Regenerative Leadership Program with Valmet
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Project type: Falay Consulting Projects
Tags: Regenerative Leadership, Team building, Systems Sensing, Transition Design, Futures thinking, Collective Imagination, Wellbeing at Work
Client: Valmet
Project team: Zeynep Falay von Flittner, Iina Santamäki & Iines Reinikainen
Context
In 2025, Valmet launched a new operating model and expanded its sustainability function; many leaders found themselves navigating new constellations of roles and responsibilities. The company’s renewed strategy—Leading the Way: Transforming Industries toward a Regenerative Tomorrow—called not only for innovation but for a different kind of leadership.
In collaboration with Falay, Valmet piloted the Regenerative Leadership Program to strengthen well-being, adaptability, trust, and systems thinking within its sustainability leadership team.
Why Regenerative Leadership matters
We are living through a civilization-scale transition. We cannot solve the crises of our times with the same thinking that created them in the first place. Regenerative leadership invites a shift from reactivity to presence: from operating in fight-or-flight toward acting from grounded awareness and interconnectedness.
Sustainability alone is not enough. Regeneration means restoring vitality and creating conditions for life to flourish. Such leadership draws on the full intelligence of body, heart, and imagination—capacities often suppressed by urgency and productivity culture. Pausing becomes a strategic act: a space where clarity, creativity, and collective wisdom can re-emerge.
Scope & Approach
Scope:
The pilot program focused on supporting Valmet’s sustainability leadership team to cultivate:
Holistic well-being through body-centered and nature-inspired practices.
Team cohesion and trust during periods of uncertainty.
Future-oriented thinking and active hope to envision desired futures.
Systems awareness to understand organizational and systemic interactions.
Approach:
We applied a unique combination of methods: regenerative leadership, systems and complexity thinking, as well as embodied and creative practices. Key activities included:
2-day Rest & Resilience Retreat, an immersive experience designed for leaders, changemakers, and sustainability practitioners to replenish their inner resources, cultivate clarity, and deepen their leadership capacity in a 300-year-old regenerative farm, Frantsila. You can read more about the retreat here.
2 full-day workshops on Transition Design, Regenerative Leadership, Systems Thinking & Collective Imagination
Weekly 20-minute Regenerative Pauses, an online space to tune in and collectively decide what is most needed in the given moment. The practices varied from grounding & meditation to movement, from emotional regulation to play, and beyond.
Throughout the 5-month journey, we co-developed the program further together with Valmet´s core team based on the feedback received.
Outcomes
The program has so far enabled Valmet’s sustainability leaders to:
Strengthen presence and mindfulness in the midst of a busy working rhythm
Strengthen trust and collaboration across teams
Connect with their colleagues on a deeper level
Strengthen future-oriented thinking and active hope
Explore and apply somatic & nature-inspired methods to enhance workplace culture.
Looking Ahead
The Valmet pilot continues through December 2025, serving as a prototype for regenerative organizational learning. Falay will extend this work with new partners in spring 2026, continuing to support leadership development, team cohesion, and workplace well-being across diverse contexts.
Interested in partnering with us to cultivate wellbeing, future-oriented thinking, and trust as your team navigates change?
Contact person
Zeynep Falay von Flittner
zeynep@falayconsulting.com