Cultural Wayfinding
Lead from a Regenerative Paradigm
Inner Work for Systems Change
The ground is shifting.
Systems that seemed permanent are revealing their collapse. Stories that shaped generations are composting. The polycrisis we face - climate breakdown, rising authoritarianism, epidemic burnout - emerges from shared roots, not separate problems.
When old paradigms break down, however, space appears for new ones, and when certainties dissolve, imagination becomes essential work.
Cultural Wayfinding is designed for this moment.
Through systems thinking, somatic practice, and ritual, we learn to identify the cultural stories we've inherited, compost what no longer serves, and begin embodying alternatives.
This isn't abstract work.
It's about reconnecting with your inner compass, grounding your leadership in integrity and relationship, and seeding regenerative culture in the contexts you already inhabit.
Cultural Wayfinding is for those ready to move from reacting to inherited systems to reimagining how we live and lead - cultivating the presence, imagination, and practice needed to foster change that's genuinely regenerative.
Over twelve weeks, we explore the cultural stories that shape how we work, lead, and create in the world. We examine the dominant paradigms of our time - separation, domination, growth - not as abstract concepts but as living forces that move through our bodies, relationships, and movements.
We do the work of composting these inherited patterns. Not bypassing them, but consciously choosing to release what no longer serves, to grieve what's ending and to prepare the soil for what wants to emerge.
And we begin seeding alternatives: interconnection instead of separation, partnership instead of domination, abundance instead of scarcity. We explore what it means to embody these paradigms in our own lives, relationships, and the systems we inhabit.
This integrates multiple ways of knowing; systems thinking helps us understand root causes and leverage points, somatic practice grounds us in the body's wisdom, ritual and reflection create space for deeper transformation, visioning develops our capacity for imagination as political practice.
The work is both personal and collective. We examine how cultural stories live within us while exploring their systemic implications. We develop individual capacity while building community and shared practice.
The Stories That Shape Us Are Changing
From Monoculture to Living System
Our dominant culture operates like a monoculture: efficient in the short term, but brittle. It resists diversity, collapses under pressure, and survives only through increased force, control, and extraction.
Many of us have absorbed this logic without realising it. When change feels slow, we push harder. When conflict arises, we fight or withdraw. When burnout comes, we override our bodies and keep going. We replicate the very patterns we're trying to transform.
This is what it means to use the tools of the master's house. To approach liberation with the energy of domination. To seek regeneration through extraction.
Cultural Wayfinding asks a different question: What if the work isn't to fight harder, but to seed differently?
This course isn't about changing what you do. It's about transforming how you do it - the paradigms you're leading from, the energy you bring, the culture you're creating through your choices.
What You'll Actually Learn
This isn't a leadership training that gives you better management techniques. It's a deep inquiry into the stories that shape our world - endless growth, scarcity, domination, separation, control, supremacy - and how they live in our bodies, relationships, and organisations, and how we perpetuate them, even when we're trying to dismantle them.
Over twelve weeks, you'll develop:
Paradigm Literacy
Understanding how separation, domination, and scarcity function as cultural operating systems
Recognising how these paradigms show up in your work (urgency culture, perfectionism, scarcity thinking, hierarchy)
Seeing the connections between personal burnout and systemic extraction
Liberation Practices
Somatic tools for composting these tools
The skills of Getting Free
Practices for interrupting these patterns in real time
Systems Thinking for Changemakers
Leverage points in cultural change
How paradigms actually shift (not through force, but through seeding alternatives)
Prototyping regenerative structures in the spaces you inhabit
This is the foundational work that makes every other change effort more effective. .
The Journey
Weeks 1 - 5: Getting Free
We examine how separation, domination, and scarcity function as cultural operating systems that create the polycrisis we face.
The story of separation positions humans as separate from nature and each other, enabling extraction and ecological collapse.
The story of domination operates through patriarchy, white supremacy, and supremacy culture. We look at how it uses shame and violence to maintain power, how it lives in our bodies as perfectionism and imposter syndrome, and what partnership culture offers as alternative.
The story of scarcity and growth is capitalism's operating system. We examine how it creates urgency culture, burnout, and the growth imperative - and how it shapes our relationship to time, resources, and rest.
Throughout, we're asking: Where do I see these stories in my work? How am I perpetuating them? What becomes possible when I compost them?
Weeks 6-7: Composting Stories
Liberation requires release. We create ritual space to consciously let go of these stories - the voices that say we're not enough, the urgency that drives us to override our bodies, the scarcity that prevents us from building solidarity.
We acknowledge what these stories have cost us - individually and collectively. We sit in the liminal space between paradigms. We prepare soil for what wants to emerge.
