It’s a fascinating yet challenging time to be a leader and change-agent. We are in the midst of an old system dying and a new one being born, all amid unceasing transformation – change upon change upon change is the new-norm. Yet as the genius Einstein knew, when we look deep in to nature we understand everything better; we see with new eyes and bring a different quality of consciousness to the solutions than that which created the problems in the first place.
Through over a decade of working on regenerative leadership and nature-based coaching, I have developed a range of practices, coaching-frames and processes that aid the journey of becoming a regenerative leader. This necessarily involves a shift in consciousness which has to be embodied within ourselves first-and-foremost. Such a shift in consciousness can be hugely rewarding and allow us to flow more resiliently with the rapid changes unfolding in our systems today.
On Thursday 13th July-Friday 14th July 2023, I will host a special one-off nature-based immersion at Springwood Farm, providing an embodied experience of what it means to become a Regenerative Leader and regenerative practitioner. This overnight immersion will provide the deep-space for bodymind coherence and consciousness-raising practices that participants can apply to their own lives and leadership approaches beyond the immersion while immersing in a lasting and memorable experience in a well-held deep intentional-space. Drawing upon cutting-edge science, adult developmental psychology and ancient wisdom traditions, a rang of powerful practices will be explored together and includes a 13hr overnight guided solo amid private ancient woodlands.
The Immersion – Logistics:
Thursday 13th July: 9.30/9.45am Arrivals – refreshments upon arrival. Immersion commences at 10am
Friday 14th July: 3pm departures
By Car – RH17 6HQ
By Train – Come to Three Bridges station for no later than 9.30am, a cab will meet you there.
Springwood Farm – 60 acres of private ancient woodland with direct links to Gatwick International airport and Kings Cross St Pancreas International train station. See here.
Cost: £850 – To confirm your place email giles@ffla.co – cost includes pre-reading material & practices, organic vegan food and refreshments throughout. You need to bring your own camping equipment for the overnight solo.
Pre-reading and preparation: Once you have paid, your place is confirmed, and you will be sent preparatory material and guidance. Other information will also be sent near the immersion with further information and guidance.
What can you hope to gain from the experience: This will be a well-held deep space for a practical embodied experience of regenerative leadership consciousness for you as an individual – whether a leader, coach, practitioner or change-agent. You will engage in powerful-yet-safe practices, and be part of a small learning-group of like-minded yet diverse leaders and practitioners, and will be facilitated by Giles Hutchins for the entire two-days. Here are some of the things you can hope to experience:
- Practical guidance on next-stage consciousness-raising practices and modalities
- An embodied experience of regenerative leadership
- Tools, processes and techniques to aid the journey toward regenerative leadership
- Information on next-stage adult developmental psychology to aid the shift into next-stage leadership
- Peer-sharing and facilitated group dialogue sessions
- Pre-reading material and guidance before the workshop
- A signed copy of Leading by Nature book (or any other of Giles’s five books)
- Organic vegan food and refreshments throughout the two days
Some quotes from previous immersions at Springwood with Giles:
‘The nature immersion workshop with Giles exceeded all expectations. This is real space to develop strategies fit for the 21st century.’ – Stephen Passmore, CEO, Resilience Alliance
‘What an inspiring time in the woods Giles, a great balance of talking, contemplation, meditation, being in nature – Thank you so very much!’ –Participant, CEO of non-profit organization
“In these challenging times, Giles offers those of us in the ‘business as usual’ world both hope and the opportunity for deep connection with nature, spirit and ourselves. I highly recommend joining Giles for one of his immersion journeys of reconnection for a beautiful perspective on how we might do business differently and better.” – Will Adeney, Management Consultant & Nature Connection Mentor
‘Your immersion into nature opened our minds, opened our souls, to deeply connect with our place and purpose in life. With love and deep appreciation for your inspiration.’ – Sue Cheshire, Founder of the Global Leaders Academy
‘Feel I’ve had a day with a real master. What beautiful profound lessons’. – Simon Milton, CEO of Pulse Brands
After 14 months of lockdown, I joined Giles and others on a day-long ‘Leadership Immersion’ at Giles’ magical and awe-inspiring 60 acre ancient woodland in West Sussex. Having read his book – Regenerative Leadership, I had high expectations. They were surpassed, magnificently.
Giles took us on a journey that saw complete strangers enter into a state of connection, high trust and intimacy – in a matter of hours. We emerged nourished, energised, connected, centred and better equipped to deal with the challenges of life in the early ‘20s. For those seeking answers around their personal and professional development – I can’t recommend Giles and his work highly enough. – Richard Tyre, CEO of Good People
‘Giles’s blends business expertise, deep connection with nature and our living environment and experience in transformation, helping us think differently and progressively about work and organisational intent. He is magical in his ability to generate ‘safe spaces’ for conversations that matter’ – Caroline Gosling, Director, Rubica
‘Powerful and provocative – the most useful leadership course I’ve ever attended!’ – Ian Ayling, Director, Wilco
More reviews on Giles’ immersions can be found here https://gileshutchins.com/reviews/
More About Springwood Farm: a mix of semi-ancient and ancient woodland with wildflower meadows, 60 acres in total, private and secluded specially designed for advanced leadership coaching work, see some pictures here: https://www.leadershipimmersions.com/gallery
Here is a short video about Leadership Immersions:
About Giles Hutchins:
Giles Hutchins is a pioneering practitioner, advanced regenerative leadership coach and senior adviser at the fore-front of the [r]evolution in organizational and leadership consciousness and developmental approaches that enhance personal, organizational and systemic agility and vitality. He is author and co-author of several leadership and organizational development papers, and the books The Nature of Business (2012), The Illusion of Separation (2014), Future Fit (2016), Regenerative Leadership (2019) and Leading by Nature (2022). Chair of The Future Fit Leadership Academy and Founder of Leadership Immersions, co-founder of Biomimicry for Creative Innovation and Regenerators, he runs a 60 acre leadership centre at Springwood Farm, an area of outstanding natural beauty near London, UK. Previously held corporate roles – Head of Transformation Practice for KPMG, Global Director and Head of Sustainability for Atos (150,000 employees, over 40 countries). He provides coaching at individual and organizational levels for those seeking to transform their personal and/or work lives. Giles is a keynote speaker on the future of business and regenerative leadership. He is also a Reiki Master, a certified advanced coach, and trained in advanced Integral Solonics leadership development, Harthill adult developmental action-logics, Leadership Development Framework, and other advanced modalities. You can contact Giles Hutchins at https://gileshutchins.com/
This overnighter 13/14th July is a one-off experience for 2023, and places are limited. Email giles@ffla.co if you wish to book a place or through the website https://gileshutchins.com/
“Giles Hutchins has for over a decade led the way with his championship of learning through nature. His new book is a really important evolution of these ideas emerging into a philosophy of systems thinking/being – it’s bang on the money, a really important book that will inspire all those whose role it is to champion resilience and adaptability, ethical commercial development, wellbeing in the workplace and the nurturing of a moral compass.” – Sir Tim Smit, KBE, Founder of The Eden Project
“Leading by Nature is THE handbook for regenerative leadership. A must-read for every business leader who genuinely cares about the future of humanity.’ Jayn Sterland, CEO of Weleda UK
“A truly exceptional and timely book that redefines the locus of power in relationship to leadership; leadership that seeks harmony and alignment with nature. Giles reminds us to bring awareness/presence to everything that unfolds. This book is the teacher we all need.” Sue Cheshire, Founder and former CEO of The Global Leaders Academy
Regenerative, Regenerative Leadership, Regenerative Business, Regeneration – What’s it all about?
We are nature and nature is us. Pure and simple. It’s only an imbalance in our perception – our state of consciousness – that lures us in to believing we are separate from each other and life on Earth.
The cold reality today is, the dominant worldview pervading our businesses, institutions and societies is flawed, corrupted by an illusion of separation. This logic sets ourselves apart from nature and each other. It’s deeply divisive and woefully inadequate, yet seldom questioned.
As entrepreneur and environmentalist Paul Hawken notes,
‘Our planet and youth are telling us the same story. Vital connections have been severed between human beings and nature; within nature itself; and between people, religions, governments, and commerce. This disconnection is the origin of the climate crisis, it is the very root.’
As King Charles III of the United Kingdom notes,
‘When people talk of things like an ‘environmental crisis’ or a ‘financial crisis’ what they are actually describing are the consequences of a much deeper problem – a ‘crisis of perception’. It is the way we see the world that is ultimately at fault.’
As systems scientist Gregory Bateson notes,
‘The source of all our problems today stems from the gap between the way nature works and how we think.’
Regenerative Leadership closes that gap. It attends to the heart of the crisis of perception by finding right-relation inside ourselves and with life on Earth.
This involves a shift in consciousness – and it costs nothing, and is simple (though not necessarily easy). It’s our birth-right. It’s the essential purpose of what it means to be truly human.
From this regenerative ground we find our way out of illusion and into the way life works. Life, itself, is naturally life-affirming – its innately regenerative. So too is our human nature. If we right ourselves back into our own authenticity we become regenerative, naturally. This ‘inner turn’ is vital for any outer regeneration. Try walking the path of regeneration without embodying this inner-shift and you slip back into illusion without even realising.
‘There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.’ Morpheus
Let’s keep this super simple for a moment, by starting with simple definitions:
‘Regeneration’ – Tending toward harmony with life. Bringing life into the centre of every decision.
‘Regenerative’ – Working the way life works. The process of tending toward regeneration (harmony with life).
‘Regenerative Leadership’ – Leading self and system toward harmony with life. Drawing upon both self-awareness (authenticity/wholeness) and systemic-awareness (sensitivity/wisdom) to cultivate the conditions for regeneration. A process of becoming more authentic and life-centric.
‘Regenerative Business’ – An organization that seeks harmony with life. Both the inner-nature (culture) and outer-nature (value propositions and stakeholder engagement) are purposefully journeying toward regeneration (harmony with life).
Keep it simple! Job done, now let’s go home.
Not quite so fast – as the journey home is actually the very regenerative journey we are exploring here, and its way beyond neat-and-tidy definitions, although defining things can definitely help.
Essentially, ‘becoming regenerative’ is a full-bodied reconnection into the rapture of reality; an authentic connection into our inner-nature (the essence within ourselves) and outer-nature (the essence of the living-organization, community and world we participate in). Connecting to inner-outer essence allows energy to arise, informing our flow with life.
‘Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force.’ Lao Tzu
The vitality of the individual, team and organization enhance when connected to essence. Aristotle’s eudemonia or ‘wellbeing’ emanates from inner-nature into outer-nature and vice versa. This is the gift of regeneration right into the heart of day-to-day interactions and decision-making. Connecting to inner-outer essence enables right-relation that informs right-action shaping business strategy and tactics that seek harmony with life.
For many business leaders this can seem very far from what they’ve been taught at mainstream business schools or bootcamp 101 courses. But for a growing number of conscious leaders, this capacity to centre and deepen into self-and-systemic awareness forms the foundation for right decision-making: Making decision not just in nature but by nature. This is the art of regeneration – leading by nature, attuned with inner-nature/outer-nature and finding harmony with life.
We are born regenerative, and we die regenerative – but we get lost during much of our waking lives in a kind of slumber of sedentary-sedation inured in the malaise of our mechanistic-materialistic culture.

We ‘grow up’ and get acculturated. We start to think we’re separate from life: anxious, fear-filled, must-get-on, win-out amid the hyper-competitive marketplace. We start to lose touch with our own essence and with the essence of life. We grasp at life, seek to control, clutch at straws, apply artifice to get-on, and start believing our own illusion. Techno-fix short-cut solutions seem sure enough, not realising we are but lost in the labyrinth far from home, no longer able to read the stars or inner-compass, cut adrift, tossed this-way-and-that amid fickle ego-urges, false quests and superficial distractions. We start to lose our own sovereignty, give away our power to people we assume know how to run a successful company yet who don’t connect with the essence of the organization. Instead of emancipation, enslavement creeps-in.
So we need to journey – I mean really journey. Not some touristic voyeuristic excuse of a journey.
To explore, and not cease exploring inwardly and outwardly, and to arrive not at some new-found-land out-yonder aghast in-wonder, but to soberly arrive here into reality, and know it as if for the first time. Then the heart-beat within us knows the rhythm of nature, and can better serve the evolution of life. This is the ‘First Time’ the ancient Egyptians and other ancient peoples speak of – the space-time where Heaven and Earth meet, the centre point where movement and dance unfold. This is where regeneration begins and ends, and it’s the only place we find right-relation with our own selves and our organizational systems. Everything else is distraction.
Find tongues in trees,
Books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones,
And good in every thing. William Shakespeare
To be explicitly clear here, regeneration is not about us fixing the world or even slowing down the negative impact we have on the world through greener-shades of consumerism. It’s about us learning to get back in tune with life, each and every day, remembering the wisdom that is already here, always has been, right before our noses, amid every tree, brook, stone, sunset and sunrise.
Regeneration, regenerative leadership and regenerative business are predicated upon a worldview shift from Mechanistic-Materialism to Quantum-Complexity (I explain this in detail in Leading by Nature and what this shift means for leadership and organizational development).
Mechanistic Materialism is a 400 year-old mindset born out of the Scientific & Industrial Revolution. We’re still running on it today; managing our businesses with a 400yr old operating system. Isn’t it ironic that the mechanistic mindset prides itself on being up-to-date yet it’s woefully out-of-date, proven wrong by brilliant scientists for a century already – think Einstein, Schrodinger, Bohr, Bohm, Meadows, Margulis, Midgley, Bateson, and many more.
The mechanistic story goes like this – humans are separate from nature, nature is a set of resources to be used for human betterment. Nature has no intrinsic worth other than to humans, simply a collection of things to be manipulated by us for us. This view posits that there is nothing in life beyond that which can be measured-monitored-controlled-managed. Gone is the life-force of nature, any sense of soul or sacredness. Life becomes de-animated, therefore ripe for our exploitation.
Evolution is viewed primarily as a competitive struggle for survival – Newtonian/Cartesian/Neo-Darwinian. Masculine yang-assertion is prioritised over feminine yin-receptivity, outer-form/productization is prioritised over inner-depth/craftsmanship. Left-brain hemispheric and head-based thinking seek control and linearity, while deprioritizing the right-hemispheric full-bodied embodied/intuitive and emergent experience of life.
Many sustainability initiatives are caught up in this Mechanistic Materialism. Let’s fix the world so we humans can survive at the expense of nature. Let’s strip-out wildlife and plant monocrop trees for carbon-sequestration. Let’s flood bird sanctuaries and wetlands so tidal dams can enable green-electricity. Let’s geoengineer the weather to reduce the sun’s rays to help mitigate global warming. Let’s augment reality, wear smart-watches and smart-glasses to be incessantly connected to smart-grids for a smart-planet to track-and-trace our movements and choices for controlling carbon footprints… and so forth. These are the hallmarks of Mechanistic Materialism at work. For sure it’s neat-and-tidy objectified-reductionism is a useful tool we can draw upon, but when dominant it’s dangerous.
We can draw upon the tool of technology and linearity without it usurping our inner-outer connectedness. Life is not something to be controlled but something to dance with, and become one with.

