The Evolutionary Purpose of Soil Restoration Farming is to Heal the Planet through Agriculture. This purpose is bigger than we could accomplish by ourselves or in our lifetime. It is also evolutionary in its’ form, recognising that in striving towards this, we will continue to uncover the ways forward over time.
The Source Idea for our purpose is CONNECTION – with ourselves, each other and the land. All endeavours we take towards our purpose will be through the lens of increasing connection with ourselves, each other and the land.
The unique Pattern Integrity of the Source Idea is Synergy, Holism, Relational and Curiosity. The pattern integrity is woven into the core being of the way we connect that will take us towards our purpose.
Synergy refers to the collective intelligence and ultimately greater outcomes of people coming together than if they were to operate alone.
Holism refers to the connectedness of everything including the processional effect that results from any action. Parts of a whole cannot exist independently of the whole or be understood without reference to the whole.
Relational refers to the interconnectedness with others meaning that we commit to being engaged, grounded, clear, generous, humble ad kind.
Curiosity refers to being open to endless possibilities, requiring a growth-mindset to be open and ready to receive new information from our own experiences, each other’s and the land.
People being their own kind of different is the driver of our Source Idea of connection because it is the uniqueness that people bring that is exactly what the we need to heal the planet with agriculture.
Clear Agreements are the foundation of all good relationships. In all relationships, we strive to practice Clean Communication, Active Listening, Relational (vs Transactional) approach, and Horizontal Relationships.
Clean Communication involves taking responsibility for clearing ‘charges’ either intentionally or resulting from misunderstandings and self-imposed stories we run when in communication with others. It is essential that you clear a charge at the earliest possible time when something doesn’t land well or feel right with you.
Active Listening requires effort and involves listening with an intent to understand without judgment or constant preparation of what you want to say.
Relational approach is driven by question, curiosity and wonder. The transactional approach is instructing, linear and pre-set with assumptions about people’s needs and thus the solutions focus.
Horizontal relationships are when we see everyone as equal verses Vertical relationships where we place people above or below us. We cannot be a mixture of both. We choose to be horizontal in all relationships.
Values-led boundaries are agreements with SRF community members. Additional to the above they also include Reciprocity, Accountability and Diversity.
Reciprocity refers to give and take within the community and how we show up in all relationships, involving sharing knowledge, but also giving credit to where we gained knowledge.
Accountability means we are true to our word, including working on ourselves before working with others.
Diversity for us means respecting others’ differences and difference of opinion and goes to the heart of our driver – People being their own kind of different.
Understanding is always our intention when connecting with people. By maintaining clear agreements, we enhance every opportunity to understand people with the quality of our relationship being first priority. We seek first to understand ourselves, how we commune and how we are all interconnected with nature.