Weeks 8 - 12: Re-Imagine Everything
We write new stories, and in doing so we seed them in three dimensions: self, relationship and systems.
Embodiment: What does it mean to live from partnership instead of domination? From interconnection instead of separation? From abundance instead of scarcity? We practice embodying these paradigms in daily life, shaping how we make decisions, set boundaries, and relate to our work.
Relational practice: How do we build communities that don't replicate harm? Share these paradigms with integrity? In exploring these questions we consider how we might seed more regenerative paradigms through our relationships.
Systems work: The practical work of culture-shifting. We explore leverage points, prototype regenerative structures, and learn to disturb systems in service of transformation. This isn't about tearing everything down - it's about seeding alternatives in the spaces we already inhabit.
By the end, you'll have a framework for recognising and interrupting oppressive patterns, practices for embodying liberation, and a community committed to this work.
We follow Joanna Macy’s understanding of an activist: anyone acting for something larger than personal gain.
This course is for changemakers, organisers, leaders and all those who sense that something fundamental needs to shift.
You might be leading an organisation and noticing how it unconsciously replicates the patterns it was created to disrupt. You might be engaged in movement work and feeling the toll of urgency culture. You might be building alternatives and wanting to ensure you don't rebuild extractive paradigms with different language.
Or you might be doing something radically different - if you believe in a more just, loving and regenerative world, you are welcome here.
This course is best suited if you’re:
Looking for depth, not just information.
Want community with others asking similar questions.
Interested in work that integrates the spiritual and political, that doesn't separate personal transformation from systemic change.
Who is this for?
Twelve weekly sessions
Each 90-minute session includes teaching, somatic practice, small group exploration, and integration time. Sessions are held via Zoom with recordings available.
Between-session practices
The curriculum invites embodied practices, reflection prompts, and small experiments to deepen integration between sessions.
Learning community
You'll join a cohort moving through the material together, with community space for connection between sessions.
Course materials
A comprehensive workbook accompanies the curriculum, along with curated readings and resources.
Structure & Practice
This is not traditional leadership training focused on organisational management or strategic planning frameworks.
It's not therapy, though the work may be therapeutic. We explore cultural patterns, not individual trauma.
It's not academic systems theory, though we draw on systems thinking. Theory serves practice here, and we bridge the spiritual, somatic and relational as much as the intellect.
It's also not about prescribing the "one right way" to lead or create change. It's about developing capacity to navigate complexity, hold paradox, and seed alternatives in whatever context you find yourself.
What This Course Isn’t
Lucy, United States
“From the readings, to the discussions, to the facilitation and pace, this course offers an opportunity for both seasoned activists and newcomers to find a reflective place to deepen their understanding and practice, while leaning into envisioning new possibilities...”
Ruth, Australia
“Every session left me full of ideas, thoughts, questions, and a much deeper understanding of myself and my purpose in this world. I loved this course - and all the wonderful people from all over the world who shared this space - and, while so thankful to have been involved, I'm quite sad that it has come to an end.”
Facilitator - Laura Hartley
Laura Hartley is the founder of Scintilla Centre.
Her work with changemakers emerged from her own experience as a climate and environmental activist. She understands the challenges that change-work brings and the skills required for impactful work: relationship building, creativity, conflict reconciliation, storytelling.
As a coach and the founder of Scintilla Centre, Laura supports changemakers in developing the skills, wisdom, and community needed to remake the world.
The Scintilla Approach
Scintilla Centre works at the intersection of systems change, contemplative practice, and cultural transformation. We create learning spaces for changemakers developing the wisdom and capacities this time requires.
Our programs integrate systems thinking with somatic wisdom, radical imagination, and relational practice, and we work with those who believe a more just & regenerative world is possible.
We believe transformation happens at multiple scales simultaneously, that inner work and outer work are inseparable, and that shifting culture requires understanding the paradigms we've inherited and consciously choosing to seed alternatives.
Cultural Wayfinding represents our foundational offering in this work; a space to develop the paradigm-shifting capacity that makes all other change work more effective.
Learn when Cultural Wayfinding opens
To hear when this program opens and learn more, please join our mailing list below.
✺ Frequently asked questions ✺
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Live sessions are 90 minutes, and this is where the majority of the content is delivered. Allow about 30 minutes per week for the workbook and reflection prompts.
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No problem. Each session will be recorded and you can watch the replay. Each week will have an accompanying workbook you can also follow along in.
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We start on Wednesday, March 26 2025. Sessions are at 6pm UK time, which is generally 10am Pacific | 1pm Eastern | 7pm CET. There is some variation in weeks 1 & 2 for daylight savings changes.
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Refunds are not permitted for change of mind. If your circumstances change please email us to discuss.