Regenerative Leadership: The Foundational Shift for Thriving Organizations and a Living Planet
How Ancestral Philosophies and Systems Science Forged a New Paradigm
We live in a polycrisis era—climate disruption, social fragmentation, and economic volatility have exposed the bankruptcy of 20th-century leadership models. Yet within this upheaval lies an invitation: regenerative leadership, a paradigm that synthesizes ancestral wisdom and living systems science to transform organizations from engines of depletion into forces of renewal. This is not abstract idealism; it’s an evolutionary response to converging failures. To understand its power, we must trace its roots—a tapestry woven from Indigenous stewardship, African humanism, and ecological systems thinking.
The Ethical Bedrock: Indigenous and African Wisdom
Regenerative leadership draws profound inspiration from philosophies that long predate modern management theory.
The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Seventh-Generation Principle originated over 500 years ago within the Great Law of Peace. It mandated that every decision—whether about hunting, farming, or community governance—be weighed against its impact seven generations into the future (approximately 175 years). This was not a metaphor, but practical governance: leaders were appointed as “seed planters” responsible for intergenerational well-being, embodying what Robin Wall Kimmerer calls “being ancestors to the future.”
Simultaneously, Southern Africa’s Ubuntu philosophy—expressed in the Zulu maxim “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” (I am because we are)—rejected Western individualism. Ubuntu frames identity as relational: human flourishing depends on communal reciprocity, where “a person is a person through other persons”. In practice, this means that leadership becomes an act of co-creation rather than command: decisions are made through dialogue, resources are shared equitably, and accountability is mutual. By centering interconnectedness and collective care, Ubuntu offers a powerful ethical foundation for regenerative leadership—one that honors the well-being of the whole system, cultivates trust across diverse stakeholders, and nurtures resilience through solidarity.
The Scientific Catalyst: Living Systems Theory
While Indigenous and African wisdom provided ethical foundations, 20th-century systems science revealed why these philosophies worked.
Biologist Lynn Margulis proved that evolution advances through cooperation—like microbial symbiosis creating complex cells. A visionary, Margulis challenged the mainstream interpretation of Darwin’s theory of evolution, ‘survival of the fittest,’ demonstrating instead the critical role of cooperation and symbiosis. Through decades of meticulous research, she showed that evolution’s true engine was cooperation, not competition. Margulis demonstrated how primitive organisms merged to survive, proving that collaboration creates capabilities greater than any single entity could achieve on its own. Her work revealed a fundamental truth: life advances through symbiotic relationships, not solitary struggle.
Donella Meadows, author of Thinking In Systems, later showed how systems (forests, economies, teams) self-regulate through feedback loops. A systems thinker who advised governments and the UN, Meadows exposed the delusion of human separateness. She argued that we habitually overestimate our control while underestimating the invisible threads binding everything together. Meadows called these ripple effects “feedback loops”—nature’s silent wiring connecting distant events. She exposed how delayed feedback loops create catastrophic failures in complex systems. Meadows’ systems thinking principles help explain how seemingly unrelated events are connected through complex system dynamics.
“We fixate on visible events, not the hidden structures that cause them," she warned. Her work demonstrated that relationships between parts are more critical than individual actions. Her famous observation that “one plus one makes a whole new reality” shatters mechanistic views of organizations, revealing them as dynamic ecosystems where relationships take precedence over rigid hierarchies.
Meanwhile, physicist Fritjof Capra articulated this idea through a compelling metaphor, viewing society as a spiderweb. We witnessed this in 2010 when BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill—initially dismissed as an “isolated drilling accident”—suffocated marine life, collapsed Gulf Coast fisheries, and devastated tourism economies 200 miles inland. Hotels, shrimp boats, and ice cream shops went bankrupt, proving Capra’s law: There are no silos in living systems. The BP spill vividly illustrated Capra’s insight: ‘Tug one strand, and the whole net trembles’.
Critically, these thinkers exposed the illusion of human separation from nature—a mindset that continues to enable the extraction of resources.
"The web of life is one; when you tug a strand, the whole net trembles". Fritjof Capra
The Permacrisis Era: Why Regeneration Can’t Wait
By the 2010s, the failures of the concept of “sustainability” had become undeniable. The UN’s well-intentioned “three pillars” model (1987) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) prioritized economic growth within ecological limits—an oxymoron that enabled the “green growth” myth. Global resource extraction has surged 65% since 1990.
"Conventional sustainability focuses on doing less harm [slowing depletion]. Regeneration demands net-positive healing" — Leah Gibbons
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed an uncomfortable truth: when faced with an existential threat, human systems can transform at breathtaking speed. Within weeks, offices emptied as remote work became standard. Supply chains pivoted to produce masks, ventilators, and other life-saving necessities, rather than their usual products (Ford, Louis Vuitton, Zara). Pharmaceutical companies, notorious for guarding intellectual property, openly shared vaccine research. The impossible became inevitable.
