If there were specific words to guide action in life, it's those four.

Why?

Because these words enable us to hold the tension between the reality of the moment and a desired end state, creating obvious next steps towards where we want to be.

It's how birds fly in a flock, observing what the birds around them are doing, orienting and responding.

It's how fighter pilots respond at pace in the midst of battle.

It's how celestial navigators made their way to lands unknown like Aotearoa.

It's how Collective Flow helps make works suck less.

And it's what great strategists do - looking at the world with a fresh mind to allow new ideas on how to best get to their desired destination.

How often are you looking at a situation with fresh eyes?

We have a lot of assumptions about the way the world works or how to get the results that we are wanting, and often these assumptions can keep us on well beaten paths that don't create anything new.

If you feel stuck in a loop, OODA can help get you back on the right path.

But it requires you to pause and reorient yourself to reality.

If you're feeling the niggle, that's a cue to observe.

What is niggling you?

What is happening in that situation?

Talk in fact statements.

What would you love in that situation? This will help orient in the right direction.

Whatever the answer here should make you feel energised, inspired, motivated.

What's a simple next step?

If the thought of this step starts to drain you, it's too big. Bring it to the smallest step, what small action can you take that will take you closer to what you would love?

Decide, then do it.

Want an example? Check out what happened when I realised I’m an office person working from home.

Collective Flow has been through a season of change, which is why there has been a pause in our regular posts.

In our next post we'll share more about our journey with Collective Flow and where we're headed next.

Gabor is a physician that has been researching the impact of early childhood trauma on our health and our lives and raising awareness of the interconnected nature of our past, present and health.

It was a strange experience to be in a hall with thousands of people open to conversations about the earliest pain that we experience, and it made me wonder.

Would therapy help address the climate crisis?

Gabor’s take on feeling

Early on in his talk, Gabor invited us to listen not just with our intellect but with our hearts and our guts and spends time talking about research that supports heart and gut based intelligence.

He continues to note many people are cut off from this intelligence because we’re cut off from our feelings.

You might think, being cut off from emotions isn’t bad. But actually, that’s the whole premise of his work. Being cut off from our emotions is bad for our health, and he has the studies to prove it.

As a general physician Gabor discovered a pattern in people diagnosed with chronic illnesses - often people showing up with MS, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, etc. were very nice people. Nice to a fault - people pleasers who suppress their own emotions and put others first.

Gabor followed his gut feeling back to the data and found studies that validated this pattern - and discovered that despite the supporting research, your average doctors and specialists weren’t taking into account mental and emotional health and its impact on the body.

So is it too far a leap to say, if we’re disconnected from our emotions it hurts our physical bodies, that it also has a detrimental impact on our collective wellbeing and environment?

The world is burning

I use ‘climate crisis’ as a catch all term to describe the current conundrum of our actions as a collective leading to ecological collapse.

It’s more than a warming world, things like biodiversity loss are just as detrimental.

Just ask ChatGPT:

Now my question to you is, how does that make you feel?

Can you feel anything?

What does the feeling (or non-feeling) make you want to do?

I have a growing inkling our ability to hold the feelings that come up when we face the truth about the climate crisis is key to our ability to address it.

Which seems pretty similar to Gabor’s thoughts on facing and accepting our own personal trauma. So maybe, therapy, is our way to ‘lift weights’ to build this capacity to face not just is hard for us personally, but collectively.

Go to therapy, it’s good for the planet

If there’s any call to action here, it’s go to therapy.

Or if you’ve been to therapy, keep doing the work of facing your feelings with compassion.

Will you turn into a climate activist?

Maybe, but that’s not the only way to be part of a better future. Gabor ended his talk by saying that our journey is to discover and live authentically from truth.

Gabor has obviously done that, and by following his passions and interests his work has made the world a better place, if indirectly. You can too.

Take New Zealand’s worst maritime disaster, for example.

The HMS Orpheus Disaster

On February 7, 1863, the HMS Orpheus, a Royal Navy corvette, ran aground on the Manukau Bar while attempting to enter Manukau Harbour near Auckland. The ship was following charts created in the 1840s—outdated maps that failed to account for the constantly shifting sandbars at the harbour’s entrance.

Unaware of the true state of the terrain, the captain and crew trusted their map. The consequences were devastating. Of the 259 people aboard, 189 lost their lives. Local Māori and settlers did what they could to rescue survivors, but the remote location and rough conditions made it nearly impossible.

This tragedy was a brutal reminder: the map is not the territory. Over-reliance on representations of reality—especially outdated ones—can lead to disaster.

And we still fall into this trap today.

This newsletter isn’t a case for throwing away the map, instead it’s to help understand where our maps aren’t suited for the territory of business.

The Maps We Use in Business

One of the most foundational maps in business is accounting - it’s how we attribute for value and the success of an organisation.

We’re currently in a paradigm shift as a society evolving to a more holistic measure of value in a business than making more money than you spend. The focus purely only financial measures of success is like having a map of the mountains without any indications of elevation. The map no longer suits the terrain - we now know that we need to move to a low emissions economy and protect our fragile ecosystem. It’s natural that this would result in an evolution in accounting - which we’re seeing with mandatory Sustainability and Climate Reporting using methodologies that have been developed over the past 30 years.

This shift is natural and has happened with every evolutionary leap of civilisation, as noted in Jane Gleeson-White’s Six Capitals:

1. Agricultural Revolution: Early accounting tracked surplus grain and livestock.

2. Trade and Commerce: Double-entry bookkeeping emerged to help merchants track profits and debts.

3. Industrial Revolution: Capital accounting became essential for tracking large-scale investments and profits, introducing the idea of fixed and variable costs.

