Rooted in nature: can regenerative leadership transform PR agencies?

Ever thought about modelling your company on a colony of ants? Or having a two-minute silence at the start of every meeting? By using the principles of regenerative leadership many PR firms are starting to see some real benefits. So, what exactly is regenerative leadership – and why are businesses talking about it now?

Broadly speaking, regenerative leadership is a framework for redesigning organisations so they’re run more ethically in a way that benefits people and the environment. There’s one crucial difference: it takes its cues from the natural world. 

First emerging as a term around 15 years ago, regenerative leadership has been popularised in recent years by transformation expert Giles Hutchins, who has a long list of what’s wrong with businesses today: 

"Our production systems are based on a linear, take-make-waste approach,” he writes on his website. “Our financial systems are based on short-term profit maximization that ignore life and debase human integrity. Our organizational systems are dominated by hyper-competition, power-and-control hierarchies, and rising stress.”

His solution? “A new approach that values life. A new leadership logic where organisations flourish, ecosystems thrive and people feel alive.”

As you might have guessed, regenerative leadership is big on nature, believing it can solve human and business problems. Hutchins runs retreats in the woodlands of Sussex where CEOs can tune into the rhythms of their surroundings through wild swimming and meditation; and regenerative leadership is also heavily influenced by flora-and-fauna-adjacent concepts such as biomimicry and biophilia. 

So far, so holistic. But regenerative leadership has been finding resonance in the business world in recent years, particularly since the pandemic forced many organisations to reassess their impact and role in society. 

London-based Cherish PR has been using regenerative leadership to help run the firm since 2021-22. “Regenerative leadership appealed to us because it has its roots in nature,” says founder Rebecca Oatley. “As humans, we’re part of nature, and as such, should use nature as inspiration for the way we organise our companies.”

Oatley says it’s best to think of organisations as being like a living organism such as the human body. “The regenerative system is about everybody in the ecosystem [behaving like] cells within an organism,” she says. “They have their own specialism/skills and understand how they interact with other cells – or teams. In doing so, they regenerate: teams move on without necessarily having one leader at the top. It’s very different from how PR agencies are traditionally run, which is about command-and-control and hierarchy.”

New ways of leading

A seemingly never-ending maelstrom of crises and uncertainty mean that businesses need regenerative stewardship now more than ever, argues Leena Seward, leadership coach, psychotherapist and founder of Mosaic Executive Coaching.

“The world is growing more volatile and complex, both in our individual lives and collectively,” she says. “Financial, social and political instability are increasing along with the pace of change. There are more health and social care issues, we are on course for major climate disruption, air, water and soil pollution levels are increasing while biodiversity is in decline. 

“We don’t know what’s around the corner in terms of AI and, beyond the capitalist model, we are facing a crisis of meaning. We need to talk about new ways of leading and addressing what is really important. The old way of thinking that treated our business as machines, without the need to take account of the consequences on society and the environment is no longer serving us.”

Since embedding regenerative leadership within their organisation, Cherish has noted some tangible benefits, ranging from increased employee loyalty to client relationships.  

“It’s definitely helped from a team perspective,” says Oatley. “We’ve found the team to be very loyal – they realise their future growth and evolution as professionals can come from within this company. At the end of the day, PR is a people business and regenerative leadership is improving our client relationships. When we’re working with marketing and comms directors, it’s about [seeing them] as human beings. It’s about empathy, listening and understanding what their challenges are.”

Oatley also notes that regenerative leadership chimes with the progressive values of Gen Z talent entering public relations. “For people coming into the industry, they now expect this,” she says. “They won’t stay in traditional hierarchical organisations where their voices aren’t expected or heard. I don’t think the PR industry will have a choice: it’ll have to change.”

The five principles of regenerative leadership

1. Be life-affirming

A core tenet of regenerative leadership, says Seward, is “creating something and making things better than they originally were. Not all businesses work like that. Ask yourself: are you creating something life-affirmingor life-destroying?”

2. Don’t resist change

He might have written it 165 years ago, but Charles Darwin’s maxim that “it is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most able to adapt to change” rings true in the world of regenerative leadership, which believes embracing unpredictability makes businesses more resilient.  

“Nothing in nature – whether it’s the seasons, our bodies or the weather – is static,” says Seward. “So, we must allow for our businesses to be dynamic and responsive.” 

