In nature, nothing grows endlessly. Trees don’t keep reaching. Roots don’t spread forever. Rivers don’t flow in straight lines. Growth, in living systems, is intelligent. It’s responsive. It’s in relationship with everything else.

And yet, in most of our organisations—and in much of our leadership training—we’ve inherited a very different story.

We’re told that scaling is success. That more is better. That efficiency, speed, and replication are the highest goals. That if something works, we should “roll it out” as fast and as far as possible. That growth is a linear upward curve—and if it plateaus, something must be broken.

But living systems don’t work that way. And neither do humans.

Growth in living systems is contextual. Trees grow differently depending on the soil, the sunlight, the other plants nearby. They grow until the ecosystem says “enough.” Not “stop”—but balance. It’s not stagnation. It’s integration.

As leaders, we’ve been conditioned to override this wisdom. We push through signals from our bodies. We ignore exhaustion, disconnection, dissonance. We think of rest as a reward, not a rhythm. And we apply that same logic to our teams, our systems, our strategies.

But what if we stopped trying to scale everything?

What if we asked a different question—not “How can we grow this?” but “What wants to grow here?”

Leadership, when informed by the wisdom of living systems, asks us to lead with a different kind of intelligence. One that honours rhythm over replication. Depth over speed. Relationship over reach.

This doesn’t mean we stop growing. It means we grow differently.

It means noticing when growth is outpacing coherence. When we’re expanding at the cost of connection. When the drive to produce is eroding the very foundations of trust, creativity, and resilience.

And it means embracing the idea that not everything is meant to scale.

Some things are meant to stay small, intimate, handcrafted. Some things are seasonal. Some things need to decompose before something new can emerge. Nature isn’t afraid of death, decay, or dormancy. It trusts the cycle.

What would leadership look like if we trusted the cycle too?

If we stopped forcing momentum, and started listening more deeply to where life is already moving—inside our teams, inside ourselves?

Living systems show us that real growth is regenerative. It nourishes what it touches. It doesn’t leave burnout in its wake. It doesn’t require endless sacrifice.

It simply asks us to grow with life, not despite it.

Because leadership isn’t just about what we expand. It’s about what we tend. What we protect. What we’re willing to let change, or even end, for something truer to take root. 🌱

Who is Melis Senova?

I am a coach and advisor to design leaders, C-level executives and leaders in government. My work in This Human is dedicated to the next generation of designers and leaders.

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