Can your organisation regenerate?

The metaphor of a spider’s web is often used to describe regenerative building design, an approach which aims to actively contribute to the environmental and social regeneration of a place. Spider webs have a strength greater than steel, yet they are light and flexible. They emerge from a central point, yet they are comprised of many interconnecting threads. They grow, breakdown and remerge, again and again …they regenerate.

These themes are integral to regenerative design which uses insights from ecological thinking and the self-healing properties of the natural world to inform approaches to the built environment. But it’s not just in the design of buildings or in the renewal of public places that we can draw from regenerative principles and the wisdom of nature. Thinking regeneratively can also help us to reimagine what positive, purposeful and powerful leadership looks like.

Think about the leaders that are proudly different and actively making positive impact. Perhaps a local hero comes to mind. Or maybe it’s a business leader, like Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-chief executive of Australian software company Atlassian who has stepped out of his lane in a meaningful way to redefine genuine corporate-social responsibility. It could be someone like Chantel Contos, who bravely shared her own experiences with sexual assault and spearheaded a successful campaign to introduce consent education within the Australian school curriculum. Leaders like these are purpose-led, authentic and values-driven. They are part of a growing web of individuals and organisations that are not only imagining a fairer, more sustainable future, but actively helping to realise it.

So how can we cultivate more regenerative leadership within ourselves and in our organisations?

The metaphor of a web evolving from a central point provides useful insights. The first step in the regenerative design of buildings or precincts involves bringing all stakeholders together to develop a story of place. This is the centre of the web, from which everything else emerges and grows.  A story of place incorporates the present – the views of community, the current uses of a space, the geographical features and any other factors that define what is unique to a place. But this also incorporates the past - the history of that place both recent and most importantly, pre-colonial. In the context of organisational leadership, developing an authentic story of place is also critical. As every spider’s web woven is unique, so too is each organisational story. Its development integrates an organisation’s foundations and history, along with its core purpose and values around environmental and social impact. It should be collaboratively developed, rather than imposed. A story of place, however, must look beyond the surface and deeply consider the  narratives, worldviews and systems that underpin how an organisation operates in the present and how it shapes its vision for the future. There are many methods that can support this process, uncovering assumptions and inconsistencies, including Causal Layered Analysis (CLA) (Inayatullah, 2006).  Used by governments and organisations globally, CLA is a strategic foresight tool that provides a framework to uncover the underlying stories, metaphors and worldviews that inform strategy, operations, culture and decision-making.

It is also important to view an organisation or business as connected; a living system, a web of relationships that constantly evolve, rather than a machine in need of repair. This system is also nested within surrounding systems in terms of its environment, location, industry and professional associations. When undertaking regenerative design projects for new buildings or precincts, this systems-based understanding initially involves mapping surrounding systems and the interactions a project will have with them. Decisions made in one building around rainwater storage, energy use or waste and recycling, for example, shouldn’t occur in a vacuum and are only regenerative if they also contribute positively to the surrounding environment. In the context of leadership, this concept has many implications. In particular, it requires a movement away from mechanistic views of an organisation to one that is interconnected and systems-based (Hutchins and Storm, 2019).  Increasingly, research is showing that not only can this magnify positive impact, it is also just good for business, increasing productivity and improving wellbeing.

Webs themselves are characterised by unconnected areas or gaps, helping to provide structure as well as flexibility. When applied to leadership, this represents the need for a less linear approach and one that actively values the role of everyone in creating the whole. It reminds us that openness is critical in to imbue a sense of potential and create space for new possibilities.  Within an organisation, this concept of interconnection can be integrated in many ways. Ensuring that an organisation is an active participant in global networks for purpose, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, is an important one. However, limits will always remain on the extent of positive external impact unless internal structures and processes also reflect a systems-based approach that addresses organisational performance holistically and pursues less hierarchical approaches to action and decision-making. Actively removing silos, creating outcome-focused and multi-disciplinary teams and reviewing and evolving key performance indicators are all pragmatic tools that may be employed. Developing leadership frameworks and training that reinforce qualities of systems-thinking, innovation and flexibility also helps to embed these principles.

Perhaps most fundamental to positive, purposeful leadership, however, is a willingness to continually evolve and regenerate at an individual level. To really ask ourselves what our personal narrative is and what values are most important to us. To examine our ways of working and identify whether these are truly reflective of our worldviews.  Regeneration as a process is iterative, incremental and imaginative. Much like with a building, or the maintenance and cleaning of a spider’s web, our own leadership journey is a process of ongoing, positive transformation made up of many small steps.

There are so many examples of deeply authentic and regenerative leadership on a global scale. Leaders like Greta Thunberg, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Stacey Abrams who clearly act in a way that is driven by their own worldviews and values to make things better for others. But critically, regenerative leadership can be fostered by all of us, anywhere and at any time, creating concentric circles of impact across the systems in which we live and work.

References

Hutchins, G and Storm, L. (2019), Regenerative Leadership, Wordzworth: United Kingdom.

Inayatullah, S. (2008), “Six pillars: futures thinking for transforming”, Foresight, Vol. 10 No. 9, pp. 4-20.

Kimberly Camrass is a doctoral researcher in Regenerative Futures.  Her research examines how futures thinking and methods can facilitate environmentally and socially regenerative communities in urban settings.  In 2021, her research was nominated for the Most Significant Futures Work (2019-2021) by the International Association for Professional Futures.  Kimberly is also the Sustainability Manager at Griffith University, responsible for driving the embedding of sustainability across teaching and learning, research, operations, and external engagement.  She has significant experience in strategic foresight, sustainability strategy and environmental education across the corporate, not-for-profit and government sectors.