a. Introduction

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Introduction¶

The Essence of Our Evaluation Approach¶

Evaluation, for us, is not a static measure of success but a [[Living Practice]] of listening to the pulse of systems. It is how communities learn to dance with complexity, attuning to the rhythms of ecological vitality, cultural wisdom, and emergent possibility. At Prisma, we see evaluation as the essence of governance—a way for collectives to sense, adapt, and evolve their actions in harmony with the [[essence of place]] and the [[Living Systems Principles]] that bind us all.

Vision¶

To redefine evaluation as a dynamic dialogue with life itself—a socio-technological practice that illuminates the invisible threads connecting ecological health, social equity, and cultural resilience.

Mission¶

To deploy and grow a general framework that adapts to place & practice through honouring energy flow in its multi-capital forms across five spheres, empowering communities to steward regenerative futures through participatory learning and adaptive action.

Purpose¶

We exist to:
- Make visible the interconnected value generated by actions undertaken within regenerative and/or action-learning intensives.
- Foster agency in communities to refine their practices, not through top-down metrics, but through shared inquiry: How do our actions add value to the evolution of life and systems around us?
- Bridge scales by linking hyperlocal insights (e.g., a village’s water stewardship) to global patterns (e.g., bioregional climate resilience).

Principles & Values¶

Our approach is rooted in four guiding stars:
1. Humility: Communities lead the design, ensuring evaluation mirrors their unique [[cultural narrative|narratives]] and rhythms.
2. Integrity: We balance rigor with pragmatism—measuring what matters, not just what’s measurable.
3. Emergence: We seek patterns, not endpoints, embracing the unpredictable alchemy of Action-learning journeys.
4. Interdependence: Every metric is a thread in a larger tapestry, woven from relationships between people, place, and practice.

Our Story of Evaluation¶

Conventional evaluation asks, “Did we hit the target?”
We ask, “What is the system telling us? How are we being reshaped by the work?”

From Extraction to Enlivening¶

Traditional models reduce value to financial ROI or carbon metrics, severing the connective tissue between ecological, social, and cultural flows. Our [[developmental evaluation]] approach emerged from decades of observing how regenerative systems thrive when communities learn to read their own vitality:
- A forest’s health isn’t just in tree counts, but in the mycelial networks beneath.
- A community’s resilience isn’t just in GDP, but in the quiet strength of elders sharing stories around fires.

The Dance of Enactment & Reflection¶

Evaluation here is a dance between doing and [[developmental evaluation|sensing]]. During an [[action-learning journey]] in Accra, youth-led recycling initiatives weren’t just measured by tons of plastic diverted. Through participatory storytelling and relational mapping, we surfaced how their work rewired local power dynamics—empowering women traders to co-design waste-to-energy microgrids. That is the alchemy of valuing energy flows.

Tools as Living Systems¶

Our tools—[[Holochain|decentralized governance protocols]], [[Speech-to-Currency]] systems, [[bot arrays]]—are designed to evolve with the communities using them. Like a river shaping its banks, our methodologies adapt to the terrain, guided by questions like:
- What does this place need to become more of itself?
- How do we honor both data and intuition in our learning?

Why This Matters¶

In a world addicted to oversimplification, our work is to hold space for complexity. To evaluate regeneratively is to:
- See systems whole, refusing to fracture ecological health from cultural memory.
- Trust communities as the ultimate authors of their stories.
- Rewrite the future by listening deeply to the past.

This is not just evaluation—it’s a love letter to life’s interconnectedness.

[[Developmental Evaluation]]
[[Core Facilitator Capacity]]
Action-learning journeys
[[Communities of Place]]
[[Living Systems Principles]]