Attending the Anthropy gathering at the Eden Project earlier this month brought to mind the Everlasting Gobstopper of Willie Wonka fame. This fictional confectionery constantly changed colour and flavour as it was sucked. So it was with Anthropy - a three-day smorgasbord of stimulating ideas and conversations across a diverse range of topics.
Memorable nuggets for me included:
The continued assertion from some that ‘consumer demand drives what brands produce’. For me, those six words are more accurately reversed to ‘what brands produce drives consumer demand’. The word order has an immeasurable influence on the landing of responsibility for the changes we need to see.
The value of walking side by side, versus face-to-face, for gaining new insight. For me, the key benefit here is the greater comfort facilitated for silences - so vital, but so rarely permitted when our face is under direct scrutiny.
The problem that low income families don’t experiment with new, and potentially healthier, foods for their children because of the risk of waste. For me, rather than innovation in healthy foods to appeal to fussy eaters, what we need is an attitudinal change towards our food and its value - a ‘nose-to-tail’ approach which needs to start with adults as role models.
The link between provision of school meals and enhanced lifetime earnings. For the systemic changes we need to see I suggest that the barometer needs to change here, and in so many other scientific studies, from one of earnings to one of well-being.
The impact of company purpose on workplace health. I wonder what it would take to change the narrative to one where the primary purpose of any organisation is the well-being of its employees - and any other purpose, and stakeholders, are secondary to that?
A lack of trust for both individuals and communities from those with the money. I learned of some truly excellent initiatives to strengthen community engagement, where the barrier to a large-scale rollout was exactly this. I’d be intrigued to map the key stakeholders in a systemic constellation to shed light on the dynamics behind this purported lack of trust.
The need for education of citizens proffered time and again as a solution to current societal issues. One example that stood out for me was the purported need for education in critical thinking to prevent citizens falling into news silos. It concerns me that education is being asked to do so much heavy lifting. How often is it relied upon as an alternative to organisations taking responsibility for situations linked to their offerings?
The need for a narrative of what is a good life, centred around connection to people, place and nature. In order to shift to such a narrative it was suggested that we should rely on data and selling the benefits. I worry that such an approach centres on incremental changes to the current system instead of a wholesale shift to a new one. Also, see previous point for the heavy lifting which education is being asked to do.
The need to better connect people to their feelings. Earth Percent aim to do this through music, and John O’Brien (the Anthropist) did this in his own panel session with a carefully curated playlist designed to reinforce his wise words. However, music is not the only means: I’m working to inspire a greater focus on intuitive wisdom through the use systemic constellations. I would love to hear what others are doing. And to see more sessions devoted to this topic at Anthropy 2024.