4. 20th Century Corporations: Standardised accounting principles (think GAAP and IFRS) prioritised transparency but focused almost entirely on financial capital.

5. Late 20th Century: The rise of environmental and social awareness introduced the Triple Bottom Line—people, planet, and profit.

6. 21st Century Sustainability: Integrated reporting now recognises six capitals: financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural.

These evolutions reflect a growing realisation: profit alone isn’t enough. Financial metrics can’t capture the full picture of what matters—not for businesses, not for society, and definitely not for the planet.

The Next Evolution

Here’s the good news: maps can evolve.

We’ve seen it before, as Jane Gleeson-White points out. From clay tokens to double-entry bookkeeping to integrated reporting, our tools for understanding the world have changed with the times. And they can change again.

The next evolution of business maps don’t just include financial profit—they’ll also account for people and planet. They’ll reflect the interconnectedness of our world, where environmental health, social equity, and financial performance are inseparable. And it already exists, we aren’t coming at it like it’s a blank page. We have frameworks like TCFD and TNFD that are providing scaffolding for us to build a new normal for how we account for value in a rapidly changing world.

But there’s a deeper shift we need to make. This isn’t just about better maps—it’s about using them differently.

In Wayfinding Leadership, the authors explore the lessons of traditional Polynesian navigation. These navigators didn’t just rely on maps or instruments. They used the stars, the swells, the birds, and their intimate knowledge of the ocean to find their way. They read the territory itself.

In business, we can learn from this approach. We need to pair our maps—our accounting systems, our metrics, our frameworks—with a deeper awareness of the terrain. That means valuing local knowledge, listening to diverse perspectives, and being humble enough to admit when our maps are wrong or incomplete.

The evolution of our maps, matched by an evolution of how we use them, just might help us navigate to a future we could only dream of for future generations.

But then the routine kicks in: the first meeting, a flood of emails, the inevitable escalation. That spark of optimism dims as the weight of the familiar settles back in.

Still, there is hope. Change is possible—if we take a systems approach.

Stafford Beer, a British theorist, consultant, and professor at Manchester Business School, coined and often used the phrase “The purpose of a system is what it does” (POSIWID) to highlight an important insight: the true purpose of a system is revealed by its outcomes, not by the intentions of those who design, operate, or promote it.

“There is after all,” Beer observed, “no point in claiming that the purpose of a system is to do what it constantly fails to do.”

Our workplaces, teams, roles, and initiatives are all systems. And often, it is the gap between what we say we aim to achieve and what our systems actually deliver that erodes motivation and drives burnout.

In one of my most challenging roles, my team was responsible for delivering the top strategic priority for our department. Yet in reality, most of our time was taken up supporting and maintaining an existing product. The dissonance between our stated goals and day-to-day reality left us frustrated and close to burnout.

Had we fully embraced the idea that “the purpose of a system is what it does,” we might have recognised the structural issues holding us back earlier—and realised we had more power than we thought to make meaningful change.

Structural issues

When we think of structure, it’s often in the context of the built world. Buildings require structural integrity so that when the unexpected happens, they remain resilient and trustworthy in fulfilling their purpose.

In a similar way, societal and environmental issues—like structural racism—are described as “structural” because they are deeply ingrained and complex. These problems aren’t the result of any single factor; rather, they arise from the interconnected sum of culture, policies, institutions, expectations, and habits that sustain the undesirable outcomes.

These intangible structures are immensely powerful. Yet, with intention and creativity, we can reimagine and reshape them to drive meaningful change.

Where most of us have more influence than we realise is within the structures of work. By focusing on these systems, we can make changes that benefit ourselves and the people around us.

What follows are ideas to help you create more flow and impact in your work.

Step 1: What do you aspire to?

If the purpose of a system is what it does, and we’re unhappy with the outcomes, we need to redefine its purpose—and design a system that achieves it.

The system in question could be your role, your team or department, an initiative, or even your entire organisation.

For most of us, this isn’t as simple as jotting down ideas and running with them. Collaboration is key. Lean on the people around you—your boss, peers, stakeholders, or all three—and use the resources at your disposal to build a shared understanding of what you’re collectively trying to achieve.

Valuable resources include job descriptions, team charters, company and team strategy documents, and organisational policies and procedures.

To clarify your purpose, consider these questions. The more specific your answers, the better:

Who are your customers?

Think of this as the people who you provide value to in your work. When I was at Xero and a partner enablement specialist, my customers were NZ based accounting partners who were migrating to Xero. When I moved to a platform product manager role, my customers changed to be the internally facing development teams who were using our tools.

What positive end results do you aim to provide for your customers?

Think about the ideal experience you provide, and be specific about what that looks like. For example, a customer experience manager could be aim to resolve issues through a friendly online experience where accurate information is provided quickly (2 hours or less).

What positive end results do you aim to provide your organisation?

There’s always a natural tension between serving customers and meeting organisational needs. By clearly identifying what’s in it for the organisation, you can start to uncover the constraints you’re working within.

For example, a customer experience manager might aim to deliver an award-winning customer experience while maintaining an efficient ratio of one customer experience specialist for every 1,000 customers. This balance highlights both the aspiration and the operational constraints.

Who are the key people and systems to achieving these end results?

The answer to this question can inform who you need to work with to align on aspirations and what structures you can adapt to make positive change.

What do you aspire your relationship to be with those people?

Think through what the ideal interactions would be. When I was a partner enablement specialist, I worked closely with the sales team. I aspired for a smooth handover of qualified partners with all of the information needed to migrate their client base to Xero.

What are your aspirations for your work experience and those you work with?

This can be quite specific on the time you are dedicating to the initiative, the growth opportunities within it, and how you want to feel doing the work.

