Category Archives: Uncategorized

Author: Moh Al-Haifi
Co-Author: Isabelle Drury
Contributors: Odette Bester, Lee Fitzpatrick, Zac Schaap

In a world obsessed with predictability and control, conventional marketing strategies often promise direct paths from action to outcome. Create this campaign, get this many leads. Send these emails, generate this much revenue

But what if there’s a more powerful approach that embraces the beautiful complexity of living systems?

The Theory of Emergence offers exactly this shift. Consider the beaver: it doesn’t plan to create a wetland ecosystem, it simply builds a dam. Yet from this single action emerges a thriving network of life as water slows, plants take root, and creatures gather. No master plan, just the right conditions.

Similarly, when thousands of starlings dance across twilight skies, no choreographer directs their breathtaking movements. Each bird follows simple rules of distance and alignment, yet together they create fluid patterns of extraordinary complexity and beauty.

This is emergence at work, where unexpected, often transformative results arise naturally from healthy systems rather than through rigid control. First introduced to us through nRhythm’s regenerative organisation approach, this concept perfectly complements regenerative marketing principles, where success isn’t measured merely in quarterly profits but in the health of your entire ecosystem: your team, your customers, your community, and the living world we all share.

This article explores how creating the right conditions, rather than forcing predetermined results, can lead to outcomes far more meaningful than anything we could have engineered directly.

What is the Theory of Emergence?

The Theory of Emergence is a strategic framework that helps organisations align their resources, activities, and goals with a larger vision while embracing complexity and interconnectedness. Its fundamental premise is that emergent outcomes, those that couldn’t have been predicted or controlled in advance, are often the most valuable and transformative results of our work.

“So, how is this different from conventional strategic planning?” Well, most conventional marketing operates on the fantasy that if you just find the perfect funnel template or magic headline formula, success is guaranteed. We feel the equivalent of believing that if you arrange your desk items in the perfect Feng Shui configuration, venture capital will start raining from the sky. 

The Theory of Emergence doesn’t abandon planning, no, quite the opposite. It creates a more thoughtful, nuanced approach by focusing on creating optimal conditions where positive emergent outcomes can flourish. 

For impact-driven organisations and regenerative businesses, this shift is revolutionary. Instead of trying to force predetermined outcomes through increasingly aggressive tactics, we can focus on cultivating the right conditions, both internally and externally, and allow more authentic, sustainable emergent results to blossom naturally.

Inspired by Theory of Change

Many change-makers in the nonprofit world are already familiar with the Theory of Change, a methodology that helps organisations map out how their activities lead to desired outcomes. It’s been a powerful tool for planning and evaluating impact, particularly for social and environmental initiatives.

The Theory of Emergence builds upon this foundation but incorporates a distinctly regenerative lens. While a conventional Theory of Change often assumes linear pathways and predetermined outcomes, the Theory of Emergence embraces the inherent uncertainty and adaptability of living systems, with special attention to emergent outcomes that couldn’t have been precisely predicted.

“That sounds cool and all, but makes this approach truly regenerative?” Instead of prescribing exactly what outcomes must occur, it focuses on creating the conditions that allow novel, positive change to emerge organically. For marketing and growth activities specifically, the Theory of Emergence provides a framework that aligns strategic decisions with deeper purpose while remaining adaptive to changing conditions. It helps teams prioritise initiatives that truly matter rather than chasing every possible tactic or trend, creating space for unexpected outcomes to emerge.

This isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it approach. Like any living system, your organisation’s context evolves. That’s why we recommend revisiting this framework at least annually, ensuring you remains aligned with both your purpose and the changing ecosystem around you, while staying open to the emergent outcomes that continue to develop.

To help you apply this approach practically, let’s break down the five stages of cultivating emergence, a natural progression that mirrors how living systems develop and thrive.

The five stages of cultivating emergence

The Theory of Emergence follows a natural progression that mirrors how living systems develop and evolve. Each element builds upon the previous one, creating a coherent flow from foundational conditions to emerging possibilities, with a particular focus on the emergent outcomes that arise throughout the process.

This framework spans different time horizons: from immediate conditions and actions, through mid-term impacts (1-5 years), to long-term emergent futures (5-10 years). By considering these different timeframes together, you create alignment between present actions and future possibilities while remaining open to emergent outcomes at each stage.

