The Scintilla Way: A Framework of Skillsets for Changemakers
The World As It Is and The World As It Could Be…
I love this concept.
I first came across it at a community organising training, when I was just beginning my work. I wasn't sure how I would use it, or why these words would stick so closely, but they planted a seed in me that has been growing ever since.
They articulated the gap I was sensing, a space between worlds – between reality and possibility, between what we can see and what we can feel, between where we are and where we could be - that needed to be bridged and nurtured.
A gap in which I believed, held well, with the right conditions, real healing and change could emerge, organically.
The Deeper Work of Change
This feeling of mine no doubt had something to do with my own transformation over the years. I've known from my own journey that we have a deep capacity for change as human beings – but that for change to be authentic and lasting, it couldn't come from shaming or blaming. Change, at least within myself, has always been resistant to those attacks, resulting in a doubling down or a nervous system to dysregulated to unpack anything with intention.
Change also couldn’t come from violence, overwork or attack. While it may seem obvious, sometimes we try to apply the same energy or method of the systems we’re changing, to changing the system. Audre Lorde put it this way: “For the master’s tool will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master’s house as their only source of support.”
Instead, what I've learned is that we need to create the conditions for change - which often come from sitting in an uncomfortable, messy, liminal middle space.
The conditions here include space for people to unpack their beliefs and values, including how and why they exist. It includes increasing our sense of agency and power; the reminder that we get to choose who we are – it's not written in destiny or foregone at the time of our birth. We get to choose, and every day we get to choose again. And this choice extends beyond our individual identities – we are also choosing and creating our collective world. Our societies, systems, and institutions aren't inevitable or natural laws; they are human constructions that we have collectively agreed upon and continually recreate through our participation. When we truly grasp this, we understand that different choices can lead to entirely different worlds.
I also believe that each and every one of us has a role to play in the world's remaking, because each and every one of us has something to offer, something unique, something beautiful. Each and every one of us has callings and a sacred vocation, wisdom that we can cultivate through listening and connecting to something larger than ourselves.
The conditions for change are also structural – that we have the time, the resources, the environment, the safety in which to evolve – personally and collectively.
Lastly, I’ve learned that true transformation can only come with a total change in not just our systems and politics (although these are absolutely necessary), but also a fundamental shift in the beliefs, mindsets, values and stories that underpin those systems.
Because for our work to have its greatest impact, we must attend to the roots of the crises we face, not just the symptoms. Our outer crises are deeply entangled with our inner fractures, and transformation at the systemic level requires transformation at the personal, relational, and cultural levels too.
This is the work Scintilla Centre was created for.
The Depth of Our Crises
Our crises run deeper than they appear on the surface. Open the news and you'll see the latest horror: deportations, rising authoritarianism, political chaos, violence waged on innocent people, or the latest climate catastrophe.
Our news and political system present the headline as the problem – and with this, it's easy to think that if we just fixed this particular policy, stopped that one person, toppled that toxic party, pushed a little harder, we'd be okay.
But the deeper causes are woven into the foundations of our modern world. Our crises cut to the heart of what it means to be human - our relationship with each other, with the more than human world, with power, and with the stories we live inside. They are rooted in centuries of harm: colonisation, slavery, genocide, ecocide. Violence begets more violence until it is interrupted. Trauma, unseen and unheard, begets more pain until it is seen and processed.
These crises however don't just live outside of us - they live in us, as us and through us.
Between self and world there is not a boundary but a mirror, reflecting patterns that flow in both directions. In our personal struggles—burnout, exhaustion, imposter syndrome, loneliness—we embody microcosms of our larger cultural narratives; ones built on extraction and limitless growth, on domination and control, and on the illusion of separation from the living world that we are made of. The same mindset that treats the Earth as a resource to be extracted from treats our bodies and spirits as machines to be optimised.
Changemaking for this reason must integrate the inner and the outer, recognising that they are not separate domains but a single fabric. As we work on one, the other shifts in response, and when we attend to both simultaneously, our efforts gain coherence and power.
This approach holds both the sacred and the strategic, understanding that the emotional, somatic, and spiritual terrain of transformation is just as critical as the political and systemic.
Real change emerges not from dividing these realms but understanding their relationship to each other.
The Scintilla Approach: Building Capacity for Transformation
I believe not so much that we were made for these times, but that we are in them - fully, inescapably present at this moment in human history. And that brings with it a sobering reality: we must greet this moment with whatever capacity we have, while developing and trusting our ability to stretch and grow to meet what is coming.
So how do we do this? How do we stand in the gap between the world as it is and the world as it could be? What does this mean, tangibly?
First, we start with building the capacity to meet this moment. This means developing the ability to feel and honour our grief rather than suppress it, to channel our rage into creative action, and to work with overwhelm as a teacher rather than an obstacle. It means restoring right relationship - with our hearts, with each other and with and the living systems we're a part of. It means deliberately interrupting the cycles and patterns that no longer serve us - both the ones we hold collectively (ahem, the war machine) and the ones that play out in our personal lives.