In our own psyches, Mechanistic Materialism creates an imbalanced tendency of human-over-nature; left hemisphere-over-right hemisphere; masculine-over-feminine; outer achievement-over-inner wellbeing. So much so, we probably do not even notice how divisive and corrosive it is to ourselves and our systems. With it comes heightened separateness, imposter syndromes and a constant background level of fear. This decouples us from our centre. We search for outer-satisfaction to mask over the inner-fear, and find addiction to superficial connection. Enter the contagion of consumerism we’re caught in today. We think it’s OK (or even ‘progress’) when witnessing more and more people staring into screens when walking down the street, on the train, in restaurants together, at the park with their kids, and the breakfast table on a Sunday morning. Disconnection is rising, with all sorts of mental health and wellbeing issues now rampant. Today’s corporate-machine mentality responds with yet more apps and algorithms corrupting its own consumers in the name of ‘wellbeing’. We slip further into the labyrinth; further from essence and regeneration.
Please don’t misunderstand me, this is not a rage-against-the-machine, I love technology and the immense benefits it brings us, including the ability to reduce air-miles, connect us across boundaries, and find sustainable solutions that reduce negative impact. Yet let’s not be seduced into a sedentary-sedated stupor of superficiality where real connection to our deeper selves, each other and the present moment gets trampled by the titillation of social media, augmented second-life and consumer-app transactions.
The imbalance Mechanistic Materialism creates in the psyche unroots us from Earth/Universe, disrupting the yin-yang harmony of working the way nature works, taking us out of the path of regeneration. Chaos and dis-ease ensue.
Ancient wisdom traditions and indigenous peoples the world-over have long known this – take yourself out of harmony with nature, and we get sick in the mind and body.
For instance, ancient Egypt’s rich wisdom tradition conveys a struggle between Maat (the harmony innate within the rhythms of nature) and Isfet (corrupting distraction that pulls us off-centre and out of harmony into chaos). The quest of the wise person is to discern Maat from Isfet, to know when one is being led astray by the seduction of false connection and when one is on the path to regeneration.
Indigenous prophecies speak of a time when the forces of nature will be undermined to such an extent due to a distracting disease of the mind infecting vast swathes of humanity. The choice will be a simple one – wake-up and rebalance or chaos unfolds. Such prophecies also say how this time of immense breakdown/breakthrough can also be a good time, of hope and opportunity, of new dawns and new steps if we are able to connected to our centre and banish struggle from our minds.
Prophecies or no prophecies, wisdom traditions or no wisdom traditions – this much is clear: imbalance is very real – let’s notice the tendency to prioritize the yang outer-achiever what-gets-measured-gets-done, the desire to compartmentalise and silo, to command-and-control.
In seeking to solve the climate emergency, social inequality or any of the other systemic challenges we face, if we lead with imbalance all sorts of wrong-footedness, confusion, stress and conflict creeps in that taking us away from the path of regeneration. Keeping life at the heart of our decision-making is not simply a rational endeavour mapped out through planetary-boundary frameworks (though this is indeed an important step forward, and vitally needed) it’s a deep felt-sense of connectedness with the web of life that awakens in us as we reconnect with Nature’s Wisdom within and all around us.
‘The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, the rational mind its faithful servant; we’ve created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.’ Albert Einstein
In reality, we need to work with BOTH the rational-analytic tools and technologies we have today AND the deeper integral awareness of living-systems as emergent-ecological-quantum phenomena. Yet as Einstein wisely notes, it’s the intuitive embodied connection that is primary, the tools and technologies serve it, not the other way round. Then, with this sacred gift activated within us, we begin the journey out of the labyrinth of our own illusions and find our way toward regeneration.
So, what does this mean for leadership? Well, we need more than Responsible Leadership, Transparent Leadership or Sustainable Leadership – as these forms of leading do not necessarily involve a mindset shift from Mechanistic Materialism to Quantum Complexity. For this we need Regenerative Leadership – a way of leading that enables the team/organization/community to journey toward becoming a ‘regenerative business’ – where the organization is recognised as a living-system deeply immersed in the living-systems of life on Earth. This kind of leadership involves two dynamics – self-awareness and systemic-awareness:
1) Self-awareness (Know Thy Self) a path of deepening into our inner-nature and learning through our relationships with others. This is a developmental journey of becoming more of who we truly are, and living our dharma by serving life;
2) Systemic-awareness (deeply sense-in to the organizational system), not just mechanistically mapping-out structures, control mechanisms and decision-making protocols with our heads, but attune with the essence of the living-system, in a full-bodied way that necessarily activates our super-nature, head/heart/gut integration, embodied knowing, along with a practical (and scientific) understanding of how complex adaptive systems work through emergent and evolutionary dynamics.
The living-organization itself has its own life-force, its own evolutionary potential, and as regenerative leaders we work with this life-force. It’s a celebratory dance that challenges us every day at deep and partly unconscious levels. It’s not a day-job but a totalizing way-of-life that emancipates us from the slumber of sedentary-sedation.
This necessarily involves a threshold-crossing – a metamorphic shift in consciousness – for the leader.

Regenerative Business has two dimensions to it 1) the outer-nature of the organization – its value-propositions and stakeholder impact, 2) the inner-nature of the organization – its culture and everyday interactions for employees. When these two dimensions intentionally seek to become more life-affirming then the organization is more authentic and can be said to be on the journey toward regeneration.
Let’s briefly explore each dimension:
1) Outer-nature – the way the organisation interacts outwardly with the world through its value-propositions, stakeholder relations and impact the organization has on its entire ‘stakeholder ecosystem’ (including wider society/environment).
This is a journey, with stages or layers along the way – think Russian Dolls, each layer contains the previous layers nested within the business. We have earlier stages still present within the business at any one time, yet can operate from more advanced stages not just falling back on old constructs.

The traditional stage of ‘conventional business’ mindset (aka amber/orange – in integral/ego stage-development lingo) is helpful for cutting costs, managing and controlling the P&L, etc. the business basics essential to running the organization, but essentially ‘survivalist’ and short-term profit focused – think Milton Friedman and 101 business bootcamp.
Then, transcending-and-including into ‘sustainable business’ mindset (orange/green) with its recognition of the wider impact the business has throughout the stakeholder ecosystem (Responsible Leadership, Conscious Capitalism and B-Corp initiatives start to kick-in at this stage).
Then, transcending-and-including into ‘restorative business’ mindset (green) aka ‘net positive’ in recognition that minimizing negative impact is not enough and there are sound business reasons for creating shared-value across the stakeholder ecosystem, creating ‘net positive impact’.
At all these three stages of business mindset one can still be operating within a human-centric rather than life-centric perspective, and still sitting comfortably within Mechanistic-Materialism.
Though, once the organization starts moving out of conventional into sustainable and restorative/net-positive business, more and more people in the organization start to open their minds to regeneration. A rising dissonance amongst leaders dawns that mechanistic thinking is no longer adequate to deal with the interwoven systemic challenges of the day. And then the transcending-and-including from restorative/net-positive business into the next stage ‘regenerative business’ mindset (teal/living-systems) involves a threshold is crossed into a deeper recognition of the innate interconnectedness of the organization embedded within Earth’s living-system with rhythms and ways that we can learn to attune with in making life-centric decisions.
A common mistake today is to assume net-positive initiatives are the same as regenerative – they can be if a living-systems mindset is activated. But often, in my experience, net-positive initiatives can draw from a human-centric mechanistic ‘humans doing something to nature’ mentality. This is NOT the same as regenerative. Hence, the importance of regenerative leadership to cultivate conditions for a shift in mindset out of mechanistic into living-systems, to wake-up from the slumber of separateness.

As said earlier – an organization is like nested Russian dolls, so while it may be journeying toward regeneration it still displays ‘conventional’, ‘sustainable’ or ‘net positive’ business tendencies as and when needed, but this is no longer the default go-to mindset. A threshold is crossed in the consciousness of the organization. This is largely predicated on key people, like the founder and CEO, operating from next-stage regenerative leadership consciousness by having gone through a threshold-crossing in their own meaning-making from mechanistic into living-systems. Otherwise, we are merely gesturing toward regeneration, excited by the word, but not full-heartedly and courageously progressing on the regenerative journey. Enter the phrase ‘regenerative rinsing’ (rather like ‘green washing’) where the word ‘regenerative’ and ‘regeneration’ are used without fully embracing the threshold-crossing required.
2) Inner-nature – this is about how employees show-up and engage amid the day-to-day working environment. Traditionally this has been overlooked by the sustainable business narrative, with HR/Culture Leads going to completely different conferences and networking events, even using a completely different business lexicon to their Sustainability/CSR counterparts – two different silo’s within a corporate-machine competing for attention and prioritization.
For regenerative business the day-to-day culture is a vital part of the living-systems mindset. Here are 3 key qualities essential for the living-organization to become regenerative: Developmental, Emergence, Evolutionary (DEE) – all of which combine together to enable future-fitness, agility and authenticity in journeying toward regeneration. It’s simply good business sense, and far from creating a drag on business performance, increases adaptability, creativity and resilience.
‘In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions.’ Margaret Wheatley
I unpack each of these DEE qualities in detail in the book Leading by Nature with supportive practices and tools. Here, I briefly summarise each:
Developmental – A developmental culture celebrates learning. The learning-edge happens in what I phrase a ‘psychologically safe yet developmentally challenging’ environment. It’s a culture than integrates reflection-in-action, coaching conversations and feedback.
Emergence – Emergence is the way life unfolds propelled by tensions. Creating the right space for tensions to become crucibles for learning, growth and evolution enables the life-force of the living-organization to thrive rather than merely survive amid volatile times. A simple yet powerful way I have found that helps teams work through tensions of divergence-convergence spawning emergence, is through practices like Dialogue, Deep Listening and Non-violent Communication, and a host of Liberating Structures – simple rules that liberate creative innovation and emergence. I provide some free-to-download tools on my website that help with individual and organizational emergence.
‘We can’t impose our will on a system. We can listen to what the system tells us, and discover how its properties and our values can work together to bring forth something much better than could ever be produced by our will alone.’ Donella Meadows
Evolutionary – As we embrace the Quantum Complexity worldview, we realize that the living-organization is continuously adjusting and adapting both within itself and with its external environment through relationships. Just as we are learning to connect to our essence inside ourselves, the organization as it adapts and evolves is deepening its connection to its essence – its ‘reason-for-being’. The more we tune-in to the relational patterns and systemic dynamics of the living-organization the more we can sense-respond to what best serves the organization’s reason-for being. A practice I have found that helps with this is what I call Systemic Enablers which I describe in detail in Leading by Nature.
This DEE inner-nature of the organization allows it to thrive amid a constant state of flux. It aids a threshold-crossing beyond fear and separateness by embracing change in deepening who we truly are. This helps us live life more fully and become more true, organizationally and individually.
As the Quaker leadership specialist Parker J Palmer notes, this way of learning and operating opens us into life, whereupon time, and life itself, becomes more abundant as we learn to live more responsively to the wisdom of nature. We create space in our working relationships that welcome diversity while deepening into the ‘seed of the true self’ unlocking our innate potential as a force for good in the world. This may sound idealistic or utopian, but what other option do we really have? Continue in our sedated slumber and ruin all our life-support systems, or awaken into how life really works? Besides, there are many good practical business reasons for walking the regenerative path. And there are a growing number of organizations embracing this journey because they know it’s true to their being – I provide examples in Leading by Nature, and also in this previous blog article.
Briefly, just two examples:
AXA Climate – its reason-for-being is to make regenerative business universal. It’s outer-nature is journeying toward regeneration by providing training, education and risk-management services that help clients join the regenerative journey. Its inner-nature is journeying toward regeneration by cultivating a life-affirming living-organization through practices and rituals that aid an agile, developmental and emergent culture. In the words of AXA Climate:
Reducing our negative impact on the planet is not enough. Our collective challenge is to switch from extractive companies to regenerative companies. To that end, we are transforming our business models, our organizations and our collective missions. And this transformation movement drives us. We are changing the paradigm: our companies are living beings, nested in the living world.
For a podcast interview with AXA Climate CEO Antoine Denoix listen here.
Vivobarefoot – its reason-for-being is to help reconnect people to the natural world and reclaim their potential. Its outer-nature is journeying toward regeneration by providing barefoot sustainable footwear, bespoke 3d printing and natural health education services, events and communities. It’s inner-nature is journeying toward regeneration by cultivating an adult-adult self-managing culture based on regenerative leadership principles informing a developmental, emergent and evolutionary living-systems mindset. In the words of Vivobarefoot:
When we reconnect to the natural world, we reconnect to ourselves. It’s time to embrace a natural way of living, and let nature heal us. Vivo is on a mission to regenerate both human and environmental health.
For a podcast interview with Vivo CEO Galahad Clark listen here.
As the ancient Lao Tzu knew:
Open yourself to nature,
Then trust your natural responses;
Everything will fall into place.
What Lao Tzu points to is a shift in our way of attending to life, from one that seeks to assert control over life, to one that opens into the Way of Nature.
This is the act of regeneration and it starts with an inner-turn into the stillness amid movement. No credit card required. But a dose of Balance, Patience, Courage and Purposefulness will definitely help the journey unfold (see Leading by Nature for a comprehensive exploration into these essential regenerative leadership virtues).
The final words I shall leave to the poet:
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norton, 4 Quartets