Let’s explore each element and what it means for your marketing:

1. Seed: Thrivability conditions

Just as a seed requires specific soil conditions, moisture, and light to germinate, your initiatives need certain foundational elements to thrive. Thrivability goes beyond merely surviving or sustaining, it’s about creating conditions where everything can flourish and reach its full potential. Think of it as the difference between a plant that’s just staying alive versus one that’s vibrantly healthy, producing abundant fruit, and contributing to its ecosystem.

These conditions might include team health and wellbeing, adequate budgets, supportive mindsets, strategic partnerships, technological resources, or operational structures. The key is identifying what specific conditions will create the optimal environment for unexpected positive outcomes to emerge.

Unlike conventional planning that often overlooks these foundations in favour of immediate tactics, the Theory of Emergence recognises that nothing can succeed without fertile ground. By attending to these conditions first, you create resilience and capacity that supports everything that follows, including the emergent outcomes that often provide the greatest value.

Reflective journaling prompt: What are the conditions that your organisation needs in order for it to thrive and reach its emerging outcomes?

2. Grow: Key organisational growth initiatives

From well-prepared soil, growth naturally emerges. In this element, you identify the strategic priorities and key activities that deserve your focus in the coming year. These aren’t random tactics but carefully chosen initiatives that build upon your thrivability conditions and align with your larger purpose, while creating space for unexpected emergent outcomes.

For marketing and growth specifically, these initiatives might include developing new content platforms, launching community-building programs, redesigning customer experiences, or implementing regenerative practices in your communications. The key is selectivity, choosing fewer, more impactful initiatives rather than attempting to do everything at once, allowing room for emergent possibilities to develop.

This focused approach embodies the principles of “Essentialism” as described in Greg McKeown’s influential book (Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less), helping teams avoid the common trap of endless tactical execution without strategic direction. By identifying the essential activities that truly matter, you can allocate resources more effectively and create space for deeper work rather than constant reactivity, creating conditions where emergent outcomes can flourish.

Reflective journaling prompt: What are your key organisational growth initiatives that will help you create the desired/planned outcomes?

3. Produce: Intended outcomes/outputs

As your initiatives take root and develop, they naturally produce specific outcomes: the immediate, tangible results of your activities. These are the visible “fruits” that demonstrate your initiatives are working as intended, while also creating the foundation for unexpected emergent outcomes.

These outcomes might include increased engagement with your content, growing community participation, improved customer feedback, or enhanced team collaboration. They provide concrete indicators that your growth initiatives are generating positive results, both planned and emergent.

While conventional marketing often fixates exclusively on metrics like conversion rates or revenue targets, the Theory of Emergence takes a more holistic view. It considers not just financial outcomes but also relationship quality, ecosystem health, and team wellbeing as critical indicators of success, recognising that the most valuable emergent outcomes often arise in these less quantifiable dimensions.

By tracking these diverse outcomes, you gain insight into how your initiatives are performing while remaining open to unexpected emergent results that might suggest new opportunities you couldn’t have anticipated when you began.

Reflective journaling prompt: What are the outputs that you are planning for that will help you reach your impact?

4. Effect: Deeper impact

Beyond immediate outcomes lie deeper impacts, the mid-term effects that emerge as your work ripples outward into your wider ecosystem. This is where your marketing and growth activities begin to create meaningful change in the 1-5 year timeframe, often generating emergent outcomes that surpass what you could have directly planned.

Impact might manifest as transformed relationships with customers, shifts in industry conversations, enhanced community resilience, or evolution in how your organisation operates. These effects aren’t just about what you’ve done, but how your activities have influenced larger systems, creating conditions for emergent outcomes to develop at the ecosystem level. 

In other words, success doesn’t just mean ‘we sent more emails this quarter than last quarter’ or ‘our corporate TikTok dance challenge got seven views instead of the usual three’!

This element serves as the bridge between your short-term actions and long-term vision. By identifying the impacts you intend to create, you maintain connection to purpose while acknowledging that exact outcomes may unfold in unexpected ways, generating emergent results that couldn’t have been precisely engineered.

Reflective journaling prompt: What is the measurable and planned for impact that you are wanting to create in the world and to your ecosystem?

5. Dreams: Emerging outcomes

The final element looks toward the potential futures that might emerge in the 5-10 year timeframe as a result of the conditions you’ve cultivated. Unlike conventional strategic planning that attempts to prescribe exactly what will happen years in advance, the Theory of Emergence acknowledges the inherent unpredictability of complex systems and celebrates the potential for transformative emergent outcomes.

