenes here:

LinkedIn profile

Books here

Seed Communities here

Medium articles here

Carol’s Second Opinion podcast series here

Additional resources;

Tim’s Reflection article – Medium here 

Tim’s Reflection video – YouTube

Thomas Kuln – The Structure of Scientific Revolutions here