“Giles Hutchins has for over a decade led the way with his championship of learning through nature. His new book is a really important evolution of these ideas emerging into a philosophy of systems thinking/being – it’s bang on the money, a really important book that will inspire all those whose role it is to champion resilience and adaptability, ethical commercial development, wellbeing in the workplace and the nurturing of a moral compass.” – Sir Tim Smit, KBE, Founder of The Eden Project
“Leading by Nature is THE handbook for regenerative leadership. A must-read for every business leader who genuinely cares about the future of humanity.’ Jayn Sterland, CEO of Weleda UK
“A truly exceptional and timely book that redefines the locus of power in relationship to leadership; leadership that seeks harmony and alignment with nature. Giles reminds us to bring awareness/presence to everything that unfolds. This book is the teacher we all need.” Sue Cheshire, Founder and former CEO of The Global Leaders Academy
Giles Hutchins is a pioneering practitioner and senior adviser at the fore-front of the [r]evolution in organizational and leadership consciousness and developmental approaches that enhance personal, organizational and systemic agility and vitality. He is author and co-author of several leadership and organizational development papers, and the books The Nature of Business (2012), The Illusion of Separation (2014), Future Fit (2016), Regenerative Leadership (2019) and Leading by Nature (2022). Chair of The Future Fit Leadership Academy and Founder of Leadership Immersions, co-founder of Biomimicry for Creative Innovation and Regenerators, he runs a 60 acre leadership centre at Springwood Farm, an area of outstanding natural beauty near London, UK. Previously held corporate roles – Head of Transformation Practice for KPMG, Global Director and Head of Sustainability for Atos (150,000 employees, over 40 countries). He provides coaching at individual and organizational levels for those seeking to transform their personal and/or work lives. Giles is a keynote speaker on the future of business and regenerative leadership. He is also a Reiki Master, a certified advanced coach, and trained in advanced Integral Solonics leadership development, Harthill vertical leadership development, as well as other advanced modalities.
Leading by Nature: https://gileshutchins.com/leadingbynaturebook/
Video :
Feel free to join the LinkedIn Community Leadership Immersions here https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13767578/
Menopause. An invitation? By Dr. Carolyn Eddleston
I am beginning to wonder if the menopausal journey is like a second adolescence; a time of tumultuous change, a transition into an upgraded mind and body. An initiation, a rite of passage.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, (TCM) there is a significant gate that is passed through every 7 years in females, and every 8 years in males. Hence boys usually reach puberty a couple of years later.
Despite the menopause being out of the closet, we are in danger of medicalising it, viewing it as an illness to be “cured” so we can get on with our frenetic lives, our lives on paper that read pretty well….
I am not belittling the myriad of physical, mental and emotional symptoms that can prevail, and sometimes consume this chapter in women’s (and their close others’) lives.
We have few authentic role models for this wide spectrum of experiences, covering the peri-menopause, the menopause and life as a peri-menopausal being,
We now expect to live fully, well into our 80’s and 90’s. We expect a lot, and why shouldn’t we?
In many other cultures, this chapter of life for a woman is a celebration, an initiation into becoming the wise woman, the crone, the hag, the elder. It is a position to be revered.
In TCM, as the menses or monthly blood loss, cease, a new meridian or pathway opens up between the uterus and the heart. The blood now feeds the heart, our sovereign leader, and makes us wise. How beautiful…..
I remember meeting countless wise, elder women practitioners in my late 20’s whilst living in New Zealand. I was struck by their steadiness, their powerful softness and presence, their unshakeable compassion, and their capacity for deep, active listening.
I bridge a gap in my work; 25 years as an NHS GP, and 20 as a Traditional Acupuncturist. (with a crossover of about 15 years for those of you doing the maths!) Such a privilege, witnessing hundreds of thousands of life stories.
I have observed that women who continue to push, strive, justify continuing hard work and effort, tend to struggle with many symptoms linked to the menopausal medical list. They push to stay the same. Same goals, same expectations of their physical bodies, same libido. There is a safety in controlling our external environments. Our external roles in life can become our identity.
I am fascinated by our internal environments. That secret world of thoughts, feelings, fears, aspirations, and the constant physical feedback we get from our bodies.
The heart in TCM is considered the sovereign leader, not the brain. It gives us constant soft whisperings that are received often as a gut feeling, an intuitive knowing. The heart needs lightness, fun, laughter…
Denying the soft invitation from the developing wise heart, may well be a problem.
Those of us who start to reflect, deeply listening to our own knowing, our own wisdom, get a chance to dive under the constant inner mind dialogue, often quite critical.
I am immersed in my own journey of initiation at 55, curious as to what is possible. With much support and more self-care than I had imagined, I am committed to navigating this final chapter differently. I feel ready to be bolder, brighter, softer, and an even more powerful creator.
Perhaps this chapter-in-life is an invitation to get to know ourselves more intimately as we transition into expressing ourselves more fully, stepping up courageously into the wise women that we are. I invite you to walk with me with an open heart into the unknown. We are the role-models for this generation. You are not alone.
This is a guest blog by Dr Carolyn Eddleston:

Dr Carolyn Eddleston- Registered Doctor, Traditional Acupuncturist and British Acupuncture council member. Carolyn worked within the NHS as a GP for 25 years. She observed that Western medicine excelled in life or death situations. Individuals with more chronic disorders or who failed to fit into a diagnostic box were left dissatisfied and with few treatment options. Traditional Chinese Medicine makes connections between various organ systems within the body in a way which Carolyn observed as a doctor but had no explanation for. Whilst living in New Zealand for 6 years she completed a 3 year, full-time Diploma in Acupuncture. The training transformed not only her own life but the way she understood health and illness. Her treatment style now focuses on supporting health rather than being centred solely on illness.
Essential Steps Toward a Regenerative Mindset
Any real and lasting shift in our business and wider socio-economic system is predicated upon a shift in mindset. As the much-admired award-winning former Chairman and CEO of Interface, Ray Anderson explained,
‘We have been, and still are, in the grips of a flawed view of reality – a flawed paradigm, a flawed worldview – and it pervades our culture putting us on a biological collision course with collapse.’
Our worldview affects how we perceive life and our sense of place and purpose within it. Without a new understanding of reality, and the shift in consciousness this demands, we continue on a collision course with collapse. The time has come to get radical and deal with the root problem, a flawed view of reality.
Worldview Shift
We are living through the very moment that a four-hundred-year-old worldview is dying, and another is struggling to be born. This evolutionary breakdown-breakthrough ushers in a wholesale reconfiguration of commercial life, a new world of work, and a reinvention of the organization. What’s the emerging future of this transformative time we are in? No one yet knows. Yet, we can see what’s dying – the old worldview of Mechanistic Materialism with its mechine logic – and what’s birthing – the new worldview of Quantum Complexity with its living-systems logic.
An important aspect of cultivating a regenerative mindset is comprehending the wider context within which a challenge is situated. So let’s explore the historic context of the dying Mechanistic Materialism and birthing Quantum Complexity.
A Canter Through Western Worldview Shifts
Spanning from around 100,000 years ago to around 10,000 years ago (8000 BC) evidence points to Homo sapiens living in deep communion with nature. The cultural norm in these aboriginal cultures was to uphold a deep sense of reverence for all life. Nature was perceived as sentient and sacred, with every living-being forming part of a greater whole. Humans worked in harmony with the rhythms innate within nature. Let’s call this worldview Animism.
For the animist, the spiritual energies encountered in the depths of the psyche were also working in the depths of nature. The ‘outer’ world of nature was an opening into the ‘inner’ world of psyche and soul. The boundary between ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ was more permeable than experienced now, and there was an essential unity between humanity and nature. The human soul participated in a psychic world common to all. By bringing one’s consciousness into harmonious relationship with deep archetypal patterns and forces innate within nature and psyche one achieved a sense of self-integration and true-nature/dharma.
For Animism, life is full of subtle energies active behind the scenes. Everything is perceived as made up of energy/spirit. This energy/spirit is conscious, and therefore everything is conscious; everything is part of a living, interconnected web of energy. Right-relation is found through practices that bring a deep empathy with, and reverence for, all things. Shamanic rituals, dance, drumming, journeying, vision quests and such like, help keep the ego-psyche open and permeable with these subtle energies for right livelihood. Nature is experienced as not simply ‘out there’, perceptible only to the senses, instead contains an inner soul-life that enacts eternal myths and archetypal narratives through natural processes and events amid everyday life-experiences.
Then in Europe, around 10,000 years ago there was a shift in climate and a shift in society, beginning what anthropologist Steve Taylor refers to as the Ego Explosion. Our sense of self-identity shifted from seeing ourselves as part of nature to a sense of separateness rising in the human psyche. This rise of ego-consciousness brought increasing self-agency and self-empowerment, along with a significant shift in how we operated and organized. With it, Animism in Europe gave way to the Neolithic and Agricultural Revolutions, the rise of Hellenistic Greece, the Roman Empire, Christendom, then the Middle Ages of Medieval Europe. Let’s call this worldview, with its heightening ego-consciousness and increasing prioritisation of rational intellect over intuitive empathic connection, Greco-Medieval.
One of the key formative minds of the Greco-Medieval worldview was Aristotle. Aristotle’s ‘eudaimonia’ – wellbeing & happiness – is cultivated by connecting with one’s inner light (soul). Soul virtues such as ‘synesis’ (right-understanding, inner conscience, insight), ‘sophia’ (intuitive spirit-wisdom), and ‘phronesis’ (practical wisdom, mindfulness, prudence) help cultivate our inner-nature to find harmony with outer-nature. The human soul is a portal into the World Soul or ‘Mind of Nature’. Aligning inner-outer nature provides for right livelihood, a morality found not through ethical codes of conduct, religious commandments or shamanic rituals, but through an inner-sense of rightness. No longer was the human needing to consult the gods or oracles for decision-making, instead one becomes an autonomous decision-maker. This comes with a drawing away from the archetypal forces in nature, and a focusing on the human soul as moral compass.
Aristotle’s ‘eudaimonia’ recognises the human soul as a portal into the spirit-realm innate within nature, yet puts the human soul at the centre of things. So, let’s call this Greco-Medieval mindset ‘humanist-animist’ as it recognises the importance of attuning inner-outer nature for wellbeing and right-livelihood (animism), yet prioritises human agency (humanism).
Add to this the rising dominance of Christendom in the Middle Ages, and we see a further separating of the human psyche from nature. With it, the last vestiges of animism are banished from the Western worldview.
To be clear, this is not because the Christian teachings of Jesus encourage a sense of separation from nature, as his original teachings clearly emphasise the sacredness of all life. Nor because Christianity as a belief-system is anthropocentric, as many Christians throughout the ages deeply sense the sacredness innate in nature (John the Scot and Francis of Assisi being two well-known medieval examples), and many practicing Christians today would resonate with Aristotle’s ‘humanist-animist’ approach. Instead, it’s because a form of Christian fanaticism rose during the Middle Ages. As with many organised belief-systems at scale, power-control tendencies started to dominate the Church infrastructure. A quest for supreme control, rather than living the values of Jesus’s original teachings seemed to take hold. Inner-connection to the divine soul within us was deprioritised by the Church in favour of worshipping a transcendent God separate from nature and humanity. In a quest for total power, any vestiges of animism practiced amongst European communities were viewed as heretical and violently stamped out. The Crusades, Inquisitions and Witch Hunts burnt and tortured thousands upon thousands, and a previously harmonious relationship between Muslim, Christian and Jew was ruptured. This prioritisation of worshipping a patriarchal transcendent God separate from nature and accessible only through the Church sowed the seeds of its own decline.
Enter another cultural shift hand-in-hand with a shift in climate around 400 years ago in Europe. The Reformation, Scientific Revolution and Industrial Revolution unfolded, all drawing upon an increasingly reductive and mechanistic perspective of life hand-in-hand with heightening ego-consciousness and separateness. ‘What gets measured gets done’ is the new maxim, and reductive objectified science becomes the new religion. Any archetypal immeasurable realm in nature is ignored as irrelevant or non-existent. A split occurs between mind (spirit) and matter (energy). The dynamism of life, along with its emergent and evolutionary potential, is drained of sacredness. Nature is viewed as a collection of objects to be managed and controlled for human betterment. The evolution of life on Earth is seen as a process of selfish ascendency, separate species struggling for survival in a dog-eat-dog world devoid of meaning or purpose.
This rise of Mechanistic Materialism takes over from the dying Greco-Medieval worldview, liberating us from the superstitious religious dogma of Medieval times, and yet substituting religious dogma for materialistic dogma. Any perspective of an animate consciousness or spirit-realm innate within nature is banished. Along with this banishment so too a deprioritization of receptive, intuitive and soulful ways of knowing, with the logical rational mind reining supreme. The ‘humanist-animist’ approach of Greco-Medieval times morphs into a ‘humanist-materialist’ mindset. The human being is not just set apart from nature but from its own soul. It’s in the rational thinking mind that we find happiness ‘out there’ attained through the material ‘good life’ with ethics and morality found through adhering to rational-analytic moral codes mapped out by reason and science. This has come with all sorts of advancements we all enjoy today from the morality of human rights and liberalism to the technological advancements in modern medicine, transportation and digitization. There is nothing inherently wrong with Mechanistic Materialism and yet it has had the effect of separating the human psyche from the sacredness of life and the insights of the soul. Without this sense of connection into the soul of inner-outer nature, all-too-easily we get consumed by the ego’s fickle wants and needs. Rather than a quest for harmony with life, or for wellbeing through right livelihood, the purpose of life orientates around satisfying material needs. Enter the rise of capitalist consumerism, egotism and individualism. As Frankie Goes To Hollywood infamously notes – sex and horror become the new gods.
It’s this ungrounding from reality that lies at the heart of our manifold social and environmental crises today. Trying to dealt with these challenging with the same level of consciousness that created them (Mechanistic Materialism) is futile, and wastes precious time, energy and resources. Enter the Age of Regeneration which draws upon a worldview of Quantum Complexity, the foundations of which have already been painstakingly laid by pioneers for us to build upon.
At the beginning of the 20th century, breakthrough scientific discoveries in physics were made by great minds such as Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Max Planck, and Walther Nernst, all of whom profoundly influenced our understanding of how the universe works—and with them Quantum Physics was born along with a scientific understanding of the innate interconnectedness of life, and the presence of an invisible realm – the Quantum Vacuum or Field.
By the mid-20th century more ground-breaking scientific discoveries started to unfold, this time across the fields of biology, chemistry, cybernetics, and social science, made by great minds such as Gregory Bateson, Ilya Prigogine, Donella Meadows and Fritjof Capra, profoundly influencing our understanding of how nature works—and with them Complexity Science was born along with a scientific understanding of the emergent and evolutionary nature of life. Add into the mix the pioneering findings in developmental psychology, analytical psychology, depth psychology, transpersonal psychology, ecological psychology, integral psychology and spiritual psychology made by the likes of Carl Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz, Clare Graves, Susan Cook-Reuter, Robert Sardello and Ken Wilber, profoundly influencing our understanding of the human psyche and soul immersed in an invisible realm that informs all form.
This emerging worldview of Quantum Complexity echoes our animist past yet is inclusive of the experiences and wounds endured through our Journey of Separation (Greco-Medieval and Mechanistic-Materialism). The self-agency, autonomous decision-making and freedom from earlier superstition and religious dogma is not lost, nor are the immense technological advances in medicine, automation and digitization we all enjoy today. What the worldview of Quantum Complexity invites is a deepening relationship with inner-outer reality in order to once again find accord with the way life works for our own wellbeing and for the wellbeing of all life on Earth. It’s a Journey of Reconnection; a process of becoming more of who we truly are; a fulfilment of our natural potential; a realization of Aristotle’s ‘eudaimonia’ by connecting with one’s inner light (soul); a re-animation of nature; a new understanding of and relationship with the subtle energies active behind the scenes of everyday life.
We may call this regenerative capacity ‘systemic awareness’ which requires a deepening of ‘self-awareness’.
We can’t just activate this next-stage consciousness with a flick of a switch, we must endure a journey of transformation that involves deep psychological renewal – a process of dying and being reborn, a threshold-crossing into a deeper state of being that morphs how we relate with our own selves, each other and the world around us. My latest book Leading by Nature provides tools and practices to add this death-rebirth threshold-crossing. For instance, we can activate our super-nature by integrating our natural intelligences – intuitive, rational, emotional and somatic – and tap into the Mind of Nature where Nature’s Wisdom resides.
Quantum Complexity and the Mind of Nature
The mechanistic attempt to separate humans from nature is at the heart of our problems today.
Whether we like it or not, the reality is we humans are immersed in nature both physiologically and psychologically.
Physiologically, over 90% of the cells in our bodies are not even human. Without the help of these non-human cells we would utterly fail at life. Without nature’s air we breathe, food we eat, and ingredients we use for clothing, housing, medicine and transportation, we’d be nothing.
Psychologically, over 90% of our human history has seen us spiritually connected within nature. Mounting scientific evidence shows how our psychological sense of separateness from nature is undermining our capacity to become more fully human. In re-establishing a deeper sense of connection within nature, evidence shows that humans not only enhance their creativity, compassion, concentration and collaborative capacity, they more readily tap-in to a deeper sense of meaning, purpose and wisdom. The inner-psyche and outer-activity of our being-in-the-world attunes more readily and we overcome egotism, hyper-competition, fear, anxiety and othering (projecting a sense of in-crowd/out-crowd on to an ‘other’).
Mechanistic Materialism assumes that human-beings have minds that are totally separate from nature. What Quantum Complexity research into consciousness shows is that mind pervades nature, and our individual minds have the capacity to create a sense of separateness through the ego – which is an important aspect of the psyche that enables us to function as autonomous individuals. This self-reflexive capacity of the ego is a tool we have as human-beings that enables us to gain perspective, focus in or pull ourselves out of the flow of life.
If we start to get too caught up in our own egos – egotism – then we forget who we truly are, and start to believe that we really are separate from nature. As Einstein knew, this creates a devastating delusion that cripples our humanity and starves our soul. It’s this sense of separateness that causes us to act in ways that are out-of-kilter with life on Earth.
A vital step on the journey toward becoming regenerative is in being able to recognise that we are not separate psyches bouncing around in a world of separateness, but rather we have egos to aid our self-agency and self-reflexivity so that we can learn and evolve, in order to work with the deeper rhythms and song-lines innate within the human soul and World Soul (aka Mind of Nature).
In his pioneering work on Holism & Evolution, Jan Christian Smuts emphasises how the individual mind attunes and reverberates with Universal Mind (aka Mind of Nature) – the systemic, social, ecological and universal relationality from which our individuality springs. The individual mind learns to open into the Mind of Nature and cultivates the capacity for ‘psychical sensing or intellectual intuition – a holistic sense of relating’ according to Smuts. The psychoanalyst Carl Jung shared a similar perspective with his Pleroma or ‘collective unconscious’ (aka Mind of Nature) within which our individual mind is immersed, never separate from. Through a process of ‘individuation’ the individual can develop the capacity to become a truer version of oneself in finding accord with the Mind of Nature. Bateson too explored the Mind of Nature and the importance of inner-outer coherence, along with many other notable pioneers such as Whitehead, James and Bergeson acknowledging the importance of attuning with an animating force innate within life.
How Does Inner-Outer Nature Connection Inform Leadership & Organizational Development (L&OD) for Future-fit Business?
Adult developmental psychology studies indicate that leaders able to sense and work with the emergent and evolutionary dynamics of life are better equipped to lead 21st century future-fit organizations. Take developmental psychologist Clare Graves who painstakingly researched levels of consciousness across thousands of adults. What he called Tier 2 consciousness (the next stage of consciousness he witnessed emerging in adults across business and society) is hallmarked by the capacity to sense the systemic inter-relational nature of emergence in both natural and human systems. “Know how nature functions and you know how to behave [in Tier 2],” said Graves.
This gives way to the rising trend to learn from nature. Yet, even when seeking to learn from nature, we all too often get caught up in Mechanistic Materialism, which seeks to compartmentalize, categorize, and rationalize. We bring the same mechanistic lens to our biological explorations that desensitized us to nature’s relationality. While a reductive scientific understanding of nature along with a systematic set of nature’s principles is indeed useful (and certainly something we can draw-upon to inform the new L&OD logic), the challenge and the opportunity lie in shifting our consciousness into a more holistic attentiveness to the nature of life all around and within us. This endeavor is as fresh as it is ancient.
Chinese sages perceived the manifest phenomena of nature as conveying deep insights about how change unfolds in life. It is not the forms, functions, and designs of nature but the underlying rhythms of transformation which precede the forms that provide insightful wisdom. My nature-inspired coaching work draws upon the numerous wisdom traditions that understand the importance of the underlying wisdom innate in life—Ayurveda, Buddhism, Shintoism, Daoism, Confucianism and Sufism from the East, Alchemy and Hermeticism from the West, and Tantric and Shamanic traditions found the world-over. This underlying wisdom of life is what I refer to as Nature’s Wisdom.
Nature’s Wisdom
The ability for our sophisticated, digitized, yet stressed-out organizations to attune with Nature’s Wisdom is the next frontier. It means aligning with life itself, nothing more nothing less. All of life—including human society, the organization, and the leader—is immersed in an ever-changing rhythmic and relational dance. When off kilter with the rhythms of this dance, chaos and fragility ensue; when in-tune, all parts find flow and the capacity to flourish. It’s the same for life within the organization as it is for life beyond the organization. Those organizations and leaders who learn to attune with the rhythms and ways of nature are the ones most able to adapt to change.
Through many collaborative initiatives and my own practitioner-based fieldwork, I have spent more than a decade exploring nature’s principles as applied to organizational development. What I offer in my latest book Leading by Nature goes deeper than such principles. It’s a universal substratum underpinning how nature and human nature operates. It’s Nature’s Wisdom. We can live in accord with this wisdom through certain practices of learning how to sense and work with life’s subtle ways. It’s a learning journey that involves becoming more intimate with our own true nature (self-awareness) and with the relational behaviors and characteristics of the living-organization (systemic-awareness).
Let’s take a look at three aspects of Nature’s Wisdom:
- Life is ever-changing: Change is happening everywhere all the time. In everything there is both stillness and movement. Movement is pervaded by stillness. Stillness gives rise to movement. The evolution of life spawns from this movement arising from stillness. This dance of life follows the pulsating rhythm of arising and expressing and doing (yang) and falling away and reflecting and being (yin).
- Life is full of tensions: Tension creates the crucible for creativity. There is tension between the yang and yin, which is what impels nature’s creative advance. Sometimes there is a little more yang, sometimes more yin. This yin-yang tension creates opportunities for synergy and “dinergy.” Synergy is where two or more inputs come together and form something new through their tension of complimentary difference. Dinergy is where seemingly opposing perspectives, such as a clash of views, may feel uncomfortable yet if worked through something new can emerge beyond the initial perspectives. Learning to be comfortable with the uncomfortableness these tensions give rise to is an important leadership skill to acquire.
- Life is relational and interconnected: Infusing all life is a universal field of consciousness that informs and interconnects everything. Scientists call it the Quantum Vacuum or Field. Each manifest aspect of nature, along with ourselves and our organizational systems, is distinct in its own right—holding its own boundaries, essence, and purposefulness—yet all are immersed in this Field. Nothing is separate; everything inter-relates in varying degrees. The leadership team is nested within the organizational system, which is nested within its wider stakeholder ecosystem, which is nested within societal and ecological systems. All living systems, including human ones, thrive through reciprocity and give rise to systemic dynamics—pulsations, ripples, repercussions, flows, and potentialities.
While we might be able to intellectually comprehend these aspects, Nature’s Wisdom is revealed only through embodied experience. Future-fit leaders can cultivate this embodied capacity by embarking upon a transformational journey. I’ve honed a coaching-based practice that guides senior leaders, leadership teams, OD and change catalysts, and organizational cultures through advanced developmental learning journeys. These journeys—whether taken in-person or virtually—are immersive in that they invite leaders to learn-through-practice by going inward into themselves and also into the inner hidden dynamics of the organizational system and wider stakeholder ecosystem in which they operate. These journeys are the lived experience of Leading by Nature.
“Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force.” – Lao Tzu
The Journey of Separation & Reconnection Through the Lens of L&OD
As we have explored, the Journey of Separation out of Animism into Mechanistic Materialism bears witness to a rising separation of inner and outer both within ourselves (self-awareness) and outside ourselves in how we attend to life and its living systems (systemic-awareness). The inner-soul dimension of nature and the inner-soul dimension of the psyche become deprioritized with the rise of reductive science’s objectivizing focus on outer measurables and tangibility. Outer-doing trumps inner-being. This affects not just our leadership consciousness but also how we perceive and attend to the organization. Rather than attending to the organization as a complex system full of human processes of relating, we start to compartmentalize and silo it into utilitarian functions and apply a machine mentality to maximized efficiency and effectiveness through outer-doing. There is nothing wrong with this focus on the outer, and we need it to get-the-job-done. Yet the deprioritization of the inner impoverishes both the individual (self-awareness) and the living-organization (systemic-awareness) leading to a plethora of problems in our organizations today that end up in the very ineffectiveness the machine-mindset is trying to avoid (unproductive talking-head back-to-back meetings, people bringing only fragments of themselves to work, cultures of mistrust and fear, sapping of creativity and meaning, inauthentic brands, unsustainable behaviour, mental health and wellbeing issues, loss of talent, etc.).
An essential starting point on the regenerative leadership journey is beginning to sense the organization-as-a-living-system with inner dynamics (soul/essence, evolutionary purposefulness, developmental growth challenges; what I call ‘cultivating a DEE Culture – Developmental, Emergent, Evolutionary’ explored at length in Leading by Nature). This shift in awareness also entails a recognition that the ‘outer’ nature of the organization (its value propositions, stakeholder relationships and brand) is fully enlivened and authentic when in accord with the ’inner’ nature of the organization (its culture, values, essence and ways of relating).
One of the products of Mechanistic Materialism has been the organization-as-machine sweating assets for short-term returns, often because of a pressure from lenders and shareholders for consistent upward quarterly returns regardless of the growth stages and contextual changes the organization experiences as it matures.
The outer-nature is projected in the most favourable ‘achiever’ way as possible, and the inner-nature is managed and controlled in what is perceived as the most ‘efficient’ way as possible. Authenticity and alignment between inner and outer nature is not seen as a business priority within this narrowed machine view. Yet authenticity undoubtedly aids the future-fitness of the organization for a whole host of reasons – attracting and retaining talent, agile decision-making, unlocking brilliance and creativity across the business, improving customer retention, enhancing brand value, etc..
As well as a split between the inner (culture) and outer (brand) of the organization, Mechanistic Materialism has also encouraged a split within the inner and outer nature of the individual – inner-being has become impoverished at the expense of a relentless achiever-focus on outer-doing.
The task for ‘regenerative L&OD’ is to help the attunement of the inner-outer nature of the organisation/system and the inner-outer nature of the leader/self. Its this integration of inner-outer nature within the individual and the organization that allows for regenerative business to find accord with Nature’s Wisdom and truly thrive amid the volatile times ahead while delivering life-affirming offerings that help humanity toward regeneration.

