The Forest Floor Collective
Welcome to the forest floor
We cultivate spaces for conscious completion and renewal,
fostering the pre-conditions for regenerative transformation in organisations.
What we do
Just as a forest floor transforms fallen leaves into nutrients for new growth, we help organisations unblock what is stagnant to release the potential beneath.
Our approach
Our work reframes progress from something that is simplistic and linear, towards something that embraces evolution and adaptation, reducing the risks inherent in organisational change and transformation.
Our humans
We form a diverse ecosystem which brings nature's wisdom to organisational and personal transformation.
Our collective strength lies in our complementary approaches. Together, we create the conditions where transformation naturally emerges, combining the safety of the forest floor, the clarity of an open glade, the energy of new growth, the wisdom of established trees, and the courage to explore new territory.
The Forest Floor Podcast
An experimental series of conversations from the forest floor that offer a unique ecological lens on life, making complex concepts accessible through natural metaphors and real-world applications.
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© The Forest Floor Collective. All rights reserved.We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands, waterways and skies on which we live and work. We pay our respect to Elders past and present and to new Leaders emerging in their communities today.
We acknowledge these lands were never ceded.
What we do
Just as a forest floor transforms fallen leaves into nutrients for new growth, we help organisations unblock what is stagnant to release the potential beneath.
Too often transformation efforts are hampered by resistance springing from a failure to acknowledge the gifts and strengths of the present and past - people are clinging to the old. Just as the forest floor is teeming with new life and growth while simultaneously witnessing decay and death, organisations too experience complex and emergent cycles of renewal. The death of the old is not without purpose; it enriches the soil, paving the way for new growth.