What if leading innovation relied less on external advancements, and more on nurturing the inner conditions that regenerate people, communities and systems over time?
Nature shows us that renewal happens when the conditions are ripe. In Australia, many native plants release seeds only after the heat of a cool burn, sprouting in ash-rich soil. Decaying leaves become food for microbes that restore vitality to the ground. Mangroves, fish and crabs sustain one another through symbiotic exchange. As Janine Benyus, co-founder of the Biomimicry Institute, reminds us, “life creates conditions conducive to life” (Benyus, 1997). Ecosystems not only adapt and co-evolve but continually generate the diversity, resilience and vitality on which all life depends.
This offers a powerful metaphor for leading change within the systems we are a part of. Just as nature thrives through reciprocal relationships, organisations and teams can foster creativity, adaptability and renewal by cultivating the deeper foundations that allow both leadership and innovation to grow. The challenge and opportunity for leaders today is not only to look outward for strategies, but to nurture the relational, cultural and inner dynamics that enable new possibilities to emerge.
From mechanistic to living systems thinking
Much of modern organisational practice is rooted in a mechanistic mindset – seeing the world as parts, objects and transactions. This way of thinking tends to frame solutions as linear fixes, optimised for efficiency. While this worldview has produced extraordinary achievements, it struggles to navigate the interdependence and volatility of today’s complex challenges, and it has driven patterns of growth that push us beyond planetary boundaries.
A living-systems mindset, by contrast, recognises the world as nested wholes, shaped by interdependent relationships and evolving processes. This represents an ontological shift—a different way of being and perceiving in the world. Rather than placing humans above all other forms of life, it sees us as inseparable and interwoven within the web of life itself. This perspective is grounded in many Indigenous wisdom traditions that hold reverence for all of life as foundational.
Otto Scharmer (2009) describes this as moving from ego-centric to eco-centric awareness. As we expand from ego-centric to eco-centric ways of perceiving, leadership and innovation arise from a deeper alignment with living systems, grounded in relationship and respect.
Pamela Mang, co-founder of the Regenesis Institute, describes regeneration as “growing the capability of living beings—humans, communities, ecosystems—to co-evolve toward ever higher orders of diversity, complexity, creativity, and life” (Mang & Haggard, 2016, p. 113), highlighting regeneration as an ongoing process of mutual growth.
A living systems perspective sees organisations not as machines but as adaptive, evolving ecosystems. This opens up new possibilities—enabling regenerative and relational ways of working, building resilience and foresight, and fostering the capacity to thrive in volatile environments while creating long-term value for stakeholders and society.
It’s not uncommon for workplaces to operate through a mindset that values people primarily for output and efficiency. This lens is restrictive, often leading to burnout, diminishing creativity and generating solutions that optimise parts while overlooking the whole. Seeing organisations as communities of relationships, where trust, collaboration, and adaptability are the foundations of success, teams not only perform better but also create healthier, more life-giving cultures.
Innovation as reflection of worldviews
Innovation is rarely neutral – it emerges from the worldviews and values that give rise to it. Design philosopher Anne-Marie Willis puts it this way:
“We design our world, while our world acts back on us and designs us” (Willis, 2006).
Every artefact, service or system embodies the beliefs and assumptions of its creators, while also shaping the culture that produced it through daily interactions and behaviours.
Consider the mobile phone. What began as a simple communication tool has profoundly reshaped our attention, behaviours and relationships. Devices now mediate how we socialise, relate and grow up, while also transforming memory and the everyday rhythms of our lives.
Artificial intelligence brings deeper questions: how do we shape technology and how does it shape us? The systems we create not only change how we work, they also mirror our ways of seeing and being. If approached solely as instruments of efficiency, AI risks narrowing creativity and outsourcing our capacities. But if engaged with consciously, it can invite reflection on the kind of intelligence we most want to cultivate, opening pathways for more life-affirming patterns.
Innovation, then, is not only about creating products or services, but also about examining the mindsets and worldviews from which they emerge. Donella Meadows (1999) reminds us that shifting a system at the level of mindset offers one of the highest leverage points for transformation. Cultivating inner awareness becomes inseparable from shaping meaningful change.
The role of inner awareness
Conscious leadership and innovation require more than technical skill and expertise; they call for ongoing awareness and development. The ability to pause, sense and respond rather than react is a vital capacity.
Pamela Mang writes:
“Working regeneratively starts with being able to ‘see’ with fresh eyes. Ecological and pattern literacy are empty toolboxes if you can’t see how your own thinking patterns keep you from seeing in new ways. So another capability to work on developing is the capability to notice how your own thinking works – to see how hidden assumptions and beliefs lock you into old ways of seeing.” (2016)
In practice, this means learning to notice our thinking as it arises. Cultivating presence, becoming aware of patterns of thought and reflecting on the assumptions that shape our actions are ongoing practices that expand our capacity to work in ways that renew vitality.
Shifting from control to emergence
As pressures increase from economic uncertainty, geopolitical volatility, environmental limits and rapid technological change, the instinct can often be to tighten control. Leaders and teams may have a tendency to default to what they know, relying on managing complexity through linear responses. However, this approach risks repeating old patterns, producing more of the same and shutting down opportunities for learning.
The changing landscape calls for letting go of what is degenerative to compost, so that new possibilities can grow. A growth mindset, coupled with the courage to see change as an evolutionary process, enables us to stay open and curious. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report (2025) highlights that the most in-demand human capacities in the workforce are creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, agility, leadership and lifelong learning.
What if, instead of reacting from fear, we could pause, lean in and listen more deeply – whole-heartedly, with presence and awareness? By tuning into the signals in our bodies and in the wider system before responding, we gain greater access clarity in decision making and to the wisdom available in any situation. In this way, we can meet complexity with openness and acceptance, allowing emergence to occur. Innovation flourishes not when we impose control, but when we enable new patterns to arise.
Cultivating Change Through Practice
So you may be asking, how do we cultivate such conditions? From a regenerative lens, innovation grows from living practices that evolve as we evolve with our systems. The Inside-Out Dojo is a monthly practice space for leaders, changemakers and teams to ground, reconnect and strengthen the capacities needed to navigate complexity. Through embodied and systemic approaches, each session nurtures the inner ground from which resilience, creativity and presence can thrive.
In the dojo, we practise embodied presence, self-regulation, relational intelligence, creativity, systems sensing and regenerative leadership – capabilities essential for collaboration, innovation and adaptive leadership. A dedicated practice space offers the container to unlearn, learn and grow together. The Inside-Out Dojo is an invitation to cultivate clarity, connection and agility, enabling people and organisations to flourish in times of change.
Find out more about the Inside-Out Dojo and register here.
References
Benyus, J. (1997) Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. New York: HarperCollins.
Mang, P. and Haggard, B. (2016) Regenerative Development and Design: A Framework for Evolving Sustainability. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Meadows, D. (1999) Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System. Hartland, VT: The Sustainability Institute.
Scharmer, O. (2009) Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.
Willis, A-M. (2006) ‘Ontological designing’, Design Philosophy Papers, 4(2), pp. 69–92. doi:10.2752/144871306X13966268131514.
