Posts by Gretel Bakker

Activating our Presence – the greatest challenge for today’s leaders

If someone asked you to “make time” for something at work, how would you react? I’m guessing you might feel a tightening in your chest, or your head may throb. Perhaps your thoughts fly to your backlog of tasks and...

The Human Cost of Rapid Change – Why Organisational Design Must Become Human Design

We live in a world where change is constant, relentless, and sometimes overwhelming. Here in Australia, employees today face an average of 19 organisational changes per year, a number that’s almost hard to fathom. No wonder the willingness to support...

Compassionate Leadership: A Catalyst for Regenerative Futures

The recent 2025 Australian elections were charged by much stronger undertones than normal. They weren’t simply a nod to a particular party platform, but a vote by the majority of the Australian people affirming a set of national values, i.e.,...

Compassion at Work: A Conversation with Kevin Figueiredo on Ego, Empathy, and Building Relational Resilience

Kevin Figueiredo has always had a capacity for seeing people beyond their roles. I’d witnessed this in our many conversations over the years. So, as I embarked on new research into the role of compassion in building relational resilience, it...

Adaptive Leadership: Thriving in Complexity

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, it is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”– Charles Darwin Our world is a complex, unpredictable ecosystem, teeming with interwoven networks—natural and man-made—that...

Faciliative Leadership: The Art of Holding Space for Transformation 

Over the many years of working in the field of transformation, I have formed the opinion that facilitative leadership is not just a skill, it’s an art, a way of being, and a constant act of self-awareness, self-regulation, and attuning...