These aren’t rigid targets but visionary possibilities, dreams of what emergent outcomes might arise when the right conditions are nurtured over time. By articulating these potential futures, you create an inspiring north star while remaining open to how the path might unfold in unexpected ways, generating results more beautiful and impactful than could have been precisely planned.

This is perhaps the most profound difference from conventional planning approaches. Rather than creating an illusion of control over long-term outcomes, you cultivate conditions for positive emergence while embracing the creative potential of uncertainty and the transformative power of emergent outcomes.

Reflective journaling prompt: What are the potential emergent outcomes that you could dream of that can help you create long term systemic impact and change?

How to complete your reflections:

Though these elements are numbered 1-5, the Theory of Emergence framework is not meant to be followed linearly from start to finish. Instead, for maximum effectiveness, we recommend working through them in the order of the accompanying graph for a visual representation of how these elements interact in a cyclical process.

Why does the Theory of Emergence matter right now?

In a world facing accelerating climate change, social upheaval, and unprecedented ecological disruption, rigid planning frameworks increasingly fall short. The Theory of Emergence offers a more adaptive approach that creates space for valuable emergent outcomes.

It creates alignment around essential activities, focusing teams on what truly matters while reducing fragmented efforts. By bridging present actions to future vision, it connects immediate tactics to long-term purpose, enhancing motivation and creating pathways for emergent outcomes.

The framework builds genuine resilience by considering the health of the entire ecosystem, your team, customers, community, and environment, creating conditions where transformative emergent outcomes can flourish. Rather than clinging to rigid plans, it provides direction while maintaining adaptability to unexpected opportunities.

Perhaps most powerfully, this approach liberates us from self-imposed limitations, opening doorways to possibilities we couldn’t have imagined within conventional frameworks. For founding teams especially, it offers a path to release the illusion of control, redirecting that energy toward what can actually be influenced in the present moment. When embraced fully, the Theory of Emergence unlocks a natural state of flow and abundance, creating the conditions where even seemingly insurmountable challenges can be transformed through collective wisdom and emergent solutions.

As you embrace this regenerative approach, you may find that not only do your strategies become more effective, but the work itself becomes more meaningful. There’s profound satisfaction in cultivating conditions for positive change and witnessing the beautiful emergent outcomes that arise when we work with rather than against the living world.

So perhaps it’s time we all give ourselves permission to create space for wonderful surprises in our marketing efforts. After all, some of the best things in business and life happen not because we planned them down to the last detail, but because we created fertile conditions where good things could grow in their own unique way.

By shifting from control to cultivation, we open possibilities for emergent impact that conventional marketing simply cannot achieve. We invite you to explore and download our Go-To-Ecosystem Framework cards, a resource to inspire your journey toward more regenerative marketing practices that honour your values and nurture lasting positive impact.

Author: Moh Al-Haifi
Co-Author: Isabelle Drury
Contributors: Odette Bester, Lee Fitzpatrick, Zac Schaap

In the regenerative business space, there’s an unspoken pressure to get everything right from the beginning. Yet perfection isn’t just unrealistic, it’s contrary to regenerative principles.

As the Founder and Regenerative Growth Director at Zebra Growth, I’ll start with a confession: we’ve greenwashed too. I want to share what we’ve learned through our own messy journey, not lecture from a place of moral superiority.

Because even purpose-driven organisations with the best intentions fall into the trap of greenwashing. Greenwashing is a continuous learning process that every organisation in the impact space must navigate thoughtfully.

Modern greenwashing goes far beyond false environmental claims. I experienced this while working for a venture studio whose mission statement focused on “creating impact in the world.” This language attracted me to the position, but I quickly realised that internally, “impact” simply meant financial returns. When leadership discussed increasing impact, they were really talking about generating more profit.

“But isn’t that what most businesses do?” Perhaps. The difference is in the disguise, portraying extractive practices as regenerative ones. Even when profit isn’t the primary motivation, greenwashing occurs when organisations (including many NGOs) carry colonial patterns in their work, believing they know what’s best for communities without truly listening or co-creating with them.¹

The white saviour complex, not referring to skin colour but to a mindset and culture, is often what leads organisations to assume they know what’s best for communities they aim to serve. I’ve recognised this pattern in myself, having been educated in business schools influenced by Western extractive thinking.² This colonial mindset has deeply permeated how business is conceptualised and practiced globally, including across Africa where post-colonial capitalism often manifests as what scholars describe as ‘squanderation’, political economies driven by elite self-enrichment rather than development. I encourage readers to explore the article Dysfunctional Capitalism in Africa and the Theory of Squanderation to better understand how these extractive patterns continue to shape economic systems worldwide.