To orientate ourselves within any living-system, ecosystem, neighbourhood and society, we need to open into the inner-dimension of the system that informs its outer forms. Without this reorientation we are but lost in the labyrinth of Mechanistic Materialism. Unfortunately, many well-intended endeavours in the climate change and CSR movement today are machinations of Mechanistic Materialism, further estranging inner and outer nature, while distracting essential energy from where its most needed. Without attention being given to a regenerative mindset for leaders and organizations, we shall continue to lose ourselves in illusions of separateness.
Inner-nature and outer-nature are inextricably entwined. There is no separation. Everything evolves through continuous sensing-responding and energetic exchanges within the relational environment of everyday life. Science now knows this and has proven it not just in the quantum and cosmological but also amid the complex systems of our organizations and neighbourhoods.
Through deepening our sensitivity to Nature’s Wisdom we allow our consciousness to become regenerative, and we heal the separateness within the human psyche and its division with nature. This Journey of Reconnection is not a return to ancient times, rather it draws upon the ego individuation and autonomy gained through the Journey of Separation in cultivating a more holistic consciousness that once again senses the inner-outer depths of nature and psyche within and all around us.
Adult developmental psychology research shows us that as we go through deeper stages of meaning-making in our lives the ego simultaneously maturates and permeates. In other words, we do not need to dissolve our sense of self but rather deepen our sense of who we truly are, and in-so-doing our ego becomes more receptive and open to life; our way of experiencing life becomes less defended, judgmental, fearful and change-averse. We become more able to adapt to change, relate to different people and different situations with ease, and tap into the wisdom that each unfolding experience of life affords us.
This ego maturation and permeation does not subsume us in a grey miasma of uniformity, conformity and collectivism; rather, it allowing us to work with the grand symphony of existence while staying true to our unique tune. We celebrate individuation within harmonization as we reconnect back into real life.
Death/Rebirth Metamorphosis
To truly shift our consciousness a death/rebirth process is to be endured, whereupon psychic fragmentation and reintegration deepens our communion with the spiritual source of the human soul and World Soul.
This process of psychological death, dismemberment, reconstitution and rebirth is central to all the initiatory myths throughout the ages. It’s this process of death/rebirth that society is undergoing now, with all the uncertainty, frustration, anxiety, fragmentation, polarization and fear it can invoke. The more conscious we become of this process the more we can work with the archetypal forces innate in inner-outer nature, and the more regenerative we become. Afterall, ‘to regenerate’ is to die and be reborn while finding deeper accord with inner-outer nature. This is the task of our time.
As the French writer Antoine Saint de’Expury once noted,
‘If you want to build a ship, don’t assign people tasks and get them to chop wood. Instead teach them to long for the immensity of the sea.’
The immensity of the sea is all around and within us – Nature’s Wisdom – a real and potent presence in our lives. Too often we get caught up in fixing things out there and forget what needs fixing first is in here. In attending to the inner-dimension within and all around us, we begin to see with new eyes a world that has always been and always will be sacred, sentient and sensitive to our true nature. What we need now more than anything is to reconnect with the rapture of reality and remind ourselves of the magnificence of this existence. Then, the building of the ship becomes a labour of love, filled with passion and enthusiasm, and we cocreate futures that cultivate our true nature.
See here a one-off one-day regenerative leadership immersion for those who wish to gain an embodied experience of regenerative consciousness amid ancient woodlands – we are nearly full, so if of interest please apply soon.
Giles Hutchins is a pioneering practitioner and senior adviser at the fore-front of the [r]evolution in organizational and leadership consciousness and developmental approaches that enhance personal, organizational and systemic agility and vitality. He is author and co-author of several leadership and organizational development papers, and the books The Nature of Business (2012), The Illusion of Separation (2014), Future Fit (2016), Regenerative Leadership (2019) and Leading by Nature (2022). Chair of The Future Fit Leadership Academy and Founder of Leadership Immersions, co-founder of Biomimicry for Creative Innovation and Regenerators, he runs a 60 acre leadership centre at Springwood Farm, an area of outstanding natural beauty near London, UK. Previously held corporate roles – Head of Transformation Practice for KPMG, Global Director and Head of Sustainability for Atos (150,000 employees, over 40 countries). He provides coaching at individual and organizational levels for those seeking to transform their personal and/or work lives. Giles is a keynote speaker on the future of business and regenerative leadership. He is also a Reiki Master, a certified advanced coach, and trained in advanced Integral Solonics leadership development as well as other modalities.
“Leading by Nature is THE handbook for conscious leadership. A must-read for every business leader who genuinely cares about the future of humanity.’ Jayn Sterland, CEO of Weleda UK
“A truly exceptional and timely book that redefines the locus of power in relationship to leadership; leadership that seeks harmony and alignment with nature. Giles reminds us to bring awareness/presence to everything that unfolds. This book is the teacher we all need.” Sue Cheshire, Founder and former CEO of The Global Leaders Academy
“Leading by Nature gets to the heart of the shift in leadership that is now required to create a sustainable future for humanity.” – Richard Barrett, Director of the Barrett Academy for the Advancement of Human Values.
“This book is a must-read for those involved in the future of business. I can’t recommend Giles’s work highly enough.” – Norman Wolfe, CEO of Quantum Leaders and author of The Living Organization: Transforming Business To Create Extraordinary Results
“Giles Hutchins has for over a decade led the way with his championship of learning through nature. His new book is a really important evolution of these ideas emerging into a philosophy of systems thinking/being – it’s bang on the money, a really important book that will inspire all those whose role it is to champion resilience and adaptability, ethical commercial development, wellbeing in the workplace and the nurturing of a moral compass.” – Sir Tim Smit, KBE, Founder of The Eden Project

Feel free to connect with the LinkedIn Group Leadership Immersions here
See here a one-off one-day regenerative leadership immersion for those who wish to gain an embodied experience of regenerative consciousness amid ancient woodlands – we are nearly full, so if of interest please apply soon.
An Invitation -Recovering Your Own Eldership
A unique one-day, immersive experience with Giles Hutchins & Trevor Waldock Thursday 27th April 2023 “When a society abandons its elders, the elders abandon themselves” Michael Meade So many areas of our lives are screaming out for the elders – family, work, community, politics. Elders have always been part of the fabric of traditional cultures. They provide wisdom, perspective, meaning and guidance to both youth and aging, to communities and to nations. We in the West have abandoned that role in our language, our leadership, our personal, community and organisational life. ‘Leaders are formed in the cradle of eldership’ sums up the importance of this rediscovery. (1) Traditional cultures were much more rooted in a respectful dance with the natural world that they saw themselves a part of, not in charge of. What can spending a day in nature help us to discover and recover about the role and qualities of elders and how eldership can be recovered in our personal life and aspirations, and in our community life (both local, national and organisational)? Society and young people desperately need the recovery of elders and we aim to explore how we can play a useful part in this adventure. This is an opportunity to invest in becoming elder, not just older. Trevor Waldock Leadership developer, mentor, founder of the international NGO Emerging Leaders, author and elder, Trevor has spent the past 17 years looking at eldership and how we can recover it within our personal and collective lives, with a particular interest in helping young people to begin their lives with the aspiration of eldership. Giles Hutchins Giles is a pioneer, practitioner, executive coach, thought leader, author and keynote speaker. Using his unique skills and perspective we will spend a day in the beauty of Springwood, his 60-acre woodland in West Sussex, to explore what nature can teach us about how we can recover the aspiration to eldership for ourselves and the local or organisational communities we are part of. Cost? £350.00 which includes all refreshments and lunch. Cancellation? After 9th March 50% charged. After 9th April 100% charged. Location? Springwood Farm, West Sussex RH17 6HQ (10mins in taxi from Three Bridges station) Max numbers? We can take a maximum of 15 people, so book early. Payment required to reserve a place. To apply, contact Trevor on trevor@trevorwaldock.net Please feel free to pass this invitation on to others you think may be interested. [1] Reuel Khoza |
![]() ![]() |
For further info on future immersions feel free to join the LinkedIn group Leadership Immersions
It’s a fascinating yet challenging time to be a leader. We are in the midst of an old system dying and a new one being born, all amid unceasing transformation – change upon change upon change is the new-norm. Yet as the genius Einstein knew, when we look deep in to nature we understand everything better; we see with new eyes and bring a different quality of consciousness to the solutions than that which created the problems in the first place.
Through over a decade of working on regenerative leadership and nature-based coaching, I have developed a range of practices, coaching-frames and processes that aid the journey of becoming a next-stage future-fit leader.
On Friday 5th May 2023, I will host a special one-off nature-based leadership immersion providing an embodied experience of what it means to become a Regenerative Leader, and drawing upon practices from Leading by Nature
The Immersion – Logistics:
9.30am Arrivals – refreshments upon arrival. Workshop commences at 9.45am
4.15pm Departures
By Car – RH17 6HQ .
By Train – Come to Three Bridges station for no later than 9.15am, a cab will meet you there.
Cost: £400 – To confirm your place email giles@ffla.co
Places are limited so if you are interested booking early is advised as its first-come-first-serve.
Pre-reading or preparation: Once you have paid, your place is confirmed, and you will be sent preparatory material and guidance. Other emails will also be sent near the immersion with further information and preparation.
What can you hope to gain from the experience: You will form part of a small group of like-minded yet diverse leaders and practitioners, and will be facilitated by Giles Hutchins for the entire day. Here are some of the things you can hope to experience:
- An embodied experience of regenerative leadership
- Tools, processes and techniques to aid the journey toward regenerative leadership
- Consciousness-raising practices and modalities
- Peer-sharing and facilitated group dialogue sessions
- Pre-reading material and guidance before the workshop
- A signed copy of Leading by Nature book (or any other of Giles’s books if you already have Leading by Nature)
- Organic lunch and refreshments throughout the day

Some quotes from previous one-day immersion workshops at Springwood with Giles:
‘The nature immersion workshop with Giles exceeded all expectations. This is real space to develop strategies fit for the 21st century.’ – Stephen Passmore, CEO, Resilience Alliance
‘What an inspiring day in the woods Giles, a great balance of talking, learning, contemplation, meditation, being in nature – Thank you so very much!’ –Participant, CEO of non-profit organization
“In these challenging times, Giles offers those of us in the ‘business as usual’ world both hope and the opportunity for deep connection with nature, spirit and ourselves. I highly recommend joining Giles for one of his immersion journeys of reconnection for a beautiful perspective on how we might do business differently and better.” – Will Adeney, Management Consultant & Nature Connection Mentor
‘Your immersion into nature opened our minds, opened our souls, to deeply connect with our place and purpose in life. With love and deep appreciation for your inspiration.’ – Sue Cheshire, Founder of the Global Leaders Academy
‘Feel I’ve had a day with a real master. What beautiful profound lessons’. – Simon Milton, CEO of Pulse Brands
I joined Giles and others on a day-long ‘Leadership Immersion’ at Giles’ magical and awe-inspiring 60 acre ancient woodland in West Sussex. Having read his last book – Regenerative Leadership, I had high expectations. They were surpassed, magnificently.
Giles took us on a journey that saw complete strangers enter into a state of connection, high trust and intimacy – in a matter of hours. We emerged nourished, energised, connected, centred and better equipped to deal with the challenges of life in the early ‘20s. For those seeking answers around their personal and professional development – I can’t recommend Giles and his work highly enough. – Richard Tyre, CEO of Good People
‘Giles’s blends business expertise, deep connection with nature and our living environment and experience in transformation, helping us think differently and progressively about work and organisational intent. He is magical in his ability to generate ‘safe spaces’ for conversations that matter’ – Caroline Gosling, Director, Rubica
‘Powerful and provocative – the most useful leadership course I’ve ever attended!’ – Ian Ayling, Director, Wilco

About Springwood Farm: a mix of semi-ancient and ancient woodland with wildflower meadows, 60 acres in total, private and secluded specially designed for advanced leadership coaching work, see some pictures here: https://www.leadershipimmersions.com/gallery
About Giles Hutchins:
Giles Hutchins is a pioneering practitioner and senior adviser at the fore-front of the [r]evolution in organizational and leadership consciousness and developmental approaches that enhance personal, organizational and systemic agility and vitality. He is author and co-author of several leadership and organizational development papers, and the books The Nature of Business (2012), The Illusion of Separation (2014), Future Fit (2016) and Regenerative Leadership (2019). Chair of The Future Fit Leadership Academy and Founder of Leadership Immersions, co-founder of Biomimicry for Creative Innovation and Regenerators, he runs a 60 acre leadership center at Springwood Farm, an area of outstanding natural beauty near London, UK. Previously held corporate roles – Head of Transformation Practice for KPMG, Global Director and Head of Sustainability for Atos (150,000 employees, over 40 countries). He provides coaching at individual and organizational levels for those seeking to transform their personal and/or work lives. He is also a keynote speaker on the future of business and regenerative leadership, and guest lectures at international business schools. He blogs at www.thenatureofbusiness.org
The 5th May is a one-off one-day open programme for 2023, and places are limited. Email giles@ffla.co if you wish to book a place.