Step 2: Compare aspirations to reality

This step will help you tease out where you should focus your time to make the biggest impact.

Go back through the questions above asking ‘what is the reality today’? Be specific.

Where there are the biggest gaps between aspirations and reality, dive deeper.

Imitate your favourite toddler and 5 why yourself.

It will become very clear where the biggest opportunity to make changes are.

Step 3: Take action

For many, this is the hardest part. We might feel like we lack the authority to make changes or worry that others won’t listen.

But the truth is, you have more power than you think.

The key is to focus on the aspirations you’ve defined and align them with the needs of others. By framing your proposals around the system—rather than the people—and emphasising the risks, costs, and potential benefits, you’re more likely to gain support and inspire action.

With this mindset, the next step is to examine the structures that shape how we work. These structures—whether they’re rituals, policies, decision-making processes, roles, or organisational design—define how effective and fulfilling our work can be. When approached with intention, they become powerful levers for change.

Here’s how to start:

Rituals and Meetings
Meetings and rituals shape workplace culture. Evaluate:

• Purpose and Timing: Ensure each meeting aligns with goals and avoids wasting time.

• Engagement: Foster inclusive spaces where all voices contribute.

Policies and Procedures
Policies provide consistency but must remain adaptable:

• Alignment: Ensure they support, not hinder, team goals.

• Clarity: Make procedures clear and accessible.

• Relevance: Regularly update to reflect organisational needs.

Decision-Making
Effective decisions drive progress. Consider:

• Authority Distribution: Empower team members to make appropriate decisions.

• Transparency: Clearly define how decisions are made.

• Feedback Loops: Build mechanisms to evaluate and refine processes.

Roles and Responsibilities
Clarity in roles prevents conflict and boosts efficiency:

• Define Roles: Ensure everyone understands their contributions and boundaries.

• Avoid Overlap: Minimise redundancy through clear role distribution.

• Align with Skills: Assign tasks based on individual strengths.

Organisational Structures
Structure influences how work flows:

• Alignment: Ensure the structure supports team goals.

• Adaptability: Build flexibility to respond to change.

• Collaboration: Establish clear pathways for communication and decision-making.

By addressing these areas with purpose, you can design a system that aligns with your aspirations and drives meaningful change.

Step 4: Reflect

Once you’ve implemented a change, give it time to take root, then reflect on the results. Are reality and your aspirations moving closer together?

A retrospective with the people involved—your manager, stakeholders, or team—can be a powerful way to assess progress. It creates space to celebrate wins, identify areas for further adjustment, and maintain alignment with your goals.

Remember: The purpose of a system is what it does. If you’re not satisfied with the outcomes, it’s up to you to identify gaps, make adjustments, and take action. Even small, intentional changes can ripple outward, creating the impact you’re striving for without the stress.

I was staring at my new nemesis, a Google document called ‘Investment Memo’.

An ‘Investment Memo’ is a structured document that explains the investment opportunity of a company. And it was my task to write one for Collective Flow.

.

Someone who had walked the early stage start up fundraising path before me had been incredibly kind and shared a version of their ‘Investment Memo’.

And I spent three days trying to follow the path they had tread.

By day two I felt like I was wearing an anchor and that I should just give up.

Which was true.

What follows is a speech I shared last week with my local Toastmasters Club, in the midst of my journey following someone else’s path.

Wayfinding Leadership

My talk tonight is about wayfinding and business.

What lead me to to this talk, is following the signs.

You see, I went to Moana 2 this weekend with my seven year old son, Cohen.

Saturday was the perfect day for a movie, grey skies and drizzles that never really turned to rain you could feel good about being inside.

On that drizzly day I sauntered into our lounge and looked over to Cohen laying on the couch and said, "Should we go see Moana?"

He looked at me and replied, "Only if there's popcorn."

So an hour later, with popcorn in hand and leftover Halloween candy in my pockets, we sat down to watch Moana 2. And it wasn't long into the movie that my eyes watering.

The story of Moana is the story of the rediscovery of celestial navigation.

We often don't realise how impressive it is that Maori navigated to Aotearoa with only the stars and their ability to read the natural world as a guide.

Watching Moana go on her own journey into the unknown reminded me of the lessons we can learn from waka navigation.

Lessons of letting go and walking into the unknown with only the signs around us as a guide.

Ninety minutes later we walked to the car for our five minute drive home. Cohen filled with contraband candy, and me with determination to get to my Kindle.

Watching Moana sailing on her double hulled waka was a sign. A sign to finally start reading a book I bought over a year ago.

Wayfinding Leadership.

Wayfinding Leadership presents a new way of leading by looking to traditional waka navigators or wayfinders for the skills and behaviours needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

As soon as we were back home I started reading and realised within 20 digital page flips that I was building software for wayfinder leaders.

This book was explaining the exact ethos behind my software startup Collective Flow.

Traditional navigators know what’s most important is to be heading in the right direction, you just need to figure enough things out to know which way you should be headed.

They are using multi-layered ways of knowing. Connecting with the currents, reading the clouds and the stars. Watching the flight of birds.

They have a clear understanding of where they want to go and are connected to that end destination, constantly course correcting to pull that.

The world is the compass, and the wayfinder and the waka is the needle. Constantly learning and repivoting towards their destination.

Where the western way is planned. Western navigators relied on maps and planned routes.

When things don't go as planned, it's about getting back to the plan without questioning if that plan is right in the first place.

And this analytical, head based way of navigating is how we approach business as well.

Imagine this. You are a business leader. It's nearing the start of the financial year and you go on an offsite - a catered affair at a venue with white boards and post-it notes.

Your mission. To come up with the plan for the year.

