EVOLVE

At Genius of Life, we know nobody does life better than nature – an ecology with recipes for adaptability, resilience and creativity, that have been proven and tested over 3.8 billion years! The answers to how we live, lead, organise and impact the world, in ways that sustain and enrich life, lie right outside our doors. We learn from ecological systems that the ‘capacity for co-evolution, resilience and innovation depends on the degree of connectivity and interdependence between diverse agents, the degree to which there is participation at all levels and the opportunities that exist to self organise and experiment’. (Mitleton-Kelly, 2003) – all hallmarks of an evolutionary organisation.

We work alongside you to evolve your organisation into a responsive, resilient and planet-positive eco-system, and with leaders to build the courage and confidence to catalyse this change in and beyond the organization

LEADERSHIP AND LIVING SYSTEMS
A blended learning programme focused on evolutionary leadership and ecologically inspired ways of organising

Eco-Efficient Enterprise

Shift from a ‘take make waste’ mindset to an eco-efficiency mindset

Minimising resource use and reducing waste for cost savings and operational efficiency. Improvement is motivated by compliance

Orange Achievement, Eco-efficient,
Self Determining

Eco-Systemic Enterprise

Shift from a linear eco-efficient mindset to a cyclical eco-systemic mindset, understanding the organisation’s dependence and impact on environmental ‘services’.

Parts of the supply chain may be operating in symbiotic cyclical and closed loop processes, projects to reduce, recycle, re-use. Opportunities and threats to conducting ‘business as usual’ are become clearer

Green Pluralist, Eco-systemic,
Self Questioning

Evolutionary Enterprise

Shift to ecological mindset, understanding resilience and sustainability arises out of operating in congruence with the planet’s living systems.

The organisation/supply chain increasingly organises and operates as a complex adaptive system; products, processes and services increasingly geared towards zero impact / neutrality or restoring ecological integrity

Teal Evolutionary, Ecological,
Self Actualising

Self Determining/eco-efficient

Worldview focuses on delivery of results, goals, effectiveness, and success within the system. Sustainability goals, measures, personal actions seen as being the ‘right thing to do…’

Manager/achieving leader: 30% of adults

The Egoic self. Doing, achieving. I am separate, different.

Self Questioning – eco-systemic

Worldview questions the conventional world. Searching for meaning, self expression in relation to a larger system. Dawning (and painful) realisation of impact of conventional world on planet. Looking for ways to ‘opt out’, innovate or operate differently…

Facilitative leader: 10% of adults.

Self Actualising – evolutionary

Worldview links theory and principles with practice; focused on self-development and self-actualization; aware of dynamic interaction between and within systems; chooses generative, restorative enterprise and action – often at a global level

Transformational leader: 4% of adults

The Evolutionary Self. Being, co-creating. I am interdependent, part of.

These organisations are influenced by leaders with different worldviews. We call leaders that act from a planet-centric worldview, ecological or evolutionary leaders; Leaders that are attuned to and willing to learn from the 3.8 billion year’s worth of natural wisdom we are a part of.

The crisis is at root one of perception; we no longer see the cosmos as alive, nor do we any longer recognise that we are inseparable from the whole of nature, and from our Earth as a living being. But there is hope, for as the crisis deepens, the call of anima mundi intensifies. More and more people are waking up to their deep connection to the intelligence of the cosmos, and are seeking to find ways of living that do not violate their re-discovered ecological sensibilities.

Dr Stephan Harding, Schumacher College, UK

The Evolutionary Organisation

Deep time vision
Imagine a planet fit for future generations while working on it now (Evolutionary purpose)

Actualising leadership
Acts for the collective; responsive, timely, courageous action/inaction to bring organisation into being

Sense and respond
Experiment and co-evolve with participants in larger eco-system – ensuring openness to creative change (Evolutionary innovation)

Wholeness – of self and system
Aware of system patterning at all level of scale. Hacking habitual patterns, exploring differentiation and diversity, strengthening relational infrastructure

Planet Positive products and processes
products and processes are congruent with, contribute to the health of all living systems

Circular and Shared Economies
‘waste’ of one process are input for another process , products are designed for multiple functionality and use

Cooperative and competitive
Competition/collaboration is mutually influential and beneficial – not parasitic.

Distributed authority in a natural hierarchy
Worldview and competence matched with authority and accountability

Self organising
Dynamic roles and structures responsive to whole system needs

Networked and interdependent
Highly networked to facilitate feedback and information exchanges within and beyond the organisation