Learning from nature
'Nature-Based Leadership', and how to support thinker-doers through the quiet teachings of the outdoors
Those who try to create the new need more than ideas and plans. They need grounding, inner strength, inspiration, and energy that lasts. The best source I know is nature. A walk in the forest, a swim in a cold lake, a mountain hike or a day of foraging can restore us. But there are also people who know how to guide us into nature in deeper ways, where the outdoors becomes not just a backdrop but a teacher.
One of them is my friend and mentor Göran Gennvi. For decades, he has been helping people step out of the rhythms of control and into a slower rhythm: the rhythm of forest, mountain, and sea. He has led entrepreneurs into the silence of the archipelago, invited executives to lie down in alpine meadows, and encouraged young leaders to be alone through several long days and nights on a mountainside. His work is not about escape. It is about remembering what it means to be human when the world trembles — and about helping seeds to grow, by offering what all growth needs: sunlight, water, and nutrients.
Göran’s path has been shaped by a circle of elders. From Chief Oren Lyons, faithkeeper of the Onondaga Nation, he learned the ethic of stewardship stretching seven generations forward. From Sami elder Laila Spik, who taught him her people’s animistic traditional ecological knowledge shared via storytelling and practical show-and-tell. From pathfinder John Stokes, he inherited the practice of tracking, mentoring, and earth-based teaching as ways of passing on indigenous wisdom to new generations. From John P. Milton, ecologist and founder of the Way of Nature, he absorbed the discipline of vision quest and the practice of listening to nature in solitude. From Nils Faarlund, mountaineer and teacher of friluftsliv, he carried the Nordic tradition of life lived simply and humbly outdoors. These voices echo through his work, grounding it in traditions far older than our present systems.
Nature-Based Leadership
The phrase “nature-based leadership” may sound like a niche offering, but in Göran’s hands it is something far more elemental. It is not about sprinkling a bit of greenery on corporate training. It is about re-orienting leadership itself. I asked him to define what he puts into the words Nature-based leadership, and here is his answer: "Nature-Based Leadership is a methodology where leadership practices are informed by the principles and systems of the natural world, fostering mindfulness, presence, and a deep connection to the environment. Key aspects include applying nature's resilience and interconnectedness to organizations, using sensory immersion in natural settings, integrating ecopsychology and mindfulness, and cultivating qualities like authenticity, deep presence, and trust in inherent wisdom. The goal is to create more adaptive, resilient, and connected leaders and organizations that are attuned to their impact on themselves, their communities, and the planet." Not bad, eh?
On this path, Göran is truly a trailblazer, inspiring more and more others. In fact, barely a week goes by (at least in Sweden) without some new actor offering these kinds of experiences. At its heart lies a simple shift: nature is not a backdrop for human action — the more-than-human world is a teacher in her own right.
That shift changes everything. Instead of leading through control, you learn to lead through relationship. Instead of racing for outcomes, you learn to move at the pace of listening. Instead of treating complexity as a problem to solve, you begin to experience it as a living system to be in dialogue with.
The practices are simple. Paying close attention to what surrounds you. Gentle body movements inspired by Qigong and Taichi. A silent, slow walk in the forest. A conversation circle under open sky. Various meditative practices. None of these are designed to produce quick answers. They cultivate presence, humility, and trust. They remind leaders that resilience does not come from domination, but from alignment with forces larger than themselves.
I have seen it firsthand. In Lijiang valley, beneath the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, Göran and I invited Chinese executives to walk barefoot and blindfolded near a lake, guided only by the hands of their companions. What began in fear soon became trust. Later, lying on the grass under a starlit sky, they discovered not just new insights about leadership, but a renewed sense of belonging to a universe far greater than their spreadsheets. In the outer archipelago of Stockholm, an executive team from a sportswear company found themselves stripped of titles and routines, left instead with silence, sea, and one another. The archipelago even makes possible a unique experience: spending a day or three completely alone on a tiny island. (I should mention that Göran also brings decades of experiences from the world of business, including as a faculty member at a leading executive business program). Out of experiences like these comes not just personal renewal, but new directions for the company’s philosophy and design.
These are not escapes from reality. They are rehearsals for it. Because our world is becoming more like whitewater: turbulent, unpredictable, impossible to master. The leaders who will help seeds grow in such conditions are not those who tighten their grip, but those who have practiced letting go, listening, and moving with the current.
A Builder of Thinker-Doers
The work of transformation is not only about ideas or strategies. It is about the people who hold space for others to grow, who embody another way of being, who tend the inner soil where seeds can take root.
A few years ago I came across a Chinese expression: 知行者 (zhī xíng zhě). It means “the one who knows and acts.” Not the thought-leader, not the entrepreneur, not the wise elder — but something that carries a little of each. The word stayed with me. It felt closer to what this moment asks of us.
And even thinker-doers need guides and teachers. Göran is one of them. A builder of thinker-doers, a gardener of beginnings.
In times when systems strain, it is easy to forget that renewal comes quietly. A night alone on a mountainside. A circle of strangers sharing stories under the stars. A body moving more gently, in rhythm with breath and with wind. From such small acts, resilience grows.
For a million small beginnings to become more than fragments, they need grounding and nourishment. They need people who remind us that nature is not outside of us, but the field in which we live, act, and belong. For decades, Göran Gennvi has been doing just that. And for that, I am grateful — not only as a colleague and co-creator, but as a friend and mentor.
Maybe you can think about - and share - your own experiences of learning from nature, and how time spent outdoors has made you better at what you do?
Lovely homage to Göran Gennvi ❤️
I blush and bow, Alexander. I'm pleased that we are on this journey together 🏔🦅