Life has been evolving on our planet for the past 3.8 billion years.  The ecosystems that thrive now have had a lot of practice at getting things right – particularly the complex web of inter-relations that allows us all to flourish. And yet, we’re on the edge of the sixth mass extinction largely because we humans have forgotten how to inter-relate and inter-be with the rest of the web of life.  At an intellectual level, we know we’re integral nodes in the web, but we still behave as if it were other, and out there and not – yet – as if it were a source of wisdom and wonder and wholehearted support: an ancient mentor that has tried and tested enough options to know what works. 

So how can we bring the astonishing, creative insights of Biomimicry to the field of human inter-being? How can we shift our sense of self and other, our communities of place, purpose and passion, our businesses, our governance structures…everything that we are and do onto a different trajectory using the web of life as our template?  Biomimicry for Social Innovation asks exactly these questions and in this episode, we’re talking to its founder, Toby Herzlich.

Toby is a facilitator, trainer, executive coach, and organizational consultant. She is a Certified Biomimicry Specialist and Founder of Biomimicry for Social Innovation, which exists to translate ecosystem intelligence and Life’s Principles into leadership and social change strategies.  As you’ll hear, she’s part of the team that developed The Nature of Trust, and its 8-principle framework for building and maintaining trust, which is so essential in any network of sovereign individuals whether they’re bees, or penguins, elks or geese – or people.

Living in northern New Mexico, Toby dedicated 20 years as a Senior Trainer with the Rockwood Leadership Institute and continues to support leaders and organizations through coaching and consulting inspired by nature.  Her clients include Executives at National Geographic Society, The Sierra Club, and The Cultural Conservancy. She is passionate about creating innovative approaches to collaboration, building, and guiding diverse networks including the Biomimicry Professional Certification two-year training cohorts, the Volgeneau Climate Initiative, North Carolina’s statewide progressive voter network, and the Indigenous Mycelium Gathering of 2025 – there’s a link in the show notes and you will definitely want to explore that.

Toby is the founding co-facilitator of the Living Systems Leadership Retreats for Women and has supported the capacity-building of women leaders in war-torn countries of the Balkans and the Middle East.

There are so many richly inspiring pathways that Toby has opened as a result of bringing a social change and leadership development branch into Biomimicry – collaborating deeply with that larger movement and, at heart and core, with the Web of Life.  This was one of those conversations that could have gone on forever.  It didn’t, we stopped at a reasonable time and are definitely planning to cycle back with each other. And the cats visited—Toby’s and mine—which always makes a podcast flow with extra energy.