This work requires us to develop both inner resilience and outer skillfullness in equal measure. It means training ourselves to discern when to act swiftly and when to create space for emergence. It means learning how to move from integrity rather than reactivity, especially when under pressure. Perhaps most importantly, it requires that we cultivate the capacity to hold paradox and complexity - to embrace the both/and over the either/or, the reality that two things can be true at once. Without the capacity to hold this tension, we remain trapped in the same paradigms we're trying to transcend, unconsciously reproducing the very patterns we seek to transform.
This isn't abstract.
There are tangible, teachable skills that allow us to move through overwhelm into discernment, from reactivity into creative response.
To cultivate leadership that is humble, creative, and grounded.
To practice power-with rather than power-over.
To engage in change that doesn't replicate the systems we seek to transform, but transforms them.
The Five Dimensions of Changemaking
At the Scintilla Centre, we've developed a framework of five interconnected domains of skills that changemakers need to navigate these complex times.
The Five Dimensions of Changemaking
At the Scintilla Centre, we've developed a framework of five interconnected domains of skills that changemakers need to navigate these complex times. Each domain represents an area we need to work if we’re to create deeper impact, but these domains are not silos. They speak to one another - presence, power, and imagination echo across all of them
1. Skilled Leadership
Skilled leadership is not about titles or control - it's about the quality we bring to the work, and the tangible skills that allow for ideas, movements, and energies to build and grow.
Cultivating an Internal Compass: This is knowing what matters most to you, as well as listening to deeper callings, and being able to navigate by those stars even in stormy seas. It means learning to distinguish between external pressures and internal wisdom.
Discernment & Wise Action: This about developing the capacity to know when to act, when to wait, and how to move with clarity and purpose. It involves recognising the difference between reaction and response, between urgency and importance.
Sensemaking & Pattern Recognition: In our noise saturated world, the ability to discern signal from noise, to identify emerging patterns, and to make meaning from complexity is essential. This involves cultivating both an analytical approach but also intuitive knowing - learning to recognise when something significant is emerging before it's fully visible.
Coalition-building & Network-weaving: The work never belongs to us alone - whether that ‘us’ is as an individual or organisation. This skill involves bringing diverse perspectives together, finding common ground, and creating structures for collective action that honour our unique gifts.
2. Seeding & Shaping Change
Remaking the world requires us to reimagine what's possible, to lean into vision, creativity, and moral imagination.
Systems Thinking: Seeing the interconnections between parts, understanding feedback loops, and recognising leverage points for change are essential skills for addressing root causes rather than symptoms. This also means seeing the way systems exist within us, because underneath every system is a story - a mindset, set of values or beliefs.
Radical Imagination & Visionary Thinking: Our world is shaped by imagination - but whose, and for whose benefit? The capacity to imagine beyond current constraints is essential for remaking the world. This involves practices that help us expand our creativity, envision radically different futures, and then work to seed them in to reality.
Prototyping & Experimenting: In a world that is composting and collapsing, we need to be willing to try new approaches, to learn through doing, and to iterate based on feedback. This includes developing comfort with uncertainty and failure as part of the creative process.
Storytelling of Ideas & Cultural Narratives: We’re narrative driven creatures, and stories shape reality. The ability to identify and shift cultural stories (including the ones that live within us), to craft compelling narratives that inspire action (give us something to say yes to!), and to clearly articulate visions of what could be are powerful tools for transformation.
3. Inner Cultivation
This is long haul work, and we need to cultivate the conditions within us for an enjoyable, and sustainable journey. We also cannot Get Free without the development of presence & self-awareness, or hold space for the grief or pain of the world without emotional maturity.
Self-Awareness & Emotional Maturity: The ability to recognise our own patterns, triggers, and biases is fundamental to impact as a changemaker. Without this, we risk unconsciously reproducing harmful dynamics even as we try to transform them.
Adaptability & Resilience: In rapidly changing conditions - which our world is in - the capacity to adapt while is critical. This includes developing both personal resilience and collective adaptability - learning to bend without breaking, to recover from setbacks, and to find opportunity.
Presence & Somatic Awareness: Our bodies hold wisdom that our minds often miss. Developing embodied awareness helps us access intuition, honour our authentic capacity and callings, and remain grounded in challenging situations.
Self-Care & Joy: Real self care is not bubble baths and face masks - it’s not anything you have to buy. It’s honouring our physical, emotional and spiritual needs. This means developing practices that replenish our energy, finding joy in the journey, and creating cultures of care rather than exploitation - because self-care is a pathway to collective care.
4. Soul Work
We’re collectively in a dark night of the soul: a moment of moral and spiritual reckoning, where the path is dark and the way out is unclear. We must consider the soul work of this time as an integral part of our human and changemaker journey.
Navigating Grief & Dark Nights of the Soul: As we face ecological collapse, social fragmentation, and personal loss, the ability to move through grief rather suppress it becomes essential. This involves developing practices that help us process collective and personal sorrow, finding meaning and purpose even in darkness.
