Ep. 342 Giles Hutchins: Embracing Regeneration and Unlocking Nature's Wisdom for Transformative Leadership
The word sustainability made it into the mainstream vocabulary in the 1970s around the time of the first Earth Day. It has been thrown around as to make the actions of businesses more appealing and has become an instrument for show without much data behind it to demonstrate its effectiveness. Sustainability is a term and practice that is designed to meet the needs of the current generation and has been adopted at the top levels of government - e.g. United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Regeneration is the new paradigm, that when defined well and understood, it can be measured and transcend the test of time by living and learning to work in harmony with the very essence of life itself - nature.
Giles states it simply. Regeneration is about working the way life works. By recognizing that we as busy consumers have fallen out of sync with life, and now it’s important to allow ourselves to remember the inherent grammar that is innate within nature.
The deeper response goes into three levels of insight that will help unlock our potential as leaders and to reimagine organizational consciousness.
The power of regeneration and learning from living systems, broken into three interconnected levels.
Understanding nature, nature's patterns, principles and processes, including disciplines such as biomimicry, circular economics and systems thinking that help us work with the principles and processes we find within life with an open mind.
With an open heart, systemic participation within living systems; embody experience working with systemic dynamics within the organization as a living system and immersed within life.
The third level is open will: Leading to an existential shift tuning into nature's wisdom, and knowing that there is actually much more to life than meets the eye. It is not only the biological understanding of life, but a bio-psycho-spiritual receptivity and opening into life, which allows us to work with the inherent wisdom, innate within life.
About Giles Hutchins:
Giles Hutchins is a pioneering practitioner, keynote speaker, and executive coach who stands at the forefront of a consciousness-raising revolution in organizational leadership. With over 20 years of experience in helping organizations of all sizes transform, Giles applies advanced techniques, deep-dive nature immersions, embodiment work, ancient wisdom tradition insights, and cutting-edge research on leadership consciousness.
More recently, Giles served as the Global Head of Sustainability for Atos, a global technology provider with a presence in over 40 countries and employing more than 150,000 people. In this role, he played a pivotal role in integrating sustainable practices into the company's operations, aligning business goals with environmental and social responsibilities.
Currently, Giles holds the position of Chairman at the Future Fit Leadership Academy, where he continues to push the boundaries of leadership development. He is also the Lead Partner of The Natural Business Partnership, which focuses on bringing nature-inspired approaches into the business world. As a co-founder of Biomimicry for Creative Innovation and Regenerators.co, Giles actively promotes innovative and regenerative practices that draw inspiration from the natural world.
Giles' impact reaches beyond his roles as a practitioner and coach as he is an accomplished author and co-author of several influential papers and books, including "The Nature of Business" (2012), "The Illusion of Separation" (2014), "Future Fit" (2016), "Regenerative Leadership" (2019), and "Leading by Nature" (2022). Through his writings, Giles shares his insights into the interconnectedness of nature and business, urging leaders to adopt a more holistic and regenerative approach to their work.
With his international leadership center located at Springwood Farm, a place of exceptional natural beauty near London, UK, Giles provides a unique environment for immersive learning experiences.