What I’ve come to understand is this: perfectionism is the opposite of regeneration. Regeneration acknowledges that life is messy, complex, and constantly evolving. It recognises that some things must die for new growth to emerge, including our outdated approaches and mindsets.

Practical Steps for Regenerative Marketing Without Greenwashing

The faster we accept that avoiding greenwashing isn’t as simple as having good intentions, the less prone we become to falling into its trap. The relationship between growth and authenticity is a dance, one that requires embracing imperfection while striving for continuous improvement.

So how do we dance with this complexity without stumbling into greenwashing? 

It starts with recognising that marketing isn’t a siloed department, it’s an extension of your entire organisation. When your marketing team operates in isolation, disconnected from finance, operations, governance, or product development, you create perfect conditions for unintentional greenwashing.

In impact organisations, especially scaling ones, I’ve observed how easily these silos develop, not because people don’t care, but because organisational structures don’t facilitate cross-departmental sharing. This challenge is particularly acute in growing purpose-driven businesses where teams are expanding and specialising rapidly. Creating pathways for information to flow freely between departments isn’t just good organisational practice, it’s essential for authentic communications.

Open conversations within your team are essential. Every business is at risk of greenwashing, including yours. Make discussing this possibility a regular ritual, at least monthly, where you examine recent decisions and communications through a critical lens. These conversations aren’t about blame or shame but opportunities to collectively identify extractive patterns you might be unconsciously perpetuating.

Adding a decolonial lens to these discussions is equally vital. Tania from Tandem Innovation Group (one of our speakers at the Regenerative Marketing Playground on decolonial marketing and a current client) has shared a valuable resource her team reviews almost weekly. It explores characteristics of white supremacy culture that permeate organisations, including perfectionism, sense of urgency, worship of the written word, binary thinking, and power hoarding. As the resource notes, these traits are often “taught as essential to success” when in reality they perpetuate harmful systems. You can find this resource here. Examining both greenwashing tendencies and colonial patterns in your regular team discussions helps make this critical awareness a cornerstone of your organisational culture rather than an occasional afterthought.

“What about when these conversations get uncomfortable?” That’s exactly the point. Regeneration is an uncomfortable process, you are changing, it’s going to be challenging.³ Many purpose-driven leaders (myself included) experience fear, anxiety, and guilt around accidentally greenwashing. I’ve recognised that this guilt actually makes the problem worse, keeping us trapped in extractive thinking.

The best protection against greenwashing is diverse input, particularly from those affected by your work. Go beyond your investors and board to engage local communities and stakeholders with various lived experiences. Seek out voices that can be honestly critical without bias or personal gain. These perspectives will help you see blind spots in your thinking.

The language we use also matters tremendously in avoiding greenwashing. Buzzwords can become particularly problematic as they often mean different things to different people. Terms like “impact,” “sustainable,” or “regenerative” can be interpreted in vastly different ways depending on the context and the audience. This ambiguity creates perfect conditions for unintentional greenwashing. Be specific about what these terms mean within your organisation and be ready to unpack them rather than relying on their positive associations.

Let me share a concerning example I’ve observed: the recent commodification of natural resources through biodiversity credits. While the intention may seem positive, creating assets that protect nature, these mechanisms often carry forward colonial patterns of extraction. As George Monbiot warns, “Something that should be a great force for good has turned into a corporate gold rush,” with “big corporations and financiers pile[ing] into this market.” When consulting firms and investment giants like BlackRock become major investors in biodiversity credits, we should question the approach. These credits often create what Monbiot aptly calls “carbon colonialism” with local communities, sometimes transferring land ownership to banks and investment firms if certain conditions aren’t met. Indigenous people, in many cases, have “not given their consent” yet find their lands incorporated into these schemes. What looks sustainable on the surface can become another form of colonisation if we don’t examine the relationships and power dynamics involved.⁴

One of the most powerful antidotes to greenwashing is radical transparency about your challenges and failures. When you only communicate your successes, you create an incomplete and potentially misleading picture. Consider how you might balance celebrating achievements with honest acknowledgment of areas where you’re struggling or still learning.

