Reflections from our Programme Lead Edda Kruse Rosset on why DEALING WITH CHANGE is a necessary educational programme for our times.

In our world that is rapidly changing and in desperate need of radical change, our individual and collective capacity to deal with change is paramount. One could say this is the essence of what you will learn in our programme — to meet yourself as a human being in a changing world.
To discover with curiosity, care, and at times with critique, your own ways, patterns, and possibilities when it comes to how you deal with change.

Change is at times marvelous, at other times exciting and sometimes change is scary, comes with unknowns and puts us in places of discomfort, sometimes even in danger. When our lives change, everything stumbles, our existence can take different directions and the changes leave traces in our lives, our stories, our bodies. Change though is really one of the only constants we experience — and to experience it consciously, with curiosity and courage, is what we would like to invite you into.

The tragedies around us are numerous: devastating wars, polarized opinions, climate change already affecting many and more to come, decreasing livelihoods and biospheres, nature being extracted by us as if it was endless, artificial intelligence changing work life and cultural creation. Democracies worldwide are under harsh threat due to rising right populist movements and mostly male tyrannical leaders reproducing what had seemed like outdated leadership practices.

The rights of marginalized, indigenous, queer and people of color are threatened and activists are violently attacked and criminalized for standing up for more diverse and multicultural lives, the rights over our bodies, identities, desires, dreams and utopias. Our actions to move to more just, regenerative and caring societies are severely contested. And alongside all of that capitalism spits its ongoing story of a need for growth, framing economic growth as if it still was the core value we ought to strive and live towards.

So many humans know and feel to their bones that this is wrong.

We feel it everyday.
It makes the present and the future scary.

We know this must stop.
That we must find ways to live with and not against one another.
So we can live out of care and not out of crisis.

Put peace over war.
Put life over cash.

We can stop this.
The multiple crises affecting us are human made.
Things can be different.

So many are already organizing, resisting and creating embodied alternative ways of relating to one another and the world — let’s grow more of that which is beautiful, equal, inclusive, regenerative and simply of value for the sake of its being.

The grim news though creates hopeless moments for me too, sometimes daily.

What can we do about this life threatening mess?
How can we deal with these changes happening around us and affecting us within?
Can I, can we even do anything?
Can we impact what seems in certain moments as if out of our hands?

I refuse to give in to hopelessness, even when faced with it daily.

I chose moving on.
I open up my body and soul to be inspired by the many individuals, collectives, activists, policy makers, dreamers, creators and courageous souls speaking up.

They empower me because they make me see that change is something we can access, do, influence, work, dance and be with. Change is neither positive nor negative. It’s what we make of it. How we deal with change is a choice we have most of the time. We influence how to look at things and at the world.

I say: hello change, I welcome you and I accept the dance and add my directions, will and ideas to it.

At Kaospilot+ Berlin we deeply believe that we have agency and self-efficacy and that we can support one another in accessing it, forming, growing and embodying it in our personal lives, work and as citizens of this precious, vulnerable and strong planet.

With our programme we want to support you to strengthen your change muscles and mindsets, while becoming clear on where and how you want to contribute to societal transformation.

Why dealing with change is relevant these days?
Because change is maybe the only element, as constantly present as our breath. And because we can learn to dance with it, if we allow ourselves to feel the groove, as Donella Meadows would say.

Are you curious to hear more about our programme? Then come and join us for our info calls (July 3rd & 15th) or other events! You can sign up here.

Applications are open until August 4th, 2024.
The programme begins on October 10th, 2024.