Beyond the Human
Why Innovation Needs New Roles for a Regenerative Future
Making the case for evolving how we innovate before it’s too late.
Innovation may not be broken, but it is absolutely stuck.
· Stuck in loops of human-centered optimization.
· Stuck in extractive logics disguised as “solutions.”
· Stuck in strategies that address symptoms without healing systems.
At Carom, we don’t believe innovation needs to be discarded. It just needs to grow up. Widen its circle. Root itself in deeper relationships with the planet, with culture and with life itself.
Because regeneration isn’t just a technical fix. It’s a shift in how we show up.
The Limits of ‘Innovation-as-Usual’
Innovation really has become a kind of ritual. Post-it notes, hackathons, user journeys, MVPs. I’ve been a part of all of these. These tools can unlock creativity and speed, but what if in the process they’re asking and answering the wrong questions?
Let me be clear, they do offer value:
Design Thinking gave us empathy, but too often only for the human end-user
Systems Thinking offered feedback loops, but not guidance on how to live differently within them, behaviorally or culturally
Sustainable Innovation reduced harm, but didn’t question the values driving harm in the first place
Tech Innovation gave us scale but far too often amplified the same extractive patterns it claimed to “disrupt”
What these models rarely do is challenge the deeper assumption at the root, that humans stand apart from, or above, the rest of the living world.
So What If Innovation Began With the Planet?
At Carom, we’re building a different foundation that places life itself at the center of the innovation process.
We use a Holistic Planetary Framework with six interdependent categories, representing systems that sustain all living beings:
Habitat & Living Systems
Food, Water & Nutrient Cycles
Climate & Energy Balance
Biodiversity, Health & Resilience
Knowledge, Innovation & Evolution
Kinship & Participation (including human and more-than-human voices)
These aren’t abstract domains. They’re the conditions that allow life to thrive, and if we ignore them, collapse.
We believe that innovation should be judged not only by how clever it is, or how scalable, but rather by how well it repairs, restores and re-aligns these six systems.
Why Roles Matter
But frameworks alone don’t transform systems. People do. And not just as “users” or “leaders” or “consumers.”
What’s missing from most innovation methodologies is a more nuanced way of asking:
How should we show up in the work of regeneration?
What kinds of roles do we need, not just to build new things but to belong differently in the web of life?
Toward Regenerative Archetypes
Soon we’ll introduce you to our six Regenerative Archetypes that help bring this framework to life. They’re not job titles or personas..they are relational roles in service to planetary wellbeing.
Each one is rooted in one of the six planetary categories above. They offer a distinct way of seeing, sensing and participating in transformation.
Here’s a small preview of what sorts of things they might ask:
· How do we design with the right relationship to places?
· What stories help us remember how to live well?
· Who is missing from the conversation?
· How do we feed life without depleting it?
These roles aren’t meant to be fixed. They’re dynamic, contextual, shared. And we need them to inform our regenerative ‘wayfinding’ and guide us as we navigate complexity and align innovation with life.
Let’s Change the Pattern, Not Just the Product
This moment calls for more than innovation. I’m asking you to reflect deeply, to build a new relationship to life and ultimately to participate. We need to adopt ways of working and living that are in service to the planetary systems we’ve strained. It’s time to seek the futures we’ve yet to even imagine.
That’s what our archetypes are designed to support. And that’s what we’ll explore together next.
→ Subscribe or follow along to meet the six regenerative archetypes
→ Or share your thoughts: What patterns do you see missing in innovation today?
Let’s build not just new things but new ways of belonging.
Together.
Connect with Carom
email me: jeremy@carom.com
🔗 www.carom.com
📱 Instagram: @carom.cares
💼 Jeremy on LinkedIn
💼 Carom on LinkedIn