2023, Welcome to The Age of Regeneration – but what does this mean for our organizations and ourselves?
The massive challenges humanity now faces are systemic – they are interwoven, created by a system-wide flaw. That flaw stems from the disparity between the way life on Earth works and the way we manage and organize our for-profit or non-profit value-creating ventures – our organizations.
‘Regenerative Business’ aims to close the gap between how we work and how nature works; therefore tackling the challenges we face at their root.
Put simply – ‘regenerative’ means working the way nature works. When we’re being regenerative we are in-tune with inner-nature (our psychology, mindset and culture) and outer-nature (our relationships and activities), and are contributing to the evolutionary potential of life on Earth. We work with the grain of nature rather than against it. In reality, this is a never-ending and ever-evolving journey of deepening into life by becoming more of who we truly are, individually, organizationally, societally.
For an organization to be on this regenerative journey, it must work toward enriching all stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, investors, the wider society, and the environment; intending for all life to flourish. This is not some nice-to-have wishful-thinking, it is well within our grasp, very doable with the technologies and tools we have available to us today, and quite frankly the only viable pathway ahead if we wish to survive and thrive as a species on this living planet. Why would we wish for anything less? We are part of life, and ought thrive within the natural conditions, laws and rhythms of our home.
While sustainable business has greatly helped identify and reduce the negative social and environmental impacts of the organization, it does not necessarily involve a mindset shift from mechanistic into living-systems (the way nature works). In fact, the majority of sustainability initiatives I’ve come across over the last two decades often unwittingly compound the mechanistic mindset that created the problems in the first place. Measuring and reducing one impact over-here can have unintended negative consequences over-there, while the underlying mechanistic mind-set that corrupts life itself is left largely unchecked. For sure, sustainable business is better than conventional business, but it’s not necessarily the same as regenerative business, which involves a living-systems mindset that seeks attunement with nature’s rhythms and ways. In my latest book Leading by Nature, I explore this necessary shift from the 400 year-old worldview of Mechanistic Materialism and emerging worldview of Quantum Complexity, and how this activates living-systems leadership and organizational development. (see Leading by Nature).

Operating the organization with a living-systems approach helps both the top-line and bottom-line of the business, by driving-out bureaucracy, bringing-in agility, unlocking creativity, and enabling entrepreneurialism through all levels of the organization. Research clearly shows that organizations that mimic life consistently out-perform their mechanistic counterparts. (see, Leading by Nature)
Yet, there is a fundamental difference between seeking to become regenerative because it makes the organization more agile, responsive, purposeful and profitable amid an uncertain marketplace, and seeking to become regenerative because it feels true in our being, and helps the organization become more true in its being, while also aiding agility, future-fitness and profitability. The former puts the cart before the horse; the latter is in good order.
On this regenerative journey we begin to see the organization no longer as a machine to be managed and controlled in top-down hierarchic ways, but as a complex adaptive system, a ‘living-system’, with its own essence, life-force, sense of purpose, inner-nature (the culture) and outer-nature (the value propositions and stakeholder relationships).
And there are a growing number of example organizations embracing this journey because they know it’s true to their being – I give a couple of examples here to illustrate the diversity of such organizations:
Exemplars
Vivobarefoot is a foot-wear company operating in a highly competitive global market. Through its commitment to the regenerative journey it has been enhancing the regenerative potential of both the inner and outer dimensions of its business. The ‘outer’ shift is through developments in the sustainability of its products (e.g. using natural biodegradable ingredients and sourcing sustainably), and the shift from products to services (circular design-repair-reuse methods) and the cultivation of communities with education around health, wellbeing and nature-connection. Vivo actively attends to the ‘inner’ shift by embedding regenerative leadership throughout its culture, shifting from parent-child hierarchy into adult-adult self-managing agility, and nurturing a culture of regenerative feedback, learning and evolution that is diverse and inclusive. The company not only has high levels of employee happiness and engagement, it also has strong customer satisfaction, solid profitable growth, and the ability to attract some of the best talent from across the industry. See here a recent podcast with CEO Galahad Clark – there’s a whole chapter dedicated to the extraordinary case-study of Vivobarefoot in Leading by Nature.
Houdini, a global provider of clothes for the outdoors, again operating in a highly competitive market. As well as nurturing a healthy adult-adult culture where people are encouraged to bring their whole selves to work, it also aims to be regenerative and circular across its entire product range within a few years, and is working on global collaborations to enable attractive and regenerative lifestyle solutions. It shares its pioneering sustainable designs openly, even with competitors, through Houdini Open Source a platform for sharing knowledge on sustainable methodologies, technologies and solutions worldwide. It also sees its responsibility to educate and empower customers to become more regenerative.
North Star Housing Group, a UK Housing Association. North Star has a culture that encourages employees to thrive while delivering best-in-class services to their clients so that they can thrive. Respectful relating across the culture within and beyond the business, where all stakeholder relations are conducted in adult-adult ways, with a coaching-culture that enables a blend of hierarchy and self-management to work in flexible ways. As a result of this, North Star consistently out performs in its market and wins awards for customer service and employee culture. Due to this focus on regenerative ways of working, and in the midst of a very difficult business climate, its organization grows while others in the market contract.
Greenheart, a social and environmental impact consultancy. Its ‘outer-nature’ value propositions are 100% focused on enabling its client organizations to lead the transition to a fair, regenerative and inclusive economy. It offers world-class impact assessments and strategies for a broad-range of clients seeking regenerative futures. As it grows as a business it is keen to ensure it remains true to its own regenerative potential, and is committed to cultivating a regenerative culture by engaging with the regenerative leadership journey much like Vivobarefoot is – nurturing a culture of adult-adult self-managing, regenerative feedback, learning and evolution that is diverse and inclusive. In-so-doing its able to attract and retain leading talent and walk-its-talk while helping its clients become regenerative. See here a recent podcast with the CEO Tom Bourne.
AXA Climate, an international insurance provider. Like Greenheart, 100% of AXA Climate’s value propositions are focused on the transition toward regenerative futures. Its mission is to make regenerative business universal by helping clients transition from extractive companies to regenerative companies, by offering a range of services including training, education, finance, consulting and insurance services. It’s actively working on its culture in-line with the regenerative journey, recognizing the organization-as-a-living-system and like Greenheart, Vivobarefoot and other pioneers, it’s carefully nurturing a culture of adult-adult self-managing, regenerative feedback, learning and evolution. In-so-doing it attracts and retains high quality talent from across the globe as it grows. It now has over 150 passionate and committed people in Paris, London, Zurich, Miami, Sydney, Shanghai, Hong Kong and New Delhi. See here a recent podcast with the CEO Antoine Denoix.
There are many more examples of organizations regardless of size and sector on the regenerative journey that I mention in Leading by Nature.
The branding of a business has traditionally focused on the outer-nature of the organization, how it shows-up in the world through PR, communications, advertising, social messaging and such like. Yet on the regenerative journey, the inner-nature and outer-nature of the organization start to integrate and become whole. Then the brand is not simply an outer presentation, but a congruent inner-outer way of being, pervading both the inner workings of the organization (culture) and outer (value propositions, stakeholder relations and marketing/messaging).
This is just one way in which regenerative business is different from sustainable business, in that both the inner-nature and the outer-nature of the organization are part-and-parcel of the regenerative journey. Another way regenerative business is a step-on from sustainable business is the threshold-crossing in worldview/mindset involved. This is essential, and yet sometimes overlooked in our excitement to use the word ‘regenerative’. Regenerative is not simply ‘net positive’, nor a trade-off of negative and positive impacts. Regenerative is about deepening our sense of connection with inner-outer nature, so that we work more in harmony with life. We become more whole and life-affirming. Yes, it involves measuring impact and reducing the negative while accentuating the positive – but its not limited to impact measurement, it relies upon a mindset shift for atleast some of the key leaders across the organization and ideally more broadly across the living-system.
Here is an illustration I often share with clients. I have seen similar versions with a straight line from left to right. Both the straight-line image and the curved one provided here offer an easy-to-understand continuum of conventional to sustainable to net positive/restorative to regenerative business.

While this is indeed helpful in conveying a progression, it can indicate that the progression is incremental without any phase-change. In reality, there is a threshold-crossing from an old worldview (mechanistic) into a new worldview (living-systems) that is endured during the journey of becoming a regenerative business – as in this illustration:

This threshold-crossing affects both leadership development and organizational development. As we transition through the worldview shift from mechanistic to regenerative we experience a breakdown of old ways of working, and a breakthrough in our ability to work organizationally. Often this can be experienced organizationally as a flickering-stage with some flip-flopping between old and new states (people questioning and challenging the need to transform, and hankering after old-ways), before momentum gathers and the threshold is crossed into the new state. The flickering state-change can take years, and depends upon courageous leadership, especially amid volatile business climes. Its all-too-easy to turn back toward the safety of the status-quo.
This breakdown-breakthrough threshold-crossing is nothing less than a metamorphosis, a death-rebirth process of letting-go of old ways and an opening into a deeper state of meaning-making; a shift in our orientation of self-other-world from separateness to interconnectedness. At an organizational level this involves an up-stretch in both self-and-systemic awareness across the living-organization. Yet, the developmental nature of the emerging culture is able to hold-space for a diverse stages of meaning-making amongst the people involved – i.e. not everyone will be up for adult-adult self-managing ways, and different parts of the living-system may adapt and evolve in different ways that other parts of the system. For instance, the Finance department may foster a slightly different governance and decision-making style than say the Marketing department. And the traditional boundaries between departments may also permeate and flex as agile cross-functional teams become more prevalent.
It starts with the self.
We can all start the regenerative journey right here right now, by firstly feeling the sense of disconnectedness we have come accustom to, and also feel the sense of interconnectedness that’s the true nature of our inner-being.

