“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
— Wayne Dyer
A change in the way we see
A few years ago, I had the distinct privilege of sitting next to Jane Goodall at a fundraising dinner at what is now called the World Museum in Amsterdam. Her passing last week brought back vivid memories of that truly inspirational evening. Above all, she taught us to look at chimpanzees not as objects of study, but as fellow lives, reminding us that changing how we see is the beginning of real change.
For decades, the term value creation has been the cornerstone of corporate purpose. Yet, value has long been defined narrowly — as financial gain for shareholders. This definition has guided strategy, governance, and executive reward systems. But what if the very act of seeing differently could change what we see?
When we shift our perception from value extraction to value flow, everything changes. Value is no longer a static outcome measured at quarter’s end. It becomes a living process — something that flows through relationships, ecosystems, and time. It connects the wellbeing of people, the vitality of the planet, and the prosperity of business into a single continuum.
From this perspective, values and value are no longer separate worlds — moral aspiration on one side, economic pragmatism on the other — but two expressions of the same energy. What we truly value shapes the kind of value we create.
The struggle in the middle
If you talk to sustainability directors today, you’ll notice a worrying trend. Many of them are struggling. Just a few years ago, sustainability was the rising star in corporate strategy. ESG funds were booming, and executive teams spoke passionately about purpose. Now, the winds have shifted.
Political and economic pressures are pushing leaders back to short-termism. Shareholders demand quick returns. Politicians are peddling nostalgia — the “good old days” rhetoric — offering comfort instead of courage. It’s easier to sell stability than to steward transformation.
Meanwhile, the sustainability leaders who have spent years getting long-term thinking into corporate DNA suddenly find themselves out of sync with the dominant mood. The boardroom temperature has cooled. Projects are delayed, budgets trimmed, ambitions quietly downgraded.
Yet the underlying reality hasn’t changed. The need for deep, systemic interventions to avert ecological and societal collapse has only grown more urgent. Climate systems are destabilising faster than predicted. Supply chains are under strain. Trust in politicians, business and institutions continues to erode.
The paradox is clear: at the very moment when we need more courage, many leaders are retreating.
A question for Executive Boards
This moment calls for reflection at the highest level. Executive boards need to ask themselves a deceptively simple question:
How are our sustainability leaders doing?
Are they still invited to strategic discussions, or have they been relegated to compliance checklists, reporting requirements and annual reports? Are they resourced to support the business drive transformation or left to manage expectations in an increasingly skeptical environment?
For a sustainability director, the difference between tokenism and trust can determine whether the organisation continues to evolve or slips back into defensive patterns.
Boards that genuinely see their sustainability leaders and connect their work to the company’s business activity and core value flow will be the ones that thrive in the long term. They understand that sustainability isn’t a cost center or a communications theme. It’s a strategic capability that future-proofs the business and aligns it with emerging social and environmental realities.
The new paradigm: value as flow
When we start to see value as flow, the board’s role transforms. Instead of asking, “What do we own?” we begin to ask, “What do we enable?”
We realise that capital doesn’t exist to be hoarded; it exists to circulate, to regenerate. Leadership isn’t about control; it’s about stewardship. And strategy isn’t about defending the past; it’s about designing the conditions for life, in all its forms, to thrive.
This is systems thinking applied to governance. Consider the organisations already operating from this paradigm:
- Patagonia legally restructured itself so that all profits serve the planet. By aligning ownership with purpose, they transformed value creation into value flow — ensuring every dollar circulates back into regeneration.
- Interface, the global carpet manufacturer, changed the way it saw its role in the industrial ecosystem. When founder Ray Anderson had his famous “spear-in-the-chest” moment in 1994, realising his company was harming the planet, Interface didn’t settle for incremental change. It reimagined its entire business model — pioneering closed-loop production, investing in carbon-negative materials, and proving that circular design could drive profitability. Its “Mission Zero” and “Climate Take Back” initiatives became industry benchmarks, not because they polished reputation, but because they embodied a new logic: that business can be a restorative force.
- SolarDuck, a pioneer in floating solar energy (where I serve as Non-Executive Chair), is reimagining how renewable infrastructure interacts with the marine environment. Every innovation decision is evaluated not just on cost, but on its contribution to the broader energy ecosystem, technological, ecological, and social.
These examples demonstrate that when organisations change how they see value, they begin to operate differently; more resiliently, more relationally, more responsibly.
The inner dimension of leadership
But here’s the hidden dimension: shifting to value flow starts within. Leaders must cultivate the inner capacity to hold complexity, uncertainty, and paradox without retreating into fear or nostalgia.
It requires reconnecting with personal values — empathy, integrity, service — and bringing them consciously into strategic and financial decisions. Because ultimately, the organisation mirrors the consciousness of its leaders.
If we see value only in numbers, our systems will produce numbers. If we see value in life, our systems will sustain life. That’s the essence of Dyer’s insight.
As board members, you hold the mirror. The way you look at sustainability, your people, and your purpose shapes how your organisation perceives and pursues value.
A call to facilitate value flow
So what’s the invitation for Executive Boards today?
- Re-examine your definition of value. Move beyond quarterly profit to include relational, ecological, and social capital in your decision-making.
- Reconnect with your sustainability leaders. Ask them how they are doing and what they’re seeing, and what support they need to keep the organisation aligned with long-term viability.
- Reinvest in courage. Recognise that leadership in this decade means walking toward uncertainty, not away from it.
The world is changing whether we like it or not. The question is not if transformation will come, but whether we will participate consciously in shaping it.
As Wayne Dyer might remind us: change doesn’t begin “out there.” It begins in the way we choose to see.
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