“But won’t admitting our flaws damage our brand?” Actually, the opposite is true. This approach builds deeper trust with your audience and models the kind of authenticity that regenerative business requires. Look at Dr. Bronner’s “All-One Report” which doesn’t shy away from areas where they’re still working to improve, creating an authentic picture of their journey toward regenerative business practices.

Conventional marketing is often one-directional, you craft a message and deliver it to your audience. Regenerative marketing invites conversation, creating space for questions, challenges, and evolved thinking. This might mean being willing to change your position after receiving new information, even if you’ve already published a campaign. While this adaptability might seem challenging from a conventional marketing perspective, it demonstrates an authentic commitment to learning.

Feedback from our community has also highlighted how oversimplification of messages often leads to greenwashing. Most issues in the regenerative space, climate crisis, social change, colonialism, are more complex than we might like to admit. While we often need to start with simplified messaging, particularly in short-form content like social media, we must acknowledge this limitation. Consider explicitly mentioning that you’re providing a simplified view and offering pathways to deeper engagement. Being scared of overwhelming people with complexity often leads to unintentional greenwashing.

We’ve experienced this ourselves when Ghalia Naseer, a co-steward of the regenerative marketing movement, recently called us out for oversimplifying regenerative marketing as one clear-cut concept without acknowledging its nuances. We’re thankful for her valuable intervention. This kind of accountability from our ecosystem helps us grow and reminds us that even with the best intentions, we can all slip into greenwashing if we don’t honour the full complexity of these issues.

“How do we balance complexity with accessibility?” Consider being explicit about the limitations of simplified content, especially on social media. You might include phrases like “This is a simplified overview” and direct people to more detailed resources. Create pathways for those who want to engage more deeply with nuanced topics.

Addressing greenwashing isn’t just about external communications, it requires internal work as well. Develop practices that help you manage the discomfort that arises when confronting potentially extractive patterns in your work. This might include therapy, breathwork, or other practices that build self-awareness and emotional resilience. By tending to our own personal growth, we become better equipped to hold space for honest conversations and respond non-defensively to critical feedback.

The Inner Development Goals framework also offers valuable guidance for leaders seeking to cultivate the inner capacities needed for regenerative leadership. These goals help us develop the emotional resilience and self-awareness required to hold uncomfortable conversations and manage the challenging feelings that arise when confronting our own extractive patterns. This inner work isn’t separate from our organisational efforts, it’s foundational to them. As leaders, we must be willing to face our discomfort, sit with uncertainty, and develop the capacity to respond rather than react when receiving difficult feedback.

Avoiding greenwashing while growing a regenerative business is a practice. And like any practice, it gets easier and less uncomfortable with time and repetition.

Remember that this is truly about baby steps. Each small improvement matters. The more you practise having these conversations, examining your communications critically, and inviting diverse feedback, the less uncomfortable it becomes. Over time, what once felt challenging becomes a natural part of how you operate.

The future of marketing, indeed, the future of business, depends on our willingness to embrace both the messiness and the possibility of regeneration. By rejecting perfectionism and cultivating honest relationships with ourselves, our teams, and our communities, we can transform marketing from an extractive practice into a catalyst for healing and renewal.

And isn’t that what regenerative business is truly about?

1. Want to dive deeper into how colonial mindsets show ups up in your work? Check out this piece on perfectionism as a colonial trait, this academic discussion on colonialism in environmentalism, and this podcast episode ‘perfectionism is colonialism in action’. ↩︎
2.  Curious about what the white saviour complex really means? Here’s a quick definition. For a real-world example, check out this Guardian piece on an HBO documentary exploring this issue. And for a throwback, here’s an old but insightful take on the KONY2012 phenomenon ↩︎
3.  Regeneration isn’t easy—it’s meant to challenge us. If you want to understand the ecological concept behind it, here’s a Wikipedia primer. ↩︎
4.  Biodiversity credits might sound good, but are they another form of colonialism? This article from The Conversation unpacks the risks of nature markets. For an even sharper critique, which we quoted, check out George Monbiot’s take on carbon colonialism. ↩︎

Author: Moh Al-Haifi
Co-Author: Isabelle Drury
Contributors: Odette Bester, Lee Fitzpatrick, Zac Schaap

If you’ve been exploring alternatives to conventional marketing, you’ve likely encountered terms like “regenerative marketing” or  “regenerative branding”. They sound really promising, a refreshing approach that aligns with values of sustainability and positive impact.