Until we take this essential step of stilling our busy minds, sensing inward by becoming intimate with the immanence of our own inner-being and becoming more transparent to the transcendent nature of life, we are still lost.
One of the beautiful facts of life is that if we allow ourselves to relax, breathe deep, and get out of our fear-filled ego-chatter for a few brief moments, our bodyminds naturally start to regenerate, renew and find flow. Becoming regenerative is something we can all naturally do, for free. The challenge is, we’ve been heavily conditioned into ways that take us out of the natural flow of life, so we need to retrain ourselves to become naturally regenerative once again. Each person is different, and yet there are tried-and-tested practices that help us all. (See some free-to-download tools here and a set of advanced practices are provided in the book Leading by Nature).
Human-beings are neither sophisticated machines, nor conglomerations of selfish genes, nor are we just cognitive, emotional, and physiological beings. We are essentially bio-psycho-spiritual beings that thrive on meaning and connectedness. Ground-breaking scientific studies show how necessary a deep sense of connectedness is to seeing the world more fully, cultivating richer relationships, deepening our sense of purpose, and moving from a narrowed-down competitive and degenerative attention into a more holistic and regenerative attention.
Until we recognise and deeply feel life as a participatory affair steeped in consciousness, and that both ourselves and our organizations are immersed in, never separate from, this sentient interconnectedness, we are still novices on the regenerative journey. As we open into this awareness, we learn to attune with Nature’s Wisdom, and lead transmutes into gold.
It’s not difficult to undertake the first step on the regenerative journey (though having the courage and conviction to keep walking the regenerative path is not for the faint-hearted).
No PhD, MSc, MBA, Diploma, Masterclass or Bootcamp is required here. In fact no effort at all is asked for in the first instance, only an active-relaxation that provides for an inner attentiveness. This starts with intention – the intention to feel into one’s own psyche and soul. As the godfather of analytical psychology Carl Jung noted, ‘The one who looks outside dreams, the one who looks inside awakens.’ Too many of our leadership development, organizational development, culture change and sustainable business programmes are overly-consumed in looking outside – asserting change upon the world from a place of mechanistic disconnection. The time has come to awaken.
To no longer live on the surface but to open into the inner-dimension of life, requires a threshold-crossing, beyond fear, desire and ego. This journey of dying-before-you-die alters every cell and leaves no stone unturned. It’s not a quick fix and brings up all sorts of old-baggage in us and in the systems we operate in. It involves reintegrating the masculine and feminine energies in the psyche, as we open our hearts and minds to an interiority of reality that is paradoxically nothing-and-nowhere yet everything-and-everywhere.
Many of us have already encountered brief states of oneness and gained momentary glimpses beyond the veil of separateness. To welcome-in this regularly into our everyday experience of life is a journey of courage that intensifies the inner-life, quietens the ego-mind, and awakens our intuition of interbeing. To attain a meaningful and lasting shift in consciousness is beneficial not just for ourselves as leaders and change agents, but directly impacts the inner and outer nature of the organizations we operate in. This is why well-funded organizations ranging from the likes of Google and Microsoft to the US Military are investing in Mindgyms that cost millions to run with a whole host of bodymind tools. But these are all-too-often biohacks amid a sea of separateness, giving false hope amid degenerative extractive mindsets. What we need in 2023 is a real reorientation into a deeper perception of life.
Nature is not just ‘out there’ but also ‘in here’ and everywhere, nonlocatable beyond object and species. It includes what Plato explored as his Ideas or Forms, Aristotle in his ‘formal cause’, Pythagoras in the ‘Music of the Spheres’, Henri Bergeson with ‘elan vital’, Martin Heidegger with ‘poiesis’. It includes what scientists like Einstein, Schrodinger, Bohr and Bohm seek to define with the ‘Quantum Vaccum’ or ‘Field’, and what complexity theorists like Capra, Bateson and Smuts explore as individual minds immersed within an immanent mind or ‘Mind of Nature’. It includes what psychologists like Jung and von Franz found in the ‘collective unconscious’ upon which the individual psyche floats.
Drain nature of this animating interpenetrating interiority, and we end up back in the very Mechanistic Materialism that created our problems in the first place. And so any meaningful regenerative journey must, at some point, come into contact with inner-outer reality in all its resplendent richness.
The task of our time is not just to become carbon-efficient while optimizing the existing business model and mindset, but to evolve our ways into ones more harmonious with the evolutionary potential of life on Earth. This necessarily involves us remembering/reawakening a depth of perception that re-orientates our psyche and its sense of place and purpose in life.
For the vast proportion of our human history we have deeply felt and psychically intuited this depth of inner-outer nature as a potent and real animating presence in our lives. Only the last 400 years has the rise of Mechanistic Materialism driven us to the surface of things, and in-so-doing encouraged us to struggle as separate species in a dog-eat-dog fashion, debasing the sacredness of life en-route.
But wait a minute! We have a crisis on our hands here! No time for sensing the depth in anything, we must hurry ourselves to fix things out-there – a toute vitesse!
In our haste, we often overlook that the wholesale disintegration of our societies and structures are informed by the disintegration of our own psyches. We’ve forgotten who we truly are, and let ourselves be ruled by fear.
Any wise way ahead in 2023 and beyond necessarily involves steps towards the regeneration of the human psyche; a reintegration into the inner-outer nature of life on Earth.
To orientate ourselves within any living-system, its ecosystem, neighbourhood, society and environment, we need to open into the inner-dimension of the system that informs its outer forms. Without this reorientation we are but lost in illusion.
Inside each one of us – regardless of education, background, class, creed, colour or sexual orientation – is a deep longing to reconnect with the rapture of reality. It’s this deep longing we need to tap in to, or our responses to our crises will continue to be superficial and miss the whole point of what these crises are here to awake us to.
Giles Hutchins is a pioneering practitioner and senior adviser at the fore-front of the [r]evolution in organizational and leadership consciousness and developmental approaches that enhance personal, organizational and systemic agility and vitality. He is author and co-author of several leadership and organizational development papers, and the books The Nature of Business (2012), The Illusion of Separation (2014), Future Fit (2016), Regenerative Leadership (2019) and Leading by Nature (2022). Chair of The Future Fit Leadership Academy and Founder of Leadership Immersions, co-founder of Biomimicry for Creative Innovation and Regenerators, he runs a 60 acre leadership centre at Springwood Farm, an area of outstanding natural beauty near London, UK. Previously held corporate roles – Head of Transformation Practice for KPMG, Global Director and Head of Sustainability for Atos (150,000 employees, over 40 countries). He provides coaching at individual and organizational levels for those seeking to transform their personal and/or work lives. Giles is a keynote speaker on the future of business and regenerative leadership. He is also a Reiki Master, a certified advanced coach, and trained in advanced Integral Solonics leadership development as well as other modalities.
“Leading by Nature is THE handbook for conscious leadership. A must-read for every business leader who genuinely cares about the future of humanity.’ Jayn Sterland, CEO of Weleda UK
“A truly exceptional and timely book that redefines the locus of power in relationship to leadership; leadership that seeks harmony and alignment with nature. Giles reminds us to bring awareness/presence to everything that unfolds. This book is the teacher we all need.” Sue Cheshire, Founder and former CEO of The Global Leaders Academy
“Leading by Nature gets to the heart of the shift in leadership that is now required to create a sustainable future for humanity.” – Richard Barrett, Director of the Barrett Academy for the Advancement of Human Values.
“This book is a must-read for those involved in the future of business. I can’t recommend Giles’s work highly enough.” – Norman Wolfe, CEO of Quantum Leaders and author of The Living Organization: Transforming Business To Create Extraordinary Results
“Giles Hutchins has for over a decade led the way with his championship of learning through nature. His new book is a really important evolution of these ideas emerging into a philosophy of systems thinking/being – it’s bang on the money, a really important book that will inspire all those whose role it is to champion resilience and adaptability, ethical commercial development, wellbeing in the workplace and the nurturing of a moral compass.” – Sir Tim Smit, KBE, Founder of The Eden Project

Often people ask me about what I do and the way I do it; perhaps hoping I can send them a one-pager fact-sheet that succinctly summaries with the comfort of bullet-points. In reality, what I do is difficult to boil-down into bullets, and so it’s a real gift to have one of my clients, award-winning business mentor Christine Nicholson, share in her own words her first-hand experience of journeying with me, Giles Hutchins, amid the ancient forest of Springwood Farm.
—
When babies are first born it is recognised that to really thrive they are placed on the skin of their mothers as soon as possible. The feeling of their breathing and direct contact with the skin has some quality that really makes a difference. As adults we can easily get disconnected from this connection with a life force that’s outside ourselves that is found in nature. The pressures of life crowd out the nurturing influence of the natural world. If you are living in a city it’s even harder. When was the last time you were in silence? Or without people? Or any stimulus at all?
I have no idea how I found Giles and his nature immersion experience. I just know when I needed it most, the opportunity presented itself. I was feeling disconnected, lacking confidence and wondering what ‘purpose’ was. Surrounded by business owners who spoke about finding purpose being the big thing for them, I was struggling to find that kind of connection. In fact I think I was at the lowest ebb of energy I have ever been at. I wondered what the point of life was, not just the point of my business or any other aspect of life. It would be easy to say I was in a pit of self-pity but that was not the case. I knew there was a way of living that I was not experiencing but I didn’t know how to get there. It was like being outside of a great house party and not being able to find the door to get in.
For 2 years I had been in a business that was not serving my needs but I felt stuck and didn’t want to walk away without having a clear idea of what I was going to do next. I was clearly miserable. My confidence was diminishing every day. I was lost. My first session with Giles was a literal breath of fresh air. The forest was like having a 3rd person in the session. In one afternoon I felt like a reviving breath was forced into my lungs. It was the first lifting of a burden I hadn’t been conscious of carrying.
One afternoon didn’t “fix” everything but it did help me realise that something needed to change and it wasn’t waving a magic wand that would solve the problem. It was the first step on the journey. And it started with looking inside myself, becoming aware that it is my life and I can choose. The first walk in the forest made me ready for my “solo” – an overnight experience in Giles’s forest.
When I explained to friends about the solo, they all thought I was mad. “Aren’t you scared?” Asked one. On the surface of it I was going into a forest with a tent and nothing else and I am sure that a few people’s first thought was of all the horror films they’ve seen! The reality was quite different. Once you have pitched your tent and got ready for the evening ahead, your brain is looking for things to do. With no phone, books or other stimulus it takes about an hour for the busyness of the brain to slow down. Then the magic happens as you start to ‘feel’ the forest as a living entity. It is peaceful yet constantly moving – the wind in the trees, the wildlife moving in the vicinity (but never really close, other forest occupants tend to leave you alone), the settling of the dew – it’s the equivalent of your own home in the still of the night.
“What do you do?” is a common question. Being alone with your thoughts can be a challenge for many people. Myself included. Though I live alone and am used to solitude, I realised I have filled my time with work and other busyness. I never let my brain settle, I rarely have a moment of stillness. The answer to the question is you start to notice things in the natural setting that you would not have seen before. Hear the birds sing and notice when they stop because they are sleeping. Hear and feel the wind in the trees and the stillness when it stops or pauses. See the wildlife wander through the flora, stopping when they become aware of you and moving on when they feel safe. I imagined I could hear mushrooms growing in the forest floor – though I know logically that my hearing is really not that sharp. And, of course, you sleep. On my first solo I slept in several short bursts, only waking when I moved in my sleeping bag and my body being aware that I wasn’t in my normal bed. In subsequent solos I had long, deeper periods of sleep, making sure I had the right kit as well as embracing the feeling of safety in the experience.
The sense of isolation left me almost immediately as I started to lean into feeling connected to nature and myself. My clarity of thinking came into sharp focus and I allowed myself to really examine why I had felt disconnected. Guided by Giles’s gentle questioning and the meditation we did together before leaving me on my own, I made some changes to the way I viewed the world, asked questions of myself and challenged the assumptions I had lived my life by for the previous decades. Change started here. Shedding some of the unnecessary burdens I carried was the first step. The work continues and is easier as time goes on.
One thing I have learned is that life is lived in seasons, not just in the calendar year but throughout the years of living. Nothing blooms all year round and there are periods of growth, decay and hibernation – out of which a new Spring comes. Looking back I was always looking for the Spring and Summer without recognising I needed the reset of Autumn and Winter. My drive for constant achievement was exhausting and I didn’t know how to slow down, pause and restart. My nature immersion experiences, in all the seasons, have allowed me to slow down to enable me to be ready for the next phase of growth.
It’s been 18 months – 3 solos, 6 half day sessions – my life and thinking has changed enormously. I’m enjoying life, have better relationships and more balance between my personal and business life. When I started this journey with Giles my way of thinking was “It’s not that I want to die, I’m just not sure I can be bothered with living”, which reading this back sounds so sad and desperate. Yet I felt more apathy than anguish. Now I have a gently joyful view of life I have never felt before. I have a better understanding of myself and greater awareness of how I connect and communicate with others. I feel at peace with myself and that is driving a more energetic approach to living. My business has doubled in size without feeling like I am on a hamster wheel. And I am getting out in nature on a daily basis and really seeing, hearing and feeling more of the natural world even when I am in the city.
Article by, Christine Nicholson
For more on Giles Hutchins’s nature immersions see here.
Giles Hutchins’ latest book Leading by Nature can be found here

The time has come for Leading by Nature
The new-norm in business demands a new-norm in leadership: a leadership consciousness that cultivates organizational cultures able to adapt and evolve during unceasing transformation in ways that create flourishing for all.
This involves a massive call to a life-centric OD and the capacity to model Leading By Nature where we embody, in our being, what OD has historically referred to as ‘the self as instrument of change.’
Giles Hutchins’ latest book Leading by Nature is packed full of powerful practices, tools and case studies to help leaders become future-fit regenerative leaders. See here some recent reviews of the book:
Book Review by Jean-Claude Pierre, former CEO of chemicals company Scott Bader
What a timely and crucial book Leading by Nature is! The last two years have probably been one of the greatest catalysts to let us realize that the current way of affairs is doom to fail in so many respects. Most leaders and companies have started to initiate major shifts to adapt and thrive. But is it always done with the appropriate level of consciousness to really ensure the future fitness of their organizations?
In this very rich book, Giles Hutchins explore with research-based concepts, practical tools and real-life implementations, what it takes to become “natural sensors” of our surroundings, and for those at the helm of organizations, or having this desire, to help them become “Chief Ecosystem Officers”.
As Giles highlights, this transformative journey of becoming a regenerative leader, more able to apprehend constructively dissonances and tensions as crucibles for learning, able to define when and how to best listen or act while being in line with one’s deeper nature is not easy. Many of us sense this need in today’s world but lack the how to. And hence the importance of this book.
This book is the first one I’ve come across to-date that has so many practical and proven methods to help leaders operate more authentically, and as Giles says: “it is worth it”, not only for individuals to help them unfold their true nature and be more purposeful, but also for organization to better perform now and in the future. As Giles mentions, “Global research shows that the shareholder returns of living-organizations consistently outperform their mechanistic counterparts, especially through volatile times”.
And as volatile times are the new norm for many years to come, better be well equipped. This book is thoroughly recommended.

Book review by Fellow of Cambridge University’s Sustainable Leadership Program and Global Sustainability Director of A T Kearney, Oliver Dudok van Heel:
I’ve had the pleasure of reading Giles Hutchins latest book, Leading by Nature.
Expectations were high given Giles’ excellent earlier work, and it did not disappoint.
Giles’ unique contribution to the sustainability agenda is his ability to bring together a range of disciplines and apply them to transforming organisations towards a more sustainable journey. Quantum science is woven together with spiral dynamics, organisational behaviour and human psychology to define a compelling change paradigm.
This is not accidental and Giles’ ability to understand systems and what is required to shift them is compelling. Emotional, somatic, rational and intuitive approaches to understanding the world are woven together, reminiscent of Ken Wilbur’s AQAL philosophy.
All is grounded on a great clarity of thought around what is needed for genuine change, at the level of organisations and the systems these organisations operate in.
And while Leading by Nature is about organisational change, it is really targeted at those individuals who have the passion to make this change happen: Leaders, whether by title, or because of a sense of personal responsibility compels them to become changemakers.
It is a book that can take each of us on a personal journey of transformation to equip us to become part of the external transformation.