This paradox defines our permacrisis era: even as cascading disasters expose systemic fragility, they also illuminate our latent capacity for reinvention. The same urgency that cleared Los Angeles’ smoggy, high-traffic highways in 2020 could have been used for decarbonization decades earlier. The collaboration that created mRNA vaccines in record time exists dormant in boardrooms, industry silos, and among people—waiting to be harnessed for a more humane living expereine for all of Earth’s inhabitants and future generations. We only need the will.
Weaving Wisdom into Actionable Leadership
Regenerative leadership recognizes that crisis is both a disruptor and a catalyst. When Patagonia declared Earth its shareholder, it proved that legal structures assumed to be immutable can be rewritten. When Kenyan women’s groups transformed drought into opportunities for reforestation, they demonstrated how scarcity can give rise to innovation rather than conflict.
The question isn’t whether we can change, but whether we’ll wait for the next disaster to force our hand. The tools for transformation have existed all along. What’s missing isn’t knowledge, but the courage to act on it before the next crisis strikes. The ethical foundations of Indigenous stewardship and the scientific revelations of interconnectedness have coalesced—but a critical gap remains: How could today’s organizational leaders translate these insights into daily practice? Pioneering practitioners answered by weaving these threads into tangible frameworks for organizational transformation.
Giles Hutchins and Laura Storm emerged as seminal architects with their 2019 book Regenerative Leadership. They rejected the metaphor of organizations as machines, proposing instead that healthy enterprises mirror living organisms—something we study in Organizational Behavior. Their “DNA Model” identified five core principles:
Living Systems View: Seeing the organization as part of a nested ecosystem
Developmental Potential: Shifting from problem-solving to unleashing latent potential
Nodal Intervention: Targeting small, high-leverage actions that ripple across systems
Polycentric Flow: Distributing authority to enable adaptive responses
Reciprocal Exchange: Ensuring every transaction enriches all parties
Hutchins argued that “regeneration begins when leaders see their company not as a separate entity, but as a mycorrhizal node in life’s web.”
Concurrently, Emmanuelle Aoustin, drawing on her engineering background, crafted the “Regenerative Island” framework. This visual map depicts ten interdependent “ecosystems” that businesses must transform simultaneously to avoid hypocrisy. In Aoustin’s work, the concept of “hypocrisy” emerges as a critical lens for examining why many well-intentioned sustainability efforts fail to create meaningful change.
Aoustin argues that most organizations approach sustainability through fragmented, compartmentalized actions, such as boasting about carbon-neutral offices while maintaining exploitative supply chains, or touting DEI initiatives without addressing pay inequities. This is hypocrisy in action: claiming values without embedding them systemically. Her “Regenerative Island” model identifies 10 interconnected ecosystems to expose this dissonance.
Purpose - the organization’s fundamental reason for existing beyond profit
Business Model - how value is created and exchanged
Governance - decision-making structures and accountability
Culture - shared behaviors, values, and psychological safety
Values & Principles - core ethical foundations guiding actions
Vision & Strategy - long-term direction and implementation roadmap
Profit & Growth - financial models and success metrics
Performance Tracking - measurement and reporting systems
Ecosystemic cooperation - relationships with stakeholders and nature
Entrepreneurial Activism - willingness to challenge status quo systems
In another piece, we’ll go into the skills and qualities for regenerative leadership:
Wisdom Still Unfolding
Regenerative leadership faces valid critiques. Early frameworks often centered on Western voices, inadvertently marginalizing critical epistemologies from the Global South, such as Buen Vivir—the Andean philosophy of “Good Living” that emphasizes harmonious coexistence and collective well-being, beyond individual or economic growth. Additionally, “regen-washing” poses significant risks, with firms branding superficial sustainability practices, such as mere recycling, as regenerative while continuing to overlook worker rights, systemic exploitation, and deeper ecological impacts. Establishing more explicit criteria and accountability standards is essential to distinguishing authentic regenerative practices from superficial branding efforts.
Yet, the paradigm is actively evolving. Regenerative frameworks are layering on more indigenous and ancient wisdom, increasingly integrating diverse worldviews such as Māori kaitiakitanga, which emphasizes the guardianship and stewardship of the environment, and Hindu dharma, underscoring the ethical duty toward harmonious living. These inclusions represent necessary steps toward greater global inclusivity.
Ultimately, regenerative leadership isn’t an abstract theory but a lived testament to our deep interdependence with the living world. It calls on leaders to become stewards of intergenerational well-being—planting trees whose shade they may never enjoy and designing organizations built to flourish long after they’ve moved on. In doing so, they nurture the human spirit and forge resilient communities that carry us forward, long into the future.
"The tree remembers what the seed never knew." — African Proverb
About Humans at Work
Humans at Work is our organizational consulting practice dedicated to helping organizations translate regenerative leadership into everyday reality. We partner with leaders to redesign systems, processes, and cultures so that every decision prioritizes long-term well-being, reciprocity, and ecological stewardship. Grounded in ancestral wisdom and systems science, we guide teams to unleash collective potential, embed feedback-driven learning loops, and cultivate resilient networks that thrive together—for purpose, people, and planet.