In our experience, organisations that thrive are made up of people who are also thriving. An organisation and its people might be separable in legal terms, but they’re not separate in everyday real life. They are strongly interconnected and both need to thrive for true success.

We also believe that a key ingredient in organisations and their people thriving is genuinely reflecting the organisation’s driving purpose and values in everything they do. That’s not always easy and takes a much more holistic and more conscious approach to business.

For our part, we advise on the employment aspects of organisational life. And whilst the advice we give is always set within an employment law framework (we’re employment lawyers after all!), it’s also set within the context of the organisation being purpose and values driven and, ultimately, is aimed at helping the organisation, and in turn, its people to collectively thrive.

What’s ‘regenerative business’?

It is within this context that we became interested in the concept of regenerative business and regenerative leadership and, in particular, the work of Giles Hutchins, who is a thought leader in this area.

A regenerative approach to business is one that isn’t just about the long-term survival of the business; it involves moving away from the traditional concept of business simply extracting what it needs (from resources and people). Instead, the way of being becomes one of regenerating resources, i.e. creating and giving back, not just taking away. A regenerative approach will also normally encompass an organisation reflecting its purpose and values in everything it does, helping it to truly thrive – this is what drives our purpose as employment lawyers.

How can our ‘Reflection Tool’ help?

Stephanie Paterson, one of our co-founders, recently had the pleasure of collaborating with Giles to co-create a practical Reflection Tool for leaders and businesses. Its purpose is to provoke thought and reflection which, in turn, will lead to positive change. The tool is a set of reflective questions that invite contemplation and discussion about where your organisation is on its regenerative journey towards a more agile, developmental and adult-adult culture.

The ‘Reflection Tool’ is available here  for free.

The questions are separated into themes and we envisage them being used most usefully in bite-sized chunks, focusing on each section at a time, to enable meaningful reflection and discussion.

The questions are designed to act as a catalyst for:

1) intentional self-reflection;

2) dialogue with others; and

3) planning organisational change.

We suggest that the Reflection Tool is used something like this:

• As a starting point, the tool might be used by individual leaders (ideally with full engagement from the CEO and/or the Director of HR/People), for individual reflection (still in bite-sized chunks, according to the themes within the Tool). If your organisation is non-hierarchical, start with individual representatives from a cross selection of your teams.
• Once individual leaders/team representatives have had chance to individually reflect, explore those initial reflections through dialogue within one or more small groups. Again, it will help to separate discussions into themes (following the sections in the Tool).
• It would be helpful to carry out these individual reflections and subsequent discussions across the business to get a broader perspective.
• In turn, these sessions will help focus the business on the areas which require attention, i.e. changes needed to help your organisation adapt and evolve toward a more regenerative and developmental culture, where both the organisation and its people truly thrive.

You can read Giles Hutchins’ own blog about the collaboration and the co-creation of the Tool for Reflection.