(Thinking what the hell is regenerative marketing? Check out What is Regenerative Marketing and The Problem with Marketing as Usual blogs for the full background.)

…But diving into this space can often feel like entering a conversation where everyone seems to speak a different language. Terms like “ecosystems” and “regenerative growth” get tossed around, often without clear explanation. For marketers, founders, and change-makers trying to implement these approaches, this jargon can create a barrier to entry and leave you wondering: “Am I missing something here? What does this actually mean in practice?”

This guide aims to decode the essential vocabulary of regenerative marketing, translating complex concepts into simple understanding so you can confidently navigate this approach to helping your purpose-driven business thrive.

1. Ecosystem Marketing

Ecosystem marketing is a holistic approach that recognises marketing doesn’t happen in isolation, but within interconnected networks of relationships. Ecosystem marketing intentionally considers and nurtures the relationships between your brand, customers, partners, communities, plants, animals, as well as other natural systems. It focuses on creating value that circulates throughout this network rather than extracting it from one part to benefit another.

It’s not: A tech platform where Mac and Windows battle for world domination! When we say “ecosystem marketing,” we’re not talking about software ecosystems, digital ecosystems, or any ecosystem that requires an IT department. (Though admittedly, those tech giants could learn a thing or two about actual ecosystem thinking.)

Think of it as: Cultivating a diverse garden where all elements nourish each other, rather than focusing on an isolated plant. Just as a healthy garden supports multiple species that benefit one another, ecosystem marketing creates environments where customers, communities, partners, and natural systems can all flourish through interconnected relationships. In practice, this might mean creating platforms where suppliers, customers and partners connect directly, establishing circular value flows (like repair networks or knowledge exchanges), and measuring success by the health of the entire system, not just your bottom line.

(To learn more about ecosystem marketing, explore these resources: Ecosystem ecology and Living Systems: A new story for a regenerative future. Our learnings have also been heavily inspired by The Regenerative Marketing Movement, nRhythm “with life” framework, and Unity Effect’s “Impact Garden” framework)

2. Reciprocity

Reciprocity is a fundamental principle that reframes marketing relationships as mutual exchanges rather than one-way transactions. Drawing from ancient indigenous wisdom traditions that have honoured balanced relationships for millennia, reciprocity in regenerative marketing means creating genuine cycles of giving and receiving that build trust and generate shared prosperity over time.

Indigenous cultures worldwide have long understood what modern businesses are only beginning to grasp, that acknowledging the gift through gratitude and reciprocal action creates powerful, sustainable relationships. Reciprocity acknowledges that every interaction carries an energy exchange and seeks to ensure that exchange is balanced and beneficial for all parties, including your business, customers, communities, and the systems that sustain us.

It’s not: It’s not a calculated “one free sample, now buy the entire product line” strategy. That’s about as reciprocal as a one-way street. True reciprocity runs deeper than these calculated exchanges.

Think of it as: The underlying pattern of healthy relationships in nature. Consider how plants and pollinators have evolved together: bees receive nourishment while plants receive pollination. In regenerative marketing, this might look like creating content that genuinely enriches your audience’s lives whether or not they ever purchase from you, investing in community initiatives that strengthen the environment in which your business operates, or designing your business model so that your success directly contributes to ecological restoration.

(To learn more about reciprocity, explore this resource: Relationship and Reciprocity. We also invite you to explore Decolonial Futures as we reflect on regeneration through a decolonial lens. For deeper insights, check out the work of Tania Lo (Co-CEO, Tandem Innovation Group Inc.), sahibzada mayed (صاحبزادہ مائد) (Decolonial Researcher, Pause and Effect), Ashanti Kunene (Founder, Learning 2 Unlearn), and John Fullerton (Founder, Capital Institute).)

3. Systems Thinking

Systems thinking is an approach to marketing strategy that draws inspiration from how systems function in nature: adaptable, interconnected, and cyclical. 

This principle recognises that marketing exists within complex networks of relationships that cannot be fully controlled or predicted. Instead of trying to dominate or manipulate these systems with rigid plans, work with their inherent patterns and emergent properties, allowing strategies to evolve organically in response to changing conditions.

It’s not: Just another framework or model to optimise conversion funnels or maximise click-through rates. Systems thinking represents a fundamental shift in how we conceptualise marketing itself, moving from mechanical metaphors (e.g., marketing “machines” or “engines”) to ecological metaphors (marketing “ecosystems” or “gardens”).

