Activating Regenerative Leadership Consciousness – NATURE WORKS

A book review of Nature Works by David Lorimer.

David Lorimer is a visionary polymath who is Programme Director of the Scientific and Medical Network, Editor of Paradigm Explorer, and Chair of the Galileo Commission.

NATURE WORKS – Activating Regenerative Leadership Consciousness, by Giles Hutchins

Wordzworth, 2024, 446 pp., £25.99, p/b – ISBN 978-1-78324-31-2

Giles has written a series of important books on leadership and consciousness, and this is his most comprehensive, while also remaining accessible. He works as an executive coach, senior advisor and keynote speaker on regenerative leadership and what he calls future-fit business, facilitating formative experiences in nature with his clients.

In one of the four Forewords to the book, Dr. Carolyn Eddleston writes about her own journey and the crucial importance of spending quiet, undistracted, still time in nature that enables real connection to take place. Returning to a business context, this can enable leaders to encourage people to come from the heart and soul rather than simply the mind. They realize that they are ‘part of an intricate web of interconnected living systems; nature becomes their teacher in a living classroom.’

The 12 chapters begin with exploring the worldview shift and the journey towards regeneration, then understanding how Nature works in terms of living systems, and finally journey into right relation. The fundamental need, as many readers will agree, is for a revolution in consciousness that transcends our current limited ways of thinking as well as our sense of separation, ‘which is the very hallmark of the Western mindset that dominates business, politics, and society through much of the world today.’

In addition, Giles remarks that ‘we have entered the area of transhuman materialism and surveillance capitalism, offering counterfeit connection through commercialism,’ meaning that we are sleepwalking into what he calls technospheric totalitarianism – I agree entirely. With many diagrams and charts, Giles clearly articulates the fundamental shifts required from Mechanistic Materialism to Quantum Complexity, from self as separate to self as participatory, from organisation as machine to organisation as living system, and from a leadership dynamic of control-manage to sense-respond. Hence, our future relies on our capacity to revolutionise our consciousness and adopt a genuinely regenerative view of right relation, including sensing the inner dimension of Nature.

Giles explains the evolution of the western world view, so as to better understand our current situation dominated as it is by Mechanistic Materialism that dispensed with the Anima Mundi that we urgently need to recover – he calls this returning to Inner-Nature, and throughout the book shows an impressive grasp of key thinkers and trends. He argues that the achiever needs to become an awakener and regenerator within the business context, while also explaining the seven levels of leadership consciousness within the spiral dynamics model and drawing on other adult developmental models. We need to see through three lenses – the voice in the head, our deeper nature, and opening into the Field where Nature’s Wisdom can be directly sensed; this involves finding our bodymind coherence and opening the eye of the heart. Giles clearly explains the steps and processes involved, enriching his text with many inspiring quotations and practices.

It is essential, as he argues, that we come to understand how nature actually works, so here he explains the nature of living systems and the three levels of living systems awareness. Nature is in ceaseless transformation and relation, with permeable boundaries as well as diverse rhythms and tensions, from which emergence can arise. Giles has coached many regenerative leaders through death – rebirth metamorphoses, incorporating learning from Nature, participating within Nature, then attuning with Nature – seeing with new eyes. He expounds how we can learn from the logic of life’s seven principles, coining the term ‘panarchy’ to evoke the rhythm of life.

Nature’s Wisdom involves the three esoteric aspects of receptivity, where life is both immanent and transcendent, creativity and the interpenetration of inner and outer, and finally synchronicity where life is working with a correspondence of above and below. Overall, this involves letting go, opening in (surrender) and bringing forth or manifesting in a process or rather a journey of becoming, so that we can truly embrace life and right relation.

This takes us on to the third part of the book, embodying the mythological journey of departure, disintegrate-reintegrate, and return. We not only need an open mind and heart, but also an open will whereby through an alchemical process we can re-emerge to serve the whole – all this corresponds to the passage of the seasons, also explained symbolically. We then come to the 4 D foundational pillars for regenerative living and leading – dedication, discernment, discipline, and devotion. This is followed by the 5 E dynamics of the process of becoming: essence, energy, emergence, evolution, and enthusiasm. Giles also proposes four soul virtues of regenerative leadership in terms of balance, patience, courage, and purposefulness. We also need to cultivate soil conditions involving respect, spontaneity, gratitude, and listening.

It is an epic journey, with Giles acting as an inspirational guide, reminding us that the revolution starts in our hearts and souls, not in our heads, with how we perceive and attend to life. Aspiring leaders in all walks of life will benefit greatly from this comprehensive and very well-informed handbook.

Giles’ book Nature Works – Activating Regenerative Leadership Consciousness can be found on Amazon here  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nature-Works-Activating-Regenerative-Consciousness/dp/1783243112   as well as other book providers and all good book shops, and directly from the publisher here: https://www.wordzworth.com/sales/authorbooks?ISBN=9781783243112

“Nature Works by Giles Hutchins is a profound journey into the soul of leadership and life itself. With the wisdom of nature as a guide, it invites us to slow down, reflect, and realign with the deeper rhythms of the world around us. This book is more than a read, it’s a spiritual awakening that transforms how we see ourselves, our work, and our place in the collective whole.”  Veronique Letellier, Co-Founder of Butterfly School, Head of Culture & Innovation, AXA Climate

‘This is so much more than a book! Its wisdom in text, conveying a richness of life beyond words. Truly profound – in fact, life-changing. Read it!’  Independent Amazon review

In reading Nature Works one is daring to enter the dark places of wisdom. To not only grapple with the root cause of our schizoid society which is carcinogenically corrupting our humanity, but to heal it. To renew and revision humanity’s relationship with wisdom, and ensure our regenerative endeavours are rooted in the rhizome of real Life.

For more on coaching with Giles, visit his website here.

To sign-up for free content, newsletters & whitepapers go to https://gileshutchins.com/newsletter-subscribe/

To take part in a special 2-day Immersion at Springwood Farm on 12th/13th May with Giles, see https://thenatureofbusiness.org/2025/01/11/future-fit-leadership-for-a-transforming-world-two-day-deep-dive-leadership-immersion-12-13-may-2025/

Feedback from a recent immersion with Giles:

‘The immersion at Springwood with Giles was very powerful, thought-provoking, energising and soul-touching. I’m still strongly feeling the ripples from our time, many days after, and have already started some conversations which could be life-changing as a result.  Thank you Giles! Highly recommended!’   Jules O’Donnell, Founder – talking CAT consulting

About Giles Hutchins  –Thirty years of professional advisory & leadership experience, formerly Director of Business Transformation & Head of Practice with KPMG, and Global Director of Sustainability Solutions for multinational Atos (150,000 employees across 42 countries), last 12 yrs as Executive Coach, thought leader and advisor on future-fit leadership. Author of six critically acclaimed leadership books and several leadership papers. His coaching work has been called ‘life changing’. Clients include Unilever, P&G, Deloitte, McKinsey, AXA, McCain, Vivobarefoot, Ella’s Kitchen, Pukka Herbs, PwC, Coop, Budgens, Sainsbury, Cook, B Lab, Fairtrade, Rabobank, Impact International, World Benchmarking Alliance, Aviva, BBC, BP, Angel Investments, BNP Paribas, Cap Gemini, Chloe, Richemont, Cambridge University, EQT, INSEAD, Hult Business School, HEC, Lang O’Rouke, IKEA, Bahlsen, BMW, Grant Thornton, HSBC, Sky Media, and many more. Find out more about his coaching here https://gileshutchins.com/coaching/