Ritual & Meaning-Making: Creating meaningful practices that honour transitions, mark important moments, and connect us to something larger than ourselves offers us practice to return to, a space to cultivate wisdom and discernment.
Humility & Moral Courage: This paradoxical pairing - the humility to know we don't have all the answers, that we can’t do all the work, and the courage to act anyway - is at the heart of the Scintilla Way.
Connection with the More-than-Human World: Rebuilding our relationship with the living systems we are a part of is both practical and spiritual work. This involves practices that help us recognise ourselves as part of nature rather than separate from it, and that restore our sense of belonging to the web of life.
5. Relational Stitching
Our relational fabric is fraying, both with each other and the more-than-human world. Repairing trust, stewarding our power, and learning how to work across lines of difference are necessary skills in these times.
Empathy, Deep Listening & Perspective-Taking: The capacity to genuinely understand others' experiences and perspectives, even when they are radically different from our own, is essential for building bridges. This involves practices that help us move beyond judgment to curiosity and connection.
Navigating Complexity - Holding Nuance & Paradox: Our polarised world often demands binary thinking - us vs them, right vs wrong, this vs that - but transformation requires holding multiple perspectives simultaneously. This involves developing comfort with ambiguity, the knowledge that two things can be true at once, and skills for facilitating dialogue across difference.
Power Literacy & Stewardship: Understanding how power operates and learning to work with it ethically is crucial. This includes recognising your own power, using it with care and intention, and helping redistribute power in ways that serve collective flourishing.
Nonviolence & Conflict Reconciliation: In a world with increasing conflict and violence, nonviolence offers an embodied and relational path to transformation. This involves developing both the philosophical understanding and practical skills to engage with conflict as a creative rather than destructive force.
Each of these skill domains represents a skill and practice.
At Scintilla, we believe that by cultivating these capacities in ourselves and each other, we can stand more effectively in that crucial gap between the world as it is and the world as it could be - and help birth a more just and regenerative world.
Why Scintilla?
When launching the Scintilla Centre, I chose the name "Scintilla" - meaning a tiny spark or trace - because transformation often begins with the smallest spark.
An idea or calling that won't let you go.
A moment of insight that changes everything.
An act of kindness or compassion that challenges our preconceptions.
These scintillas, when tended carefully, can light whole landscapes of possibility.
Our intention at Scintilla is to equip changemakers with the skills, wisdom, and community to remake the world. To greet this moment not just with action (although that is necessary), but with a different quality of being. T
his isn't about denying the reality we live in - we face existential threats and risks, and opening the news can feel like a tidal wave of grief, of sadness, of rage.
But collapse is not just an ending - it is a threshold.
It is in the rubble of what is unravelling that new ways of being are waiting to emerge.
Guiding Principles
There are 11 guiding principles that underpin the work of the Scintilla Centre:
The Earth is alive; we are not separate from it. We are woven into a single cosmic garment of life. Living in interconnection is not something to remember but something to practice.
Transformation is not only possible; it is inevitable. We are not fixed beings. Each of us has lived through profound internal shifts – we are not the same people at 15, 30, 50 or 75. Societies, too, have moved through waves of transformation - civil rights, queer liberation, and feminist movements remind us that change is real, possible and ongoing. We are part of this living current.
Our bodies are sites of liberation and transformation. Presence is not just a tool but a way of listening to life. Getting free is both personal and collective, embodied and relational. Our inner and outer liberation are inherently tied, and we cannot work on one – effectively – without the other.
Change happens not just by us or to us, but through us. It's emergent. It requires listening to something deeper that wants to come through.
We each have a role to play, but no single person carries the whole. Our work is part of a wider tapestry of change. We do the work, but we do not complete the work.
This time does not call for winning, fixing or saving. We cannot blame, shame or otherise ourselves toward a more just and regenerative world. The work instead lays in repairing, restitching, reimagining. It is love in action.
Powerlessness is not just a feeling but a systemic effect. Stewarding our power is about composting systems that thrive on disempowerment and practicing power-with and power-within rather than power-over.
We make the path by walking, and joy must be part of the journey. We cannot suffer our way to a more just and regenerative world. Suffering can be transformative when it is redemptive, witnessed, held, or morally rooted, but for our liberation to be possible we must also build on our pleasure, love, and care. To 'be the change', we must embody - now - the future we desire.
There are tangible skills we can develop to deepen our impact: nonviolence, navigating power, conflict transformation, decision-making, creativity, moral courage, systems thinking. For their deepest potential to be realised, we must practice them in a way that nourishes our interdependence, rather than reinforce control.
Holding paradox is at the heart of transformation. The ability to hold two truths at once is not weakness but strength.
There is no single right way to remake the world - but there are ways that hold life well. May we remain open to pathways that honour life, beyond rightness, rigidity or certainty.
If you recognise yourself in these words, we’d love to walk alongside you. Explore our offerings, join our community, or begin where you are - with your own spark.
In the meantime, thank you for being here. Truly.