Think of it as: Marketing that mirrors how nature works, instead of forcing outcomes through control, systems marketing works with natural patterns and emergent properties, allowing strategies to evolve organically and respond intelligently to changing conditions, just as healthy ecosystems do. This might look like creating more adaptive campaigns that can respond to audience feedback in real-time, collaborating with competitors on industry-wide challenges, or allowing your brand identity to evolve naturally through genuine community co-creation.

(To learn more about systems thinking, explore these resources: First Nations Systems Thinking and Systems Thinking: What, Why, When, Where, and How? Regeneration is deeply rooted in Indigenous knowledge and practices that have sustained ecosystems for millennia.)

4. Regenerative Storytelling

Regenerative storytelling is a transformative approach to narrative that moves beyond simply selling products to healing relationships and catalysing positive change. Regenerative storytelling recognises the immense power that stories have to shape our reality and takes responsibility for that power. It crafts narratives that reconnect people with themselves, each other, and the living world–narratives that inspire possibility, restore wholeness, and invite participation in creating a better future.

It’s also about relating differently to our living experience and environment. Concepts of myths and animism become key within a regenerative storytelling approach, inviting us to see the world as alive, sentient, and worthy of deep relationship rather than as mere backdrop or resource.

It’s not: Superficial cause marketing, greenwashing, or purpose-washing where sustainability or social impact claims serve merely as marketing veneer.

Think of it as: Narratives that heal rather than exploit. While extractive marketing stories often push on insecurities or create artificial needs, regenerative stories reconnect people with themselves, each other, and the living world. These narratives leave audiences feeling more whole, capable, and connected rather than more lacking or inadequate after engaging with them.

(For a deeper dive into this approach, explore ReStoried Earth’s perspective on regenerative communications and check out Rūta Žemčugovaitė’s Regenerative Transmissions newsletter for practical examples.)

5. Slow Marketing

Slow marketing is a deliberate countermovement to the breathless pace of conventional digital marketing, with its constant demand for more content, more channels, and more immediate results. 

Prioritising depth over breadth, quality over quantity, and long-term relationship building over short-term conversion optimisation, it recognises that meaningful connections and sustainable growth often require patience, presence, and careful cultivation.

It’s not: Simply reducing your marketing output or slowing down your timeline. Slow marketing is an intentional approach that often involves deeper thinking, more meaningful creation processes, and more authentic engagement, its quality and intention rather than just pace. 

Think of it as: The marketing equivalent of slow food: thoughtfully crafted, ethically sourced, and designed to nourish deeply rather than stimulate temporarily.  Slow marketing might involve publishing less frequent but more substantial content, taking time to genuinely listen to customer needs before developing offerings, or measuring success over years rather than quarters. (In a world obsessed with ‘overnight success,’ we’re championing ‘over months and years’ success. Less catchy, infinitely more effective.)

(To learn more about slow marketing, explore this resource: What is Slow Marketing? An Introduction for Small Businesses)

6. Attunement

Attunement is a practice of deep listening and responsive adaptation that goes far beyond conventional market research. Attunement involves developing a heightened sensitivity to the needs, values, and evolving contexts of your audience, community, and the broader systems your business affects. 

This requires cultivating genuine curiosity and presence, suspending assumptions to truly hear what’s being communicated through both explicit feedback and subtle signals from your ecosystem.

It’s not: Simply collecting customer data, running automated sentiment analysis, or conducting periodic surveys that confirm what you already believe. Attunement is an ongoing relational practice rather than a one-time or periodic activity.

Think of it as: The difference between hearing and listening. While conventional marketing often “hears” audience feedback to better position products, attunement truly listens to understand the underlying needs and contexts. This might look like hosting regular community conversations where you’re genuinely open to having your assumptions challenged, creating feedback loops that influence not just your messaging but your actual offerings. (You could see it as developing a marketing sixth sense, minus the creepiness of ‘I see dead people. ‘ Think ‘I sense actual human needs’ instead.)

(To learn more about attunement, explore these resources: Attunement and Attunement: The Real Language of Love)

7. Regenerative Growth

Regenerative growth is a fundamentally reimagined approach to business expansion that measures success by the health and vitality it creates within the whole system, not just the financial returns it generates for shareholders. 

This type of growth recognises that true prosperity comes from creating conditions where all life can flourish, including employees, communities, ecosystems, and future generations. It actively works to increase the capacity and capability of the systems it touches rather than depleting them for short-term gain.