With five of your colleagues, a few whiteboard markers and hundreds of post its. You got it.

The path to greatness.

The path to success.

You get back to the office the next week and have a two hour meeting with the rest of your team over Zoom.

You explain the grand plan in deep detail to absolute silence.

You ask for questions at the end, and there are none.

It must be because it's so clear. The perfect plan.

Until the next week.

When something urgent happens.

And everyone keeps doing what they were already doing, because they didn't hear how they were a part of the plan.

So then there's another meeting.

And another meeting.

And another meeting.

So much time is spent discussing the plan, that you often veer off course from what you were actually trying to achieve.

But what is the alternative?

Imagine instead, the same group of people get together for an offsite.

It's still catered, there are still post-its but there's a different focus.

The focus is on the destination.

How could they create a shared picture of where they want to be in 12 months time?

Then they spend as much time talking about where they are at today in relation to their desired future.

Then, create a shared picture of where they are at today.

We want to transform our business with the potential of AI, enabling our team to do the most impactful work that energises them in four days a week and letting the machines do the rest.

But today, our team are overloaded and don't understand how to utilise AI. They've tried ChatGPT a few times, but haven't had the headspace to really consider the potential.

They spend two days learning about the skills and experience each person and the teams they represent bring to the jounrey through storytelling.

It's only then that they have a clear understanding of where they want to be, where they are today and who they have on the waka with them that they discuss how to navigate towards their destination.

They don't focus on charting the entire journey, but the first step.

Through the dialogue they discover one of the team has a deep passion for new technology. Another leads a that isn't bogged down with business as usual and has the space to experiment.

They decide to run a pilot, and setup a rhythm of check points to repeat what they've just done.

Reconnect with what they are aiming towards.

Understand their progress to date, and decide on the path forward.

They get back to the office and each person in the meeting spends time helping others in the organisation to connect with the vision. They meet with people individually to clarify their understanding and how they fit in and to learn about what opportunities they see for contributing.

They make progress, they adapt.

And if they're onto it, they use Collective Flow to support them to move forward together.

No meetings about meetings.

Everyone understands the big picture and how they fit into it.

And they have the space to reflect on how they can bring their skills and abilities to make the shared vision a reality.

If we want to achieve things that haven't been done before, we need to step into the unknown.

It's scary, but not as scary as sailing across thousands of kilometers of open water with a wooden waka and the stars.

We can learn from the indigenous cultures around us.

Whether it's the Maori waka navigators, African trackers navigating the wilds, or Aboriginal navigating the desert.

There are principles to how they achieved what has never been done before to achieve the impossible.

We just need to follow the signs and give credit where credit is due.

A shift in approach

By Thursday afternoon I had enough of that Investment Memo.

I decided to put it down and focus instead on being present for my meetings the next day. Letting go was the best thing I could do, it was in this space where I stopped grasping onto how it “should be” that inspiration struck.

In a traditional Investment Memo, you’re portraying your business as if you know the way and just need a bunch of money to deliver on the path you’ve set.

The thing is, we have a lot of unanswered questions which made an Investment Memo a hard document to write.

After a meeting with a potential investor us co-founders connected and defined the destination we were aiming for - the traction we needed to be attractive to investors. We then looked at where our product was and decided on a small pivot which would enable us to demonstrate the value of Collective Flow with customers in a short four week pilot.

It was letting go of the way we “should” do things, and getting clear on where we wanted to be that enabled us to find the best path forward. The Investment Memo is part of that path, it’s just not the next step.

So if you ever find yourself banging your head against a wall, I implore you to stop and reflect on what you are aiming for and where you are.

I promise that inspiration lies in the space between.

The guilt

If you’re like me, you might feel guilty when you take a nap, and sneak away for a moment of shut-eye so no one knows you’ve taken that time for yourself. This guilt is all too common. I remember a colleague who would sneak out to her car during lunch to nap while she was pregnant. She was exhausted but didn’t tell many people because she feared judgment. Resting during the day just wasn’t “something you do.” Rest is something you allow yourself only after being productive.

Yet, in Spain, midday naps are the norm. Whole towns shut down for siesta—people have their largest meal of the day and take a nap. This stark contrast makes it clear, cultural norms shape our thoughts about rest.

When I woke up from that Saturday afternoon nap the guilt lingered. I didn’t recognise the thoughts behind the feeling of guilt until the next day when my husband went grocery shopping. As soon as he left the house I snuck away for another nap—this time on the lounge floor, blanket over my head. I didn’t want to get too comfortable because deep down, I didn’t think I deserved the rest.

When I came to 20 minutes later I realised I was being ridiculous and picked up a book I’d owned for years: Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey.

The Nap Bishop

Hersey describes grind culture as “a collaboration between white supremacy and capitalism”.

She explains that these learned behaviours —our need to constantly produce and the guilt we feel about resting—aren’t natural. These behaviours have been shaped by societal structures that prioritise productivity over humanity.

If we think about what connects capitalism and white supremacy, one thing becomes clear: neither works like nature.

They are normalised systems, but they don’t align with the way life or ecosystems naturally operate. Nature is inherent.

What’s inherent to a bird is to fly, nest, migrate. For humans, what’s inherent is thinking, feeling, creating, being in community. Feelings of shame and guilt might have historically helped us belong, but the actions that trigger those feelings—like guilt over resting—are learned.

And since they’ve been learned, we have the opportunity to unlearn them.

Unlearning

So, will I nap again next weekend? Probably. Will I feel guilt and shame? Likely. But I’ll reflect on why I feel this way and rest anyways. I urge you to do the same.