Book review by Founding Partner of Gameshift and former Director at Ashridge Hult International Business School, Dr Chris Nichols:
We’ve probably all noticed what Giles calls the “rising zeitgeist around regeneration”. Regenerative leadership, and regenerative organisations, are a movement whose time seems to have arrived. I personally couldn’t be more delighted. This is a shift the world needs, and Giles has written a valuable, authoritative book to guide people on that shift. Giles has done a brilliant job, and I recommend the book very highly to everyone in my network.
It’s easy to be cynical about books that look like they might be riding the wave of a fad – and this one could be taken that way – except I know for a fact it isn’t. I’ve known Giles for a long time, since his Big 4 consulting days, and since he quit to work on his first book many years back. I remember long walks on Dartmoor with Giles talking over deep ecology, organisational theory and the juicy edges of new thinking. This was at a time when taking this work into the mainstream of organisational life felt far off indeed. I know that Giles is not riding a fad. Giles has done the work and carries this insight in his bones. When you approach this book, you can approach it with the confidence of knowing that this author has really walked this path, and has walked it with others in your shoes. It’s the real deal.
Giles describes this regenerative approach as “completely natural and radically different”. Yes, it is. And it’s an idea whose time has come. This book is well worth your time.
Book review by regenerative practitioner and author Sarah Spencer:
I’ve just finished reading Leading by Nature by Giles Hutchins, and here’s a review for anyone thinking of investing in this excellent book.
To be future-fit, every organisation will need to embrace the way of thinking and acting outlined in this book. Leading by Nature is comprehensive in its approach, with theory, stages of the regenerative journey, and references to specific tools that Giles recommends when working with leaders and teams. It’s a must-have manual for any leader seeking the next phase on their journey of self and organisational development.
The book demonstrates how a regenerative, nature-inspired transition will require both the inner and outer natures of leaders and their teams to be addressed. Leadership consciousness must shift from achiever to regenerative. Case studies share where leaders are breaking new ground, transforming their organisations for people, planet and purpose will give confidence to any leader considering embarking on this journey.
Giles does not shy away from the enormity of the task, that there will be no shortcuts in this transition, and that leaders must step into the discomfort that embracing complexity brings, becoming facilitators and enablers of teams who may or may not want more autonomy, and creating the conditions conducive to new and exciting evolutions, be that in products, services or ways of working.
Nature shows us that tensions must occur (and even be encouraged) to ensure emergence, adaptability and evolution. For the leader that may seem difficult to manage, but Giles shares insights and tools for allowing that to happen.
Bringing us back to nature, he states “The other side of all this complexity is that beautiful simplicity. Let’s work the way life works!”. Indeed we must trust that this process works because it has served us for 3.8billion years of life so far.
Accepting a worldview shift from machine to living-systems will be difficult, but the rewards are huge. Just one springs to mind – the shift from parent-child relationship of ‘boss/employee’ to parent-parent relationship in the living-systems organisation. Just imagine the transformation if every employee were empowered as part of a decentralised and autonomous, multi-disciplinary team. Imagine the potential that would be unleashed.
Unlike some authors in the regenerative sphere, Giles keeps the references to living systems alive in every stage of the book, allowing reader to see their importance and relevance. It is this constant reference to living systems that will ensure that an organisation succeeds on their journey even when times are difficult.
I highly recommend this to anyone – leader or team-member who sees that the current business systems aren’t working, either for people or for the other living beings we share our planet with, and wants to know what they can do about it.

Book review by regenerative leadership coach Katherine Long:
Reviewing Giles Hutchins latest book reminds me of the time we first met, now nearly a decade ago at an event he was running at Ashridge Hult International Business School on the ‘Deep Ecology of Business’ that coincided with a conference that I was attending. I booked myself to stay an extra day – what was not to love about that session title!!
Since then, we’ve stayed in touch and it’s been a real joy to have this friendship and occasionally co-facilitate nature immersions together for leaders and practitioners, and I celebrate the increasing global reach and impact that Giles is having – bringing regenerative practice and living systems thinking to a world that so desperately needs it.
His latest book ‘Leading by Nature’ introduces a new audience to leadership development theory in ways which are practical and relatable whilst inviting the reader into a much more intimate relationship to self, work, and regenerative possibility.
Some great case studies and tools illustrate how achievable the regenerative pathway can be over time and with vision and commitment, and it’s been a huge privilege to be involved in collaborating with Giles in one of them, Vivobarefoot where I’ve been helping develop a circle of internal Livebarefoot coaches (big shout out to them and all the great work they are doing to help embed regenerative principles in everyday conversations, and to Damian Peat for his holding and nurturing of this expanding group!).
I hope Leading by Nature gets into the hands of many business leaders – especially those who are wondering if there could be a different, more humane and life-affirming way – there certainly is.
“True to form, this latest book of Giles’ is an ambitious, encyclopaedic synthesis of many sources of wisdom, all grounded in Giles’ own experience coaching and consulting with executives. Yet just as characteristic, it is a beautifully accessible book, easy to read and hard to put down. It is my fervent hope that many will read it, take its message to heart, and put its guidance into action.”– Michelle Holliday, Principal Consultant of Cambium Consulting & author of The Age of Thriveability
“Giles has given us yet another timely gift – a detailed and superbly practical guide to the leadership consciousness and practices we so badly need in business, government, education and society at large today. It’s rare to find a ‘teacher of teachers’ that explains and illustrates all aspects of the journey with the clarity and down-to-earth accessibility of this book!” – Dimitar Vlahov, Advisory Board Member of Sustainable Brands & Integrate
You can purchase the book either direct from the publishers Wordzworth or from Amazon and other channel
You can also listen to the podcast series where Giles Hutchins interviews CEOs of pioneering organizations pushing the envelope toward life-affirming regenerative business, here at Leading by Nature.
“Leading by Nature is a powerful book for people who are serious about regenerative change” – Pamela Mang, co-founder of Regenesis Institute & co-author of Regenerative Development and Design
“Giles’s new book Leading by Nature is bang on the money, a really important book.” – Sir Tim Smit, KBE, Founder of The Eden Project
Author of four previous books, Giles Hutchins, draws upon over 25 years experience in leadership and organizational development, and over a decade executive leadership coaching and regenerative leadership practice to apply a living-systems approach to next-stage future-fit business. His latest book Leading by Nature is a must-read for leaders interested in leading thriving organizations amid the increasingly volatile times ahead.
For regenerative leadership, organizational development or practitioner coaching with Giles, visit his website here — see some recent client reviews here.
Leading by Nature book, podcast and free-to-download tools can be found here.
A short video about Giles’s regenerative leadership immersions:
Dealing with our disconnection
The real problem underlying the myriad challenges we face today, is the problem of disconnection, and returning to a deeper sense of connectedness. Connection across self-other-world: connecting into our deeper truer-nature, connecting more authentically with each other, and connecting to life itself in all its fullness. This article shares some insights around this challenge of disconnection and re-connection.
At the age of 50 I realise that well over half my life has been spent working in business. For the most part as Head of Business Transformation for KPMG, then as Global Head of Sustainability for the multinational IT services provider, Atos, with over 100,000 employees internationally. In both roles I found myself helping all manner of organizations through various transformations, from chemical companies to charities, from manufacturing plants to medical bio-techs, all facing similar challenges of dealing with change upon change. Since leaving corporate life over a decade ago, I’ve engaged with hundreds of leaders and organizations as a coach and sounding-board to help them through myriad shifts towards becoming regenerative. (see here these recent podcast series with some of these clients).
It has been for many more decades of my life that I have felt, deeply in my heart, that underpinning our plethora of problems – whether it be rising mental illness through to rampant consumerism, or rising climate change through to the widespread destruction of life on Earth – there is a root source; a root problem that spawns the downstream effects of consumerism, individualism, rationalism, capitalism, anthropocentrism, and the like. It is a disease of the psyche – one might say a crisis of spirit. It is due to a profound mental dislocation of self-identity from nature. With the risk of trying to define something fluid, complex and inter-relational, which is itself part of the problem, it is commonly described as fragmentation or disconnection: disconnection within ourselves (our deeper sense of selfhood), disconnection from each other (the relational nature of our communality), and disconnection from Nature, Life and Universe.
This disconnection manifests in our inner and outer worlds in varying ways. In our outer world it manifests in the stories we tell ourselves about how we think the world works and our sense of place and purpose within it. Our mythologies, cosmologies and worldviews influence our socio-economic narrative, which in turn influences the way we behave in business, politics and beyond. Enter dog-eat-dog red-in-tooth-and-claw hyper-competitive capitalism, where we exploit others through business transactions for short-term gain, leaving the world polluted and poorer.
‘Greed, envy, sloth, pride and gluttony: these are not vices anymore. No, these are marketing tools. Lust is our way of life. Envy is just a nudge towards another sale. Even in our relationships we consume each other, each of us looking for what we can get out of the other. Our appetites are often satisfied at the expense of those around us. In a dog-eat-dog world we lose part of our humanity.’ – Jon Foreman
In our inner world, this disconnection manifests in how we attend to each evolving moment in our midst, and the perceptual filters and constrictions we habituate and acculturate. These habituations and acculturations are influenced by, and also influence, the outer narrative or worldview we tell ourselves about how the world works. As the philosopher Richard Tarnas eloquently notes:
‘Our world view is not simply the way we look at the world. It reaches inward to constitute our innermost being, and outward to constitute the world. It mirrors but also reinforces and even forges the structures, armorings, and possibilities of our interior life. It deeply configures our psychic and somatic experience, the patterns of our sensing, knowing, and interacting with the world. No less potently, our world view – our beliefs and theories, our maps, our metaphors, our myths, our interpretive assumptions – constellates our outer reality, shaping and working the world’s malleable potentials in a thousand ways of subtly reciprocal interaction. World views create worlds.’
It seems that we are individually and collectively participating in an inner-outer worldview which – according to the scientific evidence now available to us – is rapidly undermining our own well-being and the very fabric of life on Earth. Something is deeply flawed. This disconnection is wreaking havoc.
The time to address this flawed way of attending and flawed worldview appears to be upon us. We are living through an epochal moment in our human history, what former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moo refers to as Great Transition where, he says, ‘the decisions we make will have a deeper and more lasting impact than perhaps any other set of decisions in recent decades’. This is a time of simultaneous breakdown/breakthrough, a supreme moment within which we must act consciously and coherently to avoid catastrophe.
The contemporary philosopher Joseph Milne notes that, ‘there is a tendency in our age to rush to change the manifest effects of wrong actions without seriously considering the root causes.’ This tendency is built-in to the dis-connected mind-set which creates the problems in the first place. We filter our perception of life through a polarizing reductive filter that separates ‘things’ into siloes, objects and others. We then seek fixes to the problems created by this logic, by applying the same mechanistic perspective that created the problems in the first place. And so we fail to reach beyond the symptoms, often unwittingly exacerbating the very situation we are trying to solve.
Einstein’s overly-used and heavily-hackneyed insight – we cannot change our problems with the same level of consciousness that created them in the first place – is a perfect insight for the manifold problems we face and our way beyond them. Yet, so often we find ourselves doing just this, and we simply don’t have time for this anymore. It’s time to get radical and deal with the root cause, our now pathological disconnectedness.
In this TEDx talk I gave a few years back I explore the vital Revolution in Consciousness from disconnection into reconnection:
And this is where leadership comes in.
Leadership is essentially about creating the conditions conducive for ourselves and others to continually deepen our understanding of how the world works, in so doing deepening our sense of place and purpose within the world, and understanding how best to create and deliver value while shaping a viable future. This imperative to call forth a viable future for all of humanity and the wider fabric of life on Earth is, I believe, an inherent quality of Homo sapiens (wise beings). While we may unwittingly do a great job of distracting ourselves from real wisdom, there is something within our kernel of selfhood that impels us to deepen into this wisdom as we explore life-affirming futures.
It reminds me of George Bernard Shaw’s insight,
‘We are made wise not by the recollections of our past but by the responsibility of our future.’
Here’s a short talk I gave about our way through this illusion of separation, and how we attune with Wisdom innate within Life:
It’s increasingly apparent that the critical problems facing our planet and society can’t be resolved with the same fragmented and disconnected thinking that created the problems in the first place. The source of our current social, economic and environmental ills springs from the inherent flaws in how we see and construct the world.
These challenging times are demanding that we evolve our worldview into one that is more in-tune with life on Earth, one that is more wise, more connected, more real. Life on Earth is actually showing us how to evolve if we so choose to see. Hence my latest book Leading by Nature which goes right to the heart of this worldview shift to inspire practices, tools and techniques that help our leaders and organizations contribute to life-affirming futures.

We are living through a once-in-a-civilization moment marked by great upheaval, where the breakdown of global systems has become impossible to ignore, and signs of breakthrough are starting to emerge. How we place each step of change informs this metamorphic moment, either aiding our evolution or sowing our own demise.
How we attend to the world shapes our world and in turn shapes us. The time has come to wake up to who we truly are, while tuning-in to how life really is.
Regenerative Leadership Coach and Adviser Giles Hutchins’s latest book and podcast series Leading by Nature, along with tools and techniques, can be found here: https://gileshutchins.com/leadingbynature/

Feel free to join the LinkedIn Leadership Immersions group here https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13767578/