Many organizations have embraced sustainability frameworks, circular economy principles, ESG reporting and stakeholder engagement. Yet despite these advances, leaders often experience a persistent gap between improved sustainability performance and the organization's ability to continually adapt, innovate and regenerate. This presentation argues that the missing ingredient is developmental rather than technical. Drawing on systems thinking, Stafford Beer's Viable System Model, developmental theory, Critical Systems Heuristics and practical work with organizations, the session introduces a developmental perspective on regenerative governance. Rather than viewing governance primarily as the allocation of authority or the management of compliance, governance is reframed as the continuous regulation of three developmental tensions inherent in every living system: autonomy and cohesion, stability and diversity, and differentiation and integration. The presentation introduces four governance archetypes—Mission Stewardship, Commons Stewardship, Reciprocity Governance and Ecosystem Development Governance—and shows how each protects a different source of ecosystem vitality. Finally, it presents the concept of the Performance Tree, a practical approach that helps leaders move beyond measuring isolated KPIs toward governing the developmental relationships that generate long-term value. The presentation combines conceptual insights with practical examples from healthcare, platform organizations, regenerative business models and ecosystem collaboration, offering systems practitioners a new way of connecting organizational design, governance and regeneration.
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