It’s too easy to act on emotion without interrogating the thought behind it. When you feel a negative emotion about taking an action, ask yourself: Why do I feel this way? What assumptions underlie this feeling?

Remember: normal doesn’t mean natural. To get back to our natural state and find our version of flying like a flock of birds we need to challenge the status quo of our thinking.

I realised this when I first read Regenerative Leadership by Laura Storm and Giles Hutchins. I didn’t feel like I was encountering this living systems-based approach to business for the first time; rather, I was recognising how I had already applied this thinking in my role leading teams as a Group Product Manager at Xero and later at Sharesies.

Below are are some of the ways I was working like nature without realising it—and you might be too.

Retrospectives

The humble retrospective is one of my favourite meetings. 

A retrospective is a meeting focused on improvement, where a group of people working together reflect on their progress—what’s going well, what isn’t, and what needs to change.

Retrospectives are flexible; you can use them to close off a project or, even better, hold them periodically while working together as a team towards a common goal—enabling you to adapt and refine your approach as you learn.

But did you know this simple habit of reflection aligns with how nature works—specifically, the cyclical rhythms of life all around us?

If you haven’t noticed the cyclical nature of life, you can learn it’s rhythm by paying attention to your breath.

You’ll notice that on the inhale, there is a beginning and a growing depth to your breath as air fills your lungs and belly. Then comes a transition—a point we can think of as the “death” of the breath—where we let go and release the air that no longer serves us. This air moves into the environment, and the entire process repeats itself.

You can see these cycles reflected in the seasons. In spring, we witness new birth that blossoms into the growth of summer. As autumn arrives, we begin to shed what no longer serves us, and finally, in winter, the resources we’ve released acts as fertiliser that that enables new growth when spring returns.

Nature is cyclical, and when we pay attention, we see cycles everywhere.

Even in retrospectives, where we reflect on our growth, identify what we need to let go of, and integrate this insight to improve moving forward.

Who knew a meeting could be so magical?

Empowered product teams

One of my favourite ways to organise product teams is through a concept called empowered product teams, made popular by Marty Kagan. This approach involves setting up cross-functional teams that possess all the capabilities needed to achieve a specific mission.

These teams have clear KPIs defining what success looks like, as well as habits and accountability structures to ensure they are moving in the right direction.

What sets empowered product teams apart is that, within the boundaries of their mission and measures of success, they have full creativity and decision-making power over how they organise themselves to reach their goals.

They are empowered within these constraints and can function as a (somewhat) autonomous unit.

Empowered product teams came instantly to mind when I learned about the ‘nodal’ living systems pattern from nRhythm.

This is precisely what empowered product teams enable in software development.

And, if you think about it, it’s similar to how our bodies function.

We don’t have to consciously think about breathing, digesting, or circulating blood—it just happens. Each process occurs autonomously.

There’s no conscious coordination involved.

The organs and systems within you are like empowered teams working together to make you, well, you.

Team Topologies

Empowered product teams in organisations aren’t enough; we also need to thoughtfully design teams and their interactions to build organisations that are greater than the sum of their parts. A key element of this is the circulation of energy and resources, which drives value throughout the organisation.

This reflects the holistic nature of life (and business).

If you’ve ever dissected a frog before, you understand that a living frog is definitely greater than the sum of its parts laid out on a table.

In a living frog, there are distinct boundaries between different organs, yet there is a continuous, rhythmic flow of inputs and outputs that sustains health and vitality. Healthy circulation plays a vital role.

When I learned about this pattern in living systems, it immediately reminded me of Team Topologies, a framework for organising software development teams to ensure ‘fast flow of value.’

Team Topologies helps organisations create healthy circulation by intentionally designing the boundaries between teams and the interactions between them, enabling faster and more effective flow.

This approach acknowledges that how we structure teams has a direct impact on their wellbeing, delivery speed, and the quality of the experiences they create for customers.

When we don’t consciously design software development teams, we risk creating teams that struggle to deliver. This can happen because they are overwhelmed with too many responsibilities or are too reliant on external functions to complete their work. We also run the risk of creating teams that deliver experiences that mirror the organisation's structure rather than meeting customer needs. 

Thoughtful team design and interaction patterns, as emphasised in Team Topologies, can mean the difference between an organisation that thrives and one that merely functions.

(Purposeful) meetings

Meetings have a bad reputation. When done poorly, they can suck the life out of you; but when done well, they facilitate the flow of information, build shared understanding, and create the conditions for meaningful impact.

One tactic I used as a Group Product Manager at Xero was establishing meeting rhythms to support our product team to become high performing.

We started with a retrospective to set a vision for what we wanted to become as a group of product leaders and assessed where we were at. From there, we created a cadence of meetings designed to help us grow into the leaders we aspired to be.

These interconnected rituals allowed our team of platform product managers—who had no existing best practices—to evolve into a group known for a strong product practice. By developing rituals that supported capability building, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement, we created the space needed to make this transformation happen.

Looking back at the rhythms we developed at Xero, I see how they mirrored the natural cycles around us, and I now understand why these habits led to such positive change.

They worked like nature.

To use the analogy from The Way It Is—we first need to see the ‘water we’re swimming in’ before we can ponder what it means.

What does it mean to be an interconnected living whole?

We only need to look to nature to see both the magic and the fragility of the ecosystems around us. When an introduced species disrupts a native ecosystem, or when a single fish population declines, it can set off a chain reaction that affects countless other species. These are signs of the interconnectivity around us.

Yet, when we look inside our houses and workplaces, we see the world differently.

We create a window between us and nature and see ourselves as separate from it.

When nature encroaches on the boundaries that we've created—be it rats in the ceiling, an ant infestation, or mould in the shower—it’s an annoyance we work to eradicate.