It’s not: The “growth at all costs” mentality that dominates conventional startup culture, nor the relentless quarterly growth expectations of public markets. Regenerative growth often follows natural patterns of succession, periods of rapid expansion balanced with periods of consolidation, maturation, and even release.

Think of it as: Growth that follows natural cycles and increases the health of the whole system. Rather than pursuing endless expansion that depletes resources, regenerative growth creates increasingly fertile conditions where prosperity naturally emerges. Success is measured not just by financial returns but by improvements in ecosystem vitality, community resilience, and capacity for future generations to thrive.

(To learn more about regeneration, explore these resources: Regeneration (Ecology), and Regenerate Nature, Ellen MacArthur Foundation.)

8. Stewardship

Stewardship is a fundamental shift in how businesses view their relationship with resources: from ownership and exploitation to care and responsibility. 

This means recognising that the attention, trust, and relationships you cultivate through your work aren’t possessions to be monetised but rather precious resources held in trust. And extends this same care to how marketing activities impact communities, ecosystems, and future generations, taking responsibility for both intended and unintended consequences.

It’s not: A corporate social responsibility initiative or sustainability program that operates separately from core business strategy. Stewardship is an integrated philosophy that informs every aspect of how a business conducts its marketing.

Think of it as: Approaching marketing resources–attention, trust, relationships, data–with the mindset of a caretaker rather than an owner. Good stewards recognise these aren’t commodities to be exploited but living assets held in trust, requiring responsible management that considers long-term impacts on all stakeholders, including those who cannot speak for themselves. Basic manners, really.

(It’s essential to honour Indigenous communities around the world who have practised stewardship for thousands of years. Their deep relationship with the land is the true foundation of sustainable care. For more information, visit: Ecology and Society. You can also explore these resources: The Benefits of Environmental Stewardship, Why Environmental Stewardship Is Key to These Companies’ Success, and What Is Steward-Ownership?)

9. Right Relationship

Right relationship is a guiding principle focused on cultivating balanced, equitable, and life-affirming connections between all entities involved in marketing exchanges. 

Recognising that how we relate matters as much as what we accomplish: the means shapes the ends. It seeks to create marketing interactions characterised by mutual respect, appropriate boundaries, transparency, and care rather than manipulation, domination, or extraction.

It’s not: Simply maintaining good customer service or positive brand sentiment. Right relationship challenges more fundamental power dynamics in how marketing traditionally functions, asking not just “Is the customer satisfied?” but “Is this interaction contributing to healing and wholeness for all involved?”

Think of it as: Marketing interactions based on the same principles that sustain healthy personal relationships: mutual respect, appropriate boundaries, transparency, and genuine care. Right relationship means designing marketing approaches that honor both your audience’s dignity and agency while creating exchanges where power is balanced and value flows in multiple directions.

(To learn more about right relationship, explore these resources: What is Right Relationship? and The Practice of Right Relationship)

10. Thrivability

Thrivability is an evolutionary step beyond sustainability that embodies a more ambitious and generative vision. 

While sustainability focuses on reducing harm and maintaining current conditions, thrivability actively cultivates the conditions for all life to flourish. In marketing, thrivability means designing strategies and practices that don’t just minimise negative impacts but actively contribute to the health, vitality, and evolutionary potential of the systems they touch.

It’s not: Just offsetting the harm caused by conventional marketing tactics or making incremental improvements to fundamentally extractive systems. Thrivability requires more fundamental reimagining of what marketing can be and do in the world.

Think of it as: The difference between a garden that merely survives and one that vibrantly flourishes, attracting butterflies and birdsong. While sustainable marketing focuses on reducing harm, thrivable marketing actively regenerates resources and builds capacity. It measures success by how marketing efforts leave people and places more vibrant, connected, and capable than they were before.This might look like designing campaigns that strengthen community resilience while selling products, creating marketing platforms that actively regenerate rather than extract from the digital commons, or measuring success by improvements in system health rather than just reductions in harm or increases in profit.

(To learn more about thrivability, explore these resources: Why Thrivability and Flourishing, Thrivable, Regenerative: Is There a Difference?)

Understanding these terms offers an invitation to reimagine how we connect with audiences and create value in the world.
Eager to explore these concepts further? Join our Regenerative Playground Series, fireside chats with thought leaders and guest speakers designed to spark deep discussion and nurture connections.

BYO sustainable snacks, regenerative thinking caps optional but encouraged.