Embracing Change: The Path to Regenerative Leadership and the need for internal transformation

In an era where businesses are increasingly expected to be stewards of environmental sustainability and social equity, the concept of regenerative leadership has emerged as the harbinger of transformative change. This movement is not just about mitigating harm but about businesses playing an active role in restoring, rejuvenating and regenerating the planet and its people. At its heart, this requires a profound shift in internal mindsets, structures, and cultures within organizations.

The Call for Net-Positive Impact and onward to toward Regenerative Business

The notion of creating a net-positive impact—where businesses contribute more to the world than they take—has been gaining traction. Inspired by visionaries and bolstered by the heightened global consciousness arising from challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis, and social inequalities, companies big and small are now aspiring to align their operations with regenerative principles based on how living-systems work. From global giants like IKEA to trailblazers like Vivobarefoot, a shared understanding is emerging: true regeneration requires a deep internal transformation.

The Journey of Vivobarefoot

Vivobarefoot's story exemplifies the regenerative journey. Founded with the mission to connect people closer to nature through minimalist footwear, the company faced the harsh reality that achieving its vision required more than just innovative products; it necessitated a radical internal transformation. As Galahad Clark , Vivobarefoot's CEO & co-founder, reflected on the company's evolution, it became evident that aligning the team's inner landscapes with its vision was a prerequisite for making a meaningful impact.

Leadership Immersions: Connecting with Inner-Outer Nature

A pivotal aspect of Vivobarefoot’s transformation has been leader immersions  and team days at Springwood Farm in West Sussex, a practice designed to help the organizational culture and its people connect to nature and understand the organization-as-a-living-system. Rather than seeing the organization as a mechanical entity, learnings from living-systems are applied to enable a regenerative culture; one that is developmental, Emergent & Evolutionary. Author and coach Giles Hutchins’ approach to regenerative leadership emphasizes the integration of everyday interactions with deeper purpose, moving beyond mechanistic views of business operations.

Regenerative Leadership

At the core of regenerative leadership lies the principle of attuning with the natural world, embodying a mindset that recognizes organizations as vibrant ecosystems of human relationships, and realizing that inner-nature and outer-nature can work in-harmony for agility, authenticity and resilience. Hutchins highlights the shift from a mechanistic to a regenerative mindset, critiquing the traditional compartmentalization within businesses and advocating for a more holistic, interconnected approach that creates organizations which are ever-learning, agile and future-fit.

The Vivo Way: A Case Study for Regenerative Organizational Culture

Vivobarefoot’s internal transformation, dubbed 'The Vivo Way,' provides a practical framework for embedding regenerative principles into the fabric of an organization. This approach encompasses clear governance, agility, a culture of embedding purpose in daily work, and that is responsive to feedback. A significant part of this transformation involved more self-management, a redefining roles and responsibilities, inviting staff to bring their whole selves to work, and the encouragement of a coaching culture.

Embracing Complexity for Entrepreneurial Success

Despite the complexities and challenges of adopting a regenerative organizational culture, Vivobarefoot’s experience highlights the potential for significant growth and innovation. The company’s journey underscores the possibility of aligning business success with a profound commitment to sustainability and social impact, paving the way for a future where businesses contribute actively to the health and well-being of the planet.

Clark says that although most can see the benefits of this way of working, traditional business norms often involve “clinging to what we are comfortable with”.

“I am surprised every day…the most surprising thing is probably seeing people coming into the business from bigger organizations with more top-down hierarchy in roles and needing to let go of this. A lot of people have spent their career feeling they are climbing up a ladder and they don’t want to be told to step down, even if it is to walk across the hall and start climbing a different ladder. It’s certainly not easy. In many ways, it’s a more complex path.”

Yet taking this path has clearly opened opportunities for VivoBarefoot to become a more entrepreneurial business. It recorded a 36% year-on-year growth in revenue in 2022 and announced numerous new innovation streams. For example, it is in the final stages of preparing to launch bespoke shoes this year, created using 3D scanning and printing, under an innovation known as ‘Vivobiome’. It is also going beyond products by offering health assessments, courses and coaching known as ‘VivoHealth’.  For a detailed case study on Vivobarefoot and also other regenerative leadership cases and applied practices, see Hutchins’ latest book Leading by Nature, the book which CEO of Weleda, Jayn Sterland calls THE handbook for Regenerative Business.

Conclusion: The Regenerative Imperative

The transition towards regenerative business practices represents a critical evolution in the role of businesses in society. It challenges leaders to rethink not just their operational practices but their very purpose and impact on the world. As businesses like Vivobarefoot demonstrate, this path, while demanding, offers a promising avenue for organizations to not only thrive economically but to play a crucial role in the regeneration of our planet and society.

This journey is not a solitary one but part of a growing movement towards sustainability, responsibility and for-purpose entrepreneurialism. It calls for leaders willing to challenge the status quo, to learn from nature, and to reimagine what it means to be successful in the modern world. The shift to regenerative practices is an invitation to business leaders everywhere: to change themselves, to change their organizations, and ultimately, to change the business world so that we start to work with the grain of nature rather than against it.

This article is abridged from an earlier article by Sarah George at Edie, available here.

Changing yourself to change the world: How can you become a regenerative business leader? - edie

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