But what if we saw this encroaching nature as a sign of a bigger truth?

That we’re part of nature, not separate from it.

Seeing ourselves as separate from nature is the perspective we need to shift to address the many challenges we are facing today.

While we notice when nature is encroaching on us, we are often blind to our own impact on the world around us.

We tend to see the world—especially business—through a mechanistic lens, like it’s a game of Monopoly. Monopoly works like a machine—it has set rules, clear boundaries, and predictable outcomes. But life, like nature, is far more complex. It doesn't play by those rules. Life isn’t a closed system or machine where we can calculate all the variables, and neither is business.

Luckily, there is hope.

Hope in a new metaphor.

What if we changed the metaphor for business, from business as a machine to business as an aspect of nature?

We don’t separate the bird from the flock of birds in our view of what is nature, so it makes sense to consider how we organise as a collective as part of nature too. 

We have the opportunity to shift how we approach business—not as something separate and mechanical, but as a living system. One that’s interconnected, constantly evolving, and thriving when we work with it, not against it.

In the next Substack, we’ll dive into which business practices you may already be using that work like nature.

For some of us, we constantly challenge the status quo. We are genuinely curious about how the status quo came to be and inspired to change it to something better.

Yet even those with a natural ability to ‘see the unseen’ can have the rug pulled from underneath them when things considered to be solid as stone shift as if they’re sand instead.

The rug was pulled out from under me when I returned to work as a new mother and had a promotion into my dream role. Until that point in my career I saw myself on equal footing with everyone in the office.

It wasn’t until a privilege I didn’t realise I had was taken away - the privilege of no dependents - that I realised it wasn’t a level playing field.

It was the shock I needed to start seeing the world in a different way.

Shocks to the system

Shock is what drives change - be it a forest fire, a hurricane, a global pandemic, a new child. It’s these events that drive us to react and behave differently.

And we have been facing a lot of shocks lately as a collective.

Economic recession. Climate change. Geopolitical unrest. AI.

Yet with shock, comes opportunity.

Just like COVID changed the norms for many to working from home, these new collective crises could be the shock needed for a collective shift of something intangible.

How we see the world, a shift to seeing the world in systems.

What’s a system?

If fish are wondering what water is, you’re likely wondering ‘What the hell is a system?’

Systems are the water we’re swimming in.

Everything is a system - complex wholes of interconnected parts.

And there are systems within systems.

I’m a living system, as are you.

We are whole, yet we contain wholes, like our heart, lungs, liver.

And we’re part of larger wholes, like our families, our workplaces, our communities.

What awoke in me when I returned to work as a new mum was a systemic view of the world around me.

I realised how my becoming a mother impacted my performance at work. Which made me reconsider the years I spent travelling around the world for work with fathers, never once questioning who was looking after their children.

I realised that the film industry’s standard 10 and 3/4 hour days weren’t made for parents, and dictated that I take the primary caregiver role with my flexible role in a software company.

And I also realised that my performance at work was impacted by the lack of mentorship I had as a new group product manager.

Taken together, I was in a world of pain. A world of pain that enabled me to move from seeing in parts, to seeing in relationships.

Systems thinking

Seeing in relationships isn’t something that you have or you don’t.

It’s a skill that can be learnt, and often goes by the name of systems thinking.

It was systems thinking that helped me re-shape my environment at work to evolve from an under performer in a world of pain to a thriving high performing leader.

And we need to be systems thinkers to respond effectively to complex challenges like climate change and leading successful businesses in a rapidly changing world.

This is how we find Collective Flow.

Give it a try

The Iceberg model is a great way to build your systems thinking muscle and question ‘the way it is’.

The model works by asking a series of questions that unpack an event understand the patterns, structures and mental models beneath the surface that ma have influenced it.

Why don’t you try using the Iceberg model below with the recent events of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

What mental models may have contributed to these powerful storms?

I’d love to hear in the comments.

Questioning ‘the way it is’ can be uncomfortable, but it can also be transformative.

And often, just the transformation we need to find purpose and hope in a changing world.

When you take the journey to seeing in relationship, you may end up truly being in relationship and notice that we’re nothing without everything else.

Beneath ‘the way it is’ is magic.

Starlings follow a few simple rules: stay close, don’t crash, and move with the group. These basics create this complex, stunning behaviour we call a murmuration.

How do we, as people, tap into that kind of effortless, collective movement where we’re not just working side-by-side but actually creating something bigger than ourselves?

Small groups have figured it out, that’s why the agile movement was so successful. But where the agile movement falls down is at scale. 

How do you support a flock of humans to move together with agility, cohesion and not knock anyone down? 

This is the future of work, and what we’ll be exploring here in Find Collective Flow. 

If you’re wondering how you got here, the World Changing Business Substack has evolved into Find Collective Flow.

Every two weeks, we’ll dive into topics that explore how we can rethink business and creativity by drawing inspiration from nature. We’ll look at how living systems can inform how we lead, create, and adapt in this rapidly changing world.

For the non accountants among us, that means I'm back in Excel and back to my accounting roots. I'm just accounting for something a bit different. This thing called carbon.

Carbon accounting (or greenhouse gas accounting) has been around since 2002, and is a way for businesses to measure and quantify the greenhouse gas emissions from operating their business.

Think of it as another way of measuring the performance of a business. While there is a growing legislative movement for carbon accounting and climate related disclosures, the real value isn’t in the calculation or words. It’s in how that information is used to help organisations transition to a low emissions future.

After meeting the co-founders of Sumday, a carbon accounting tool for accountants, I decided to return to my accounting roots and try out carbon accounting.