3. Working in siloes doesn’t work

Regenerative leadership believes in the interconnectedness of things. “[In business] we see things as specialised ‘parts’ or departments where only individuals with that expertise can work on it,” says Seward. “For example, in hospitals there’s departments for every organ in the body, but nothing that sees the body as a dynamic whole.”

4. Regenerative businesses are diverse and inclusive 

"When businesses are diverse, inclusive and celebrate differences, they tend to be richer and more agile,” says Seward. Once more, this reflects the natural world, where greater and more varied biodiversity within ecosystems improves their chances of surviving predators, disease and climate change. 

5. Be seasonal 

“In the last 20 years, there’s been a real focus on growth in business: the faster, the better,” says Oatley. “The natural world isn’t like that. There are seasons: spring when new things are happening, summer which is bountiful, autumn when things dial back; winter when things stop… So many companies do their annual ‘mop-up’ in December/January – why are they setting expectations in the coldest/darkest months of the year? Wouldn’t it be much better to use how you feel in spring – when things are coming to life – to set goals?”

According to regenerative leadership, businesses should use spring to replenish and plan the year ahead, and leave post-implementation reviews until autumn, when a more contemplative frame-of-mind might take hold. 

Regenerative business: who’s doing it? 

These businesses embody the spirit of regenerative leadership:

Vivobarefoot: The shoes produced by this UK ethical footwear company aren’t just sustainable, they have gossamer-thin soles which replicate the sensation of walking barefoot. In line with its brand motto of “reconnect your feet with the ground, and move in the ways that nature intended”, some of its footwear such as the San-Dal are made in partnership with San people in the Kalahari desert to help regenerate lost crafts. 

Migrateful: This social enterprise hosts cooking classes by refugees and migrants, who are often unable to work in the UK because of their legal status. The classes help them improve their English and gain vital employability skills for their CVs. 

Toast Brewing: An award-winning brewery which makes beers made from discarded crusts and surplus loaves that would otherwise be thrown away by bakeries and supermarkets. All profits go to environmental charities.

7 tips on embedding regenerative leadership into your PR firm

Get in bed with biomimicry: The science of biomimicry involves being inspired by the best ideas from nature and retooling them for human use. Think Japan’s Shinkansen bullet train – which had its nose redesigned by an ornithologist engineer to emulate the graceful dives of a kingfisher – reducing the loud, residents-waking noise it made when travelling through tunnels. Or British Telecom which adopted a new switching system for its phone network based on the foraging behaviour of ant colonies. 

The art of reflection: Says Oatley, “At Cherish, we hold ‘wow’ days four times a year where we look back over the previous season and reflect how the period has gone.”

Put meetings on mute (for a bit): “Try introducing two minutes of contemplative silence during a meeting,” says Seward. “It’ll allow everybody to focus on what you’re looking at. Collective silence creates trust and helps team bond. To sit quietly in a circle is a powerful thing.”

Call out clients if their values for a campaign don’t sync with your own: “Try saying ‘Yeah, I can see where you’re trying to go with this campaign or this message, but it doesn’t quite connect with me or us for the following reasons’. And have you thought about that? Do you think other people might be feeling the same? Or do you think some of your team might be feeling the same?”

Make all staff members feel supported: “We all have stressful days,” says Oatley, “but make sure you’re there to support all staff and that the spotlight isn’t going to shine on them if they make a mistake.”

Nurture nature: Whether it’s the indoor rainforest (40,000+ plants!) treehouses and streams inside Amazon’s Seattle HQ or companies such as Ben & Jerry’s allowing pet pooches in the office, being surrounded by nature can boost productivity: one Harvard University study found cognitive performance of office-workers working in ‘green’ environments is double that of those working in ‘non-green’ offices. Plus, stroking dogs can increase levels of the ‘happy hormone’ oxytocin. 

Ditch the ‘weaknesses’ section of performance reviews. “Look at how you can address the strengths of people in your team,” says Oatley. “If you try to focus or improve their weaknesses all the time, you get caught up on a negative cycle.”

Charitable giving: “We have an Impact team that brings the whole company’s skills together in support of a planet or people-based charity,” says Oatley. “This year, we’re supporting Action for Conservation.”

Christian Koch is an award-winning journalist and editor who has written for the Sunday Times, Guardian, Evening Standard, Metro, Director, Cosmopolitan, ShortList and Stylist.