We work at a systemic level, where the scale and complexity of the challenges cannot be addressed by a single organisation. We unlock collective action by:
- Inspiring trust, courage, leadership and imagination to move beyond what feels possible when acting alone, challenge existing assumptions and uncover possibilities that fragmented approaches miss.
- Making shared interests visible, bringing together people who hold different parts of the system to reveal shared risks, dependencies, benefits and opportunities, creating a new mandate for collective action
- Fostering collective redesign to put forward bold ideas and develop credible propositions, coalitions, tools, market mechanisms, financial structures or institutions.
- Enabling the prototyping and scaling of new ideas, initiatives and systems, by attracting the talent, partnerships and capital needed to test, establish and strengthen them. Some of these ideas are developed and built in-house, while others are carried forward by partners.
"We inspire people to believe a different future is possible, and we build the bold ideas that bring that future closer."
Principles & Values
We understand the world as a complex and dynamic living system of which we are a part, where connection, regeneration, imagination, and courage are the key ingredients to bring about a different future.
Kinship and Collaboration
We remember our kinship with all life and grow rooted in community.
We hold trust-based relationships across different backgrounds and perspectives as the necessary conditions for genuine collaboration.
We bridge across different world-views, from ancestral wisdom-keepers to digital natives, large-scale global players to grassroots alternatives
Regeneration and Emergence
We take a living systems view, focusing on connections and interdependencies, and fostering regeneration.
We embrace nature’s rhythms, co-create with the flow of life and evolve organically, recognising change is the only constant.
Imagination
We harness the power of imagination to dream new possibilities.
We draw on different forms of knowledge and insight: rigorous analysis alongside relational and ancient wisdom, technological possibility with human judgement, urgency alongside a long-term, intergenerational perspective.
Courage
We kindle our fierce love for the earth and act with compassion.
We nurture the courage to carry us beyond the assumptions of the current system to imagine credible alternatives, and lead within complexity and uncertainty
How we think about systems change
Source: Adapted from the Berkana Two Loops Model
Ostara is inspired by the Berkana Institute ‘Two Loops’ model: a living systems model that shows how a dominant system persists despite mounting societal and ecological pressures, while new patterns of practice and relationship slowly emerge alongside it.
The model confronts change-makers with tough questions: is our work truly transformative, or is it reinforcing the underlying logic of a dominant system? What needs to be hospiced to allow new life to flourish? How can we accelerate and grow the emergent?
We act as a bridge between the current dominant paradigm and an emerging paradigm that is in service of life.
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