Fast forward to today and I am now a Sumday Certified Advisor! 🎉

I have had a few mindblown moments as I learnt how to do carbon accounting and prepare emissions statements (the output of a carbon accounting).

In this newsletter I'm sharing my big 'ahas' from learning about carbon accounting and non-financial reporting.

Aha #1 Accountants are made for this

The book Six Capitals: Capitalism, climate change and the accounting revolution that can save the planet made a big impact on me when I read the first edition in 2016. It made it obvious that accountants and new measures of performance play a crucial role in supporting the global transition to a low emissions economy.

Fast forward to 2024 and it's clear to both non-accountants and accountants alike that carbon accounting could benefit from the same level of rigour, attention to detail and assurance that accountants provide for financial information.

But what I didn't realise until I started my learning journey with Sumday is that.... I'd love it?!

The process of preparing emission assessments is goddamn enjoyable work for an accountant - It's the exact type of work that we get lost in.

Reading through standards, understanding how to apply the standard to your unique context, gathering data (maybe not the most fun part when no one gets back to you), preparing workpapers, setting up a reporting process, partnering with others in the business…

This is the bread and butter of accounting!

So if you like traditional accounting, you’ll love carbon accounting.

Aha #2 Carbon is a currency

Before starting Sumday’s Introduction to Carbon Accounting course I had a limited understanding of carbon accounting and emissions.

If anything, I was a bit disinterested as I thought that focusing purely on carbon emissions was limiting as there are many other planetary boundaries that are in danger of being crossed that we need to consider as well.

I also was wondering, why just focus on carbon dioxide? Is methane okay now or something?

I quickly realised that 'carbon accounting' is actually 'emissions accounting', with carbon as the base currency.

This is just like financial accounting, where we choose a base currency for reporting purposes (for example, USD) and then convert the value of bank accounts and transactions in different currencies (for example, NZD) to show in US dollars.

Our job as carbon accountants (and carbon software) is to as accurately as possible measure emissions and then translate them to carbon equivalents for easy comparability.

For example, 1kg of methane has the equivalent impact on global warming as 29.8kg of carbon dioxide.

Which raises the question for me as how many cow farts make up a KG of methane?*

Aha #3 We need all hands on deck

“Emissions of the anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG) that drive climate change and its impacts around the world are growing. 

According to climate scientists, global carbon dioxide emissions must be cut by as much as 85 percent below 2000 levels by 2050 to limit global mean temperature increase to 2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Temperature rise above this level will produce increasingly unpredictable and dangerous impacts for people and ecosystems. As a result, the need to acerbate efforts to reduce anthropogenic GHG emissions is increasingly urgent.

Existing government policies will not sufficiently solve the problem. Leadership and innovation from business is vital to making progress.”

GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard

When I read this on the first page of the GHG Scope 3 standard I looked around the co-working space I was in with wide eyes wondering if anyone else realised the radical change needed to mitigate the impact of climate change on future generations.

I then asked myself an obvious question, how are we doing so far?

The answer is, not great.

Global emissions are up and to the right, with the only recent reductions happening when our economy was in shambles during the global financial crisis and Covid-19 pandemic.

By this point my eyes were bulging out of my head and I was walking around the co-working space saying to anyone who would listen, ‘Did you know….?’

Not many did, or understand what they could do to change things.

This isn’t something that we can solve for individually, but what if we banded together as an industry?

Accountants are well placed to support this shift by applying their skills to new realms like carbon accounting. That’s what this accountant is up to.

Anyone with me? ✊

*back to cow farts. According to ChatGPT, it’s not farts it’s burps! One cow can burp between 70 and 120KGs of methane a year, which means it takes about 4 days for a single cow to release a KG of methane into the atmosphere. The more you know! 💫

One of my intentions for the year is to share ideas I’m exploring with World Changing Business on Substack, so here I am.  

In this article I partner with ChatGPT to explore a question that inspired me: 

Can the operating model that revolutionised how software products are created and supported be what sustainability teams to scale?

Read on to learn more.

A call for change in Sustainability

“Now, more than ever, society is leaning on businesses to lead us through the climate and ecological crisis. At the same time the corporate world has never expressed more willingness to rise to this challenge. This offers cause for great optimism, but it also forces the recognition of a significant problem – corporate sustainability isn’t working and needs to dramatically change to solve the problems the world needs it to.”

Enough: A review of corporate sustainability in a world running out of time

In June 2022 a sassy group of sustainability experts at Ernst & Young published a report titled 'Enough: A review of corporate sustainability in a world running out of time.'

One would expect the report to be a dry evaluation of corporate social responsibility, but rather it was an inspiring call to arms to execs and in-house sustainability experts to drive the radical change needed to address climate change. A call to arms that made me think about the book 'The Phoenix Project'.

The lightbulb moment happened when I asked myself:

How can organisations transform their business models to be sustainable when the responsibility often falls on the shoulders of small teams of sustainability and climate risk experts?

The short answer is, they can’t without breaking down some walls. 

The Phoenix Project

The Phoenix Project is a novel that explains the complexity of developing software, and the challenges faced when interdependent teams aren't working well together. I picked it up in 2017 about a year into my role as Product Owner at Xero and my mind was blown that the ways of working we had adopted in our team were ‘revolutionary’.

In the story, software development teams creating new software were unwittingly causing their Operations teams pain. The software teams were releasing unreliable code resulting in a different team (Operations) being woken up in the middle of the night to address issues that they didn’t create. 

Now, this isn’t to say the software team in the story is all bad. They just weren’t thinking past releasing software, they didn’t realise what they were doing had negative consequences beyond their team. 

This is similar to the challenge that in-house sustainability teams face. They have accountability for reducing carbon emissions, yet decisions from other teams can negatively impact that goal. 

For example, a product team creates plastic packaging for a new physical product which sets back the sustainability goal to have 100% biodegradable packaging by 2025. 

Both sustainability and operations teams face the common challenges of working with humans:

• Resistance to change: Despite the obvious necessity for a change in practices, there is often resistance to major change within organisations.

• Insufficient knowledge and understanding: There's often a lack of understanding or awareness and its importance which impedes progress.

• Lack of resources: In many organisations, budgets and resources for initiatives may be limited.

• Working in functional silos: Busy teams often lack the time to collaborate 

Enter DevOps

The hero of the Phoenix Project, and of many operations teams, is a DevOps model. 

DevOps, in essence, is a software development and delivery process that encourages collaboration between the traditionally siloed teams of software development and operations. 

The DevOps model required a mindset shift for Operations teams to move from being ‘experts’ to ‘enablers’ that supports teams to take on new responsibilities by empowering them with the skills to make good decisions and specialist support when needed.

This mindset shift turns what was once a combative ‘us vs them’ relationship into a collaborative and empowering relationship that led to great results for the teams AND their business and customers in the Phoenix Project.

The thing is, it’s not just a story. The Phoenix Project is a narrative that explains a movement that is already successful, and we are seeing the Ops movement grow across different domains: ProductOps, DesignOps, SecOps.  

So what about GreenOps?

With that, I leave you with a ChatGPT created parable of what a world with GreenOps could look like.

At this stage this is only an idea, I would love to know if there are any sustainability teams out there that have applied an approach like this or are interested in trying it out.

The Transition Project

In the heart of a bustling metropolis, within the towering walls of a mighty financial institution, a quiet revolution was taking place. The bank, like many other giants in the industry, had long been focused on profits, growth, and shareholder value. But within the corporate towers, a dedicated team of innovators was brewing a different kind of change.

Meet Sarah, a brilliant and passionate environmentalist with a dream. She had been with the bank for years, working in obscurity and silence, all the while nurturing her vision of empowering others within the organization to make sustainable decisions. She knew the world was changing, and the financial sector needed to adapt. But her ideas faced skepticism from traditionalists who saw sustainability as a 'soft' issue, unrelated to the bank's core operations.

Determined to turn her dream into a reality, Sarah gathered a small team of like-minded individuals. They called themselves 'The GreenOps Team,' and they shared a singular mission: to empower their colleagues to integrate sustainability into their daily decisions and actions.

Their journey began with education. They spent months studying and learning the intricate workings of the bank's vast operation, from data centers to loan processing, customer service to trading floors. Sarah knew that for sustainability to be successful, it had to align with and enhance the bank's business objectives.

After understanding the bank's processes, they formulated a sustainability strategy. But instead of enforcing a top-down approach, their strategy was to empower employees at all levels to take ownership of sustainability within their own domains. It wasn't about just reducing carbon footprints; it was about finding new opportunities and efficiencies. For instance, they realized that optimizing data centers could save energy costs, and that offering green financial products could attract ethically-minded investors.

To make this transformation possible, Sarah and her team adopted the principles of DevOps that had revolutionized the IT world. Just as DevOps sought to bridge the gap between development and operations, the GreenOps Team aimed to unite the financial and sustainability departments, forging a bond that could lead to profitable and sustainable innovations.

The GreenOps Team acted as change agents, facilitating collaboration between the different departments and teams. They provided tools and resources that made it easier for employees to incorporate sustainable practices into their work. They implemented automation tools to track and reduce waste, held regular 'Sustainability Sprints' to address immediate issues, and built a culture of continuous improvement.

With the help of the GreenOps Team, employees from all corners of the bank began to make sustainable decisions in their daily work. They reduced paper usage, optimized data centers, and sought sustainable sourcing for office supplies. The transformation was bottom-up, driven by the enthusiasm and commitment of employees themselves.

Soon, they started seeing tangible results. The bank was saving money, attracting new customers interested in eco-friendly investments, and even receiving recognition for its sustainability initiatives. The change wasn't imposed from the top down; it was an organic shift empowered by every individual in the organization.

The bank, once hesitant to embrace sustainability, was now leading the charge in the financial sector. They were not only profitable but also truly sustainable. The story of Sarah and the GreenOps Team serves as a testament to the power of empowering individuals across the organization to make sustainable decisions, proving that with the right strategies and a shared commitment, even a large, traditional institution could transform itself into a pioneer of sustainability.

After reading the A16z ‘The Techno-Optimist Manifesto’ I now know that I am not.

I assumed a techno-optimist is optimistic about the potential of technology to help us navigate and build a future better than we can imagine. 

That’s what I believe but with a major caveat. 

I also believe we need to learn how to be in right relationship with life and the natural world, and use technology to support living in right relationship, rather than continuing to degrade the natural world and society through ‘business as usual’. 

Yet this view of corporate responsibility is described as the enemy in the Manifesto.

As someone passionate about the opportunity ESG (environment, social and governance) reporting poses to create a low emissions and sustainable future, I was a bit taken aback.

One thing technology of today does well is keep us in a bubble of people who share our world view and ideas. I feel gratitude to come across this perspective so far from my own as it helps me remain curious and understanding of people who think differently to me.

Because it wasn’t every idea in the Manifesto that I disagreed with. I’m thankful for the opportunity to clarify my own worldview and pin down what I think.

And I think I’m a people-optimist, not a techno-optimist.

My optimism is in the people who build the tools. The people who build the organisations and teams who build the tools. The accountants and finance professionals that support the organisations and teams who build the tools. 

And yes, A16z fund teams who build the organisations who build the tools and come from an opposing ideological world view. Yet I’m still optimistic.

Subscribe now