Regenerating Life, Work, and the Planet 🌱
Most business books tell you how to “maximize synergy” or “unlock growth potential,” which is usually code for “work harder while your boss buys a boat.” Carol Sanford, on the other hand, has spent decades asking us to stop treating life like a giant vending machine and start treating it like… well, life.
Living Systems
At the core of Sanford’s philosophy is living systems thinking. Instead of chopping problems into isolated parts, she invites us to see the whole: organizations, communities, ecosystems, people—all interconnected, all evolving.
She describes four ways humans tend to operate:
Extract Value – take what you can, leave behind a mess.
Arrest Disorder – frantically mop up the mess.
Do Good – add glitter to the mop (eco-safe glitter, of course, always be responsible ;)
Evolve Capacity – teach everyone to dance so well that the mess never happens in the first place!
The optimal being #4, since it’s about developing the capacity of people and systems to evolve, not just putting duct tape on symptoms. It means businesses (and humans) focusing less on rules and performance reviews and more on unlocking unique potential.
Regeneration in Practice
Sanford’s vision of a regenerative business is one that creates non-extractive value. Think circular value cycles, not linear value chains. Waste is re-used, people grow instead of burn out, ecosystems are restored instead of drained.
For example, when Seventh Generation shifted from being just a “green brand” to seeing itself as part of a whole system, it influenced suppliers and even pushed Walmart to adopt transparent ingredient labeling. One company’s choice rippled outward, benefiting families, forests, and rivers. That’s regeneration: not a niche fix, but a system-wide uplift.
And it’s not about superhero leaders swooping in. Sanford calls it the non-heroic path—slow, steady, powerful, like water shaping rock. Or like finally remembering to water your houseplant before it stages a protest.
Beyond Feedback and Band-Aids
Sanford also challenges the sacred cow of “feedback culture.” In No More Feedback, she argues that endless performance reviews make people anxious, self-conscious, and less creative.
Instead, she advocates for self-reflection, developmental plans, and purpose-driven growth. It’s about individuals learning to self-regulate and expand their capacity, supported by mentors who ask deep questions instead of handing down grades. The result? A workforce—and a community—of self-evolving, intrinsically motivated people.
Planetary Love in Action
Carol Sanford’s work resonates with Love Planet Earth because it’s not about guilt trips or quick fixes. It’s about loving systems back into wholeness—whether that’s a business, an ecosystem, or your own messy, magical life.
Change doesn’t have to be grandiose. It happens through daily choices, small acts, and steady attention to what makes each system unique. It’s practical love in action: feeding the systems that feed us, developing capacity rather than extracting it, and remembering that every action ripples outward.
In other words: stop extracting, start evolving—and maybe, just maybe, help the planet breathe a little easier.
