Over 2025 I have been furthering my understanding and thinking about the world, where I am in it and the role I could be playing going forward in this uncertainty. I have undertaken 2 courses, and done a lot of reading. The intersection of their diverse approaches makes for some really interesting understandings about options in front of us all, and personally, what it might mean for me.
I am now trying to assimilate all these ideas into approaches that can inform where I am heading and how I can help others navigate their own path. I would like to share this thinking and ideas with you, hoping to engage in constructive dialogue to help improve and develop them for us all to engage with.
Firstly, I would like to briefly outline the courses I have taken and the thinkers I am engaged with.
Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) Company Directors Course
“For 50 years, the AICD’s Company Directors Course has provided world-class governance education to more than 100,000 participants, including directors of the most successful organisations in the country.
Deepen your understanding of organisational governance with Australia’s most renowned course for current, first-time or aspiring directors, senior executives, business leaders and board advisors.”
This was made possible with big thanks to the SHEM Board, which I have been a member of since 2010.
Gaia Education’s Principles and Practices of Deep Transformation
“This course, based largely on the work of Jeremy Lent’s recent book The Web of Meaning, but also drawing on many other diverse sources, lays out principles and practices of deep transformation for the individual, for community, and for society at large.
It offers participants a deep but accessible guided exploration of an alternative life-affirming worldview based on the intersection of modern science and the world’s great wisdom traditions, along with an inspiring and practical vision of pathways that could lead to an ecological civilization.”
I read Jeremy Lent in 2024, and was deeply moved by his approach to the interconnected systems of our world. I felt I needed to do this course when I saw it was available, even though it was mainly on at 5am and coincided with the very different and intense AICD course.
Thinkers
I have been following a number of thinkers who challenge me about the current state of the world and what lies ahead, including the notion that collapse is inevitable, and in fact we are in it… In addition to Jeremy Lent, they include Sarah Wilson, Indy Johar, and Jem Bendell. Sarah, in particular, believes we should be engaging in radical hope and action as we prepare regenerative ideas for what comes next.
Framework for Good Governance
The following framework for governance has been developed with these ideas in mind. It aims to bring together the best of each of their concerns, to deliver a future ready approach, ready for these times.
Governance Archetypes in This Framework
The Steward/Governor: Traditional guardian of fiduciary and legal responsibilities (AICD).
The Regenerator/Transformer: Healer of systems and ecosystems (Gaia Education).
The Rebel/Truth-teller: Disrupter who speaks hard truths and acts with fierce hope (Sarah Wilson).
1. Purpose-Driven Leadership
1.1 Emphasise clear purpose, aligned with strategy and stakeholder value creation.
1.2 Ensure organisational purpose contributes to ecological regeneration, social justice, and cultural resilience.
1.3 Embed a moral imperative — doing what matters for the planet and future generations, not just what is profitable or popular.
Key Practice: Reframe success from short-term shareholder returns to long-term value for community, ecology, and economy.
2. Ethical and Courageous Decision-Making
2.1 Uphold fiduciary duties, due diligence, conflict of interest protocols, and transparency.
2.2 Include community-informed wisdom, indigenous knowledge, and non-human stakeholders in decisions.
2.3 Act with moral clarity in the face of chaos and breakdown — choose discomfort over apathy.
Key Practice: Create decision-making protocols that centre ethics, deep listening, and precautionary principles.
3. Stakeholder Engagement and Relational Governance
3.1 Map stakeholders, manage relationships, and report transparently.
3.2 Build participatory systems that value diversity, inclusion, and local autonomy.
3.3 Trust in relational networks, community resilience, and systems of mutual aid as top-down systems erode.
Key Practice: Move beyond transactional engagement to co-creative, reciprocal relationships with all affected parties.
4. Systems Thinking and Adaptive Strategy
4.1 Focus on risk oversight, scenario planning, and compliance with regulation.
4.2 Recognise interconnected systems and the need for regenerative design and bioregional responsiveness.
4.3 Anticipate breakdowns and use them as opportunities for deeper systems redesign and simplification.
Key Practice: Replace linear planning with dynamic governance, feedback loops, and learning cycles.
5. Sustainability, Regeneration and Climate Responsibility
5.1 Apply ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) frameworks, Net Zero targets, and climate risk disclosure.
5.2 Regenerate ecosystems, support climate justice, and align operations with planetary boundaries.
5.3 Go beyond sustainability — radically reduce consumption, support degrowth, and face hard truths.
Key Practice: Adopt science-based, future-fit climate goals alongside regenerative business models.
6. Culture of Care and Collective Wellbeing
6.1 Promote culture as key to risk and performance, including WHS and psychosocial safety.
6.2 Embed compassion, emotional intelligence, and care ethics into everyday governance.
6.3 Prioritise mental health, deep community, and radical hospitality in an anxious, collapsing world.
Key Practice: Centre wellbeing of staff, customers, and communities as part of organisational KPIs.
7. Transparency, Accountability and Regenerative Reporting
7.1 Emphasise annual reporting, audit, and accountability mechanisms.
7.2 Develop narrative, non-financial, and triple-bottom-line reporting methods.
7.3 Tell the truth — especially when it’s hard — and invite others into shared accountability.
Key Practice: Report not just on outcomes but intentions, uncertainties, and failures, honestly and relationally.
8. Resilience, Redundancy and Collapse Preparedness
8.1 Business continuity planning, risk management frameworks, cyber and operational resilience.
8.2 Build localised, diverse, and resilient networks — prepare for transition and downshift.
8.3 Prepare practically, emotionally, and socially for cascading crises. Live as if the collapse is already here — with grace.
Key Practice: Embed resilience as both a structural and cultural asset; practice collapse acceptance, not denial.
9. Regenerative Learning and Innovation
9.1 Encourage director development, governance reviews, and innovation practices.
9.2 Cultivate lifelong learning in permaculture, ecovillage design, and community regeneration.
9.3 Break old patterns. Learn how to do things differently — especially from the margins.
Key Practice: Create innovation spaces grounded in values, deep adaptation, and ecological intelligence.
Summary
This governance framework calls Australian business leaders to hold the tension between stability and transformation, legality and morality, economic survival and planetary thriving. Good governance today must prepare organisations not just for success within the current system, but to be courageous and wise actors in shaping what comes next.