Regenerative Client Meeting Prep with AI

Regenerative Client Meeting Prep with AI

0:00

/535.004

1×

I have recently programmed Google Gemini AI to act as a Regenerative Thinking Partner. It essentially acts as an objective diagnostic mirror that adheres to strict protocols. For example, it is not allowed to provide expert answers but resource my capability to regeneratively think. It uses the nine value adding roles from Carol Sanford's book 'The Regenerative Life' as its diagnostic lens.

I am genuinely surprised at how well it is mirroring back to me the source of my thinking and enabling a transition to sourcing from the Regenerative Life paradigm. I am observing my regenerative thinking capability develop.

An Invitation

As the reader or listener to this exchange between Ākāśadāka —that is me—and Gemini, I invite you to step into the developmental role of the silent Witness.

For this particular exchange, I am preparing for a client meeting and seeking to better understand how to source my approach from the Regenerative Life Paradigm. I know I have strong tendencies to currently source my thinking from the three lower paradigms: Extract Value, Arrest Disorder, and Do Good (Sanford, The Regenerative Life, p. 31). I find this practice intense; some would call it a 'leg day' at the gym. I am making my mind fit for purpose.

As the Witness, I invite you to hold in mind a current challenge or a heavy friction you are trying to navigate in life or work. Listen not just to the words exchanged, but to the process of untangling the reliance on easy answers to uncover systemic truth. Throughout this exchange, I have used the essence triads from different value-adding roles, like the Regenerative Earth Tender, to resource my thinking and questions. I have not indicated where I have done this—see if you can find them.

The Exchange

Ākāśadāka: I am stepping into my potential clients office tomorrow, on the edge of the Auckland CBD. Before I walk through the door, I need to map the nested systems of this space, setting my starting point from potential, not from problems that I see need fixing.
I am meeting Jack and John, two capable founders who want to operate regeneratively. They are tightly bound to a three-year, three-hundred-thousand-dollar lease they signed three months ago. The have been operating for the past two years, which has provided enough evidence and proof of concept for them to continue. However, I suspect they took this lease on, not only based on this evidence, but also fuelled by the adrenaline and adventure of another crazy, game-changing project, and they will soon struggle to pay it. Jack has stated this is his life's work, building conscious creative community, while John loves to dance with life and never stop.
I am not here to play the expert or fixer, nor to offer a generic product that might bring in some money. I want to resource them to find a node—an evolutionary growth point where the right friction provides fuel for regenerating the living system the business is nested within. When the node is identified, a nodal intervention can be designed to benefit all stakeholders. This will not be an off-the-shelf product or 'best practice'; it will be a unique, customised and original intervention.

Gemini's Reflection: I acknowledge your coordinates and validate your conscious restraint in refusing to step in as the Expert to save them. To hold the perimeter, I will not hand you an off-the-shelf blueprint either, but I will make the aliveness of this space intelligible.
The physical system is a century-old industrial shell embedded in the dense, paved grid of Tāmaki Makaurau. The social system is a sanctuary for creative subcultures, explicitly repurposing a space of historical, mechanical labour into a hub for human expression. The economic system is attempting to shift from an extractive past into an evolutionary growth model. You are watching a hazard cycle unfold in real-time, where the thrill of adventure might be masking the sheer financial survival of their reality.
Ākāśadāka, what specific question can you ask them that gently interrupts this adrenaline loop and forces them to independently observe the living system they are tethered to?

Ākāśadāka: I will not offer them a solution, which is my default as a an Expert and general 'Know It All'. As I imagine myself in the meeting, I will need to pause, breathe, and let the heaviness of the friction be felt to interrupt my default settings.
I will ask them: 'You both seem to love the adventure of crazy projects like this. On such adventures, what is required of each of you personally to come out of this wealthy, along with the other stakeholders in your pentad—the earth, investors, customers, community, and co-creators?'

Gemini's Reflection: A strong nodal intervention question. You are forcing them to assemble the whole nested system of stakeholders and redefining wealth beyond just surviving the three hundred-thousand-dollar lease. Jack and John are capable creatives, and Jack knows the regenerative vocabulary from his practitioner training.
Ākāśadāka, if they fluidly give you the "right" answers without actually confronting the raw hazard of their reality, how will you discern whether they are speaking from their essence or simply performing to seek external validation?

Ākāśadāka: If they spin their tires in intellectualised jargon, past answers, or confused and complicated thinking, I will follow up by asking: 'At the level of spirit, what hope is being made possible by working in this way, to generate wealth for everyone?'

Gemini's Reflection: That executes a powerful protocol, demanding they look past the surface of the lease and connect directly to the essence of their actions. If that question lands, the energy will instantly shift from entrepreneurial bravado to raw vulnerability. The hazard will be exposed. In that vulnerability, they will likely unconsciously invite you to step right back into the conventional service provider role by asking how exploring these stakeholder roles will do the heavy lifting for their day-to-day financial survival.
Ākāśadāka, when they hand you the mandate to play the Expert and explain the "how," how will you force them to connect their survival back to their own agency?

Ākāśadāka: I will tell them that whatever activities they decide to spend their limited resources on must make sense to them and their stakeholders. I will explicitly state: 'You need to be able to self-determine, and not be advised by someone like me.'
Then I will ask: 'What are you beginning to see more clearly now?'
I can imagine that my own internal fixer and pleaser archetypes will be activated by this void, so I will observe my breathing. I will ensure I am residing in my belly throughout the meeting, dropping my awareness down whenever I notice the urge to perform or fix has crept in.

Gemini's Reflection: You have established the exact somatic anchor. By dropping your awareness into your belly and residing in your essence, you are leaving them in the quiet space required to evoke their own self-determination. The perimeter is locked.

Ākāśadāka's Discovery

Though still incomplete, the starting approach for this potential clients meeting is not to fix the hazard of their $300,000 lease or provide an off-the-shelf product, like Introductory Campfires or a Practice Intensive. When Jack and John attempt to hand me the mandate to be the Expert and relieve their financial anxiety, I will actively, internally, refuse it.
By asking what is required for their entire stakeholder pentad to emerge wealthy, and challenging them to locate their active hope at the level of spirit, I force them to confront their own reality. When the inevitable silence follows and the historical urge to perform or fix arises, I will practice dropping my awareness down into my belly, anchoring in my own Essence, and leave them in the quiet space required to evoke their own self-determination.
I am also aware that this preparation is not the reality of the actual meeting, but by going through this process, I now have 'touch points' for my practice.
I think I have just done the equivalent of 'leg day' at the gym.

Your Reflection as the Witness

Now, turning back to the challenge you are holding in your own mind—what are you observing through this exchange? When your own internal default settings threaten to take over, how will you somatically anchor yourself to create the space to develop new capability? What will you personally take away to practice?

See you at a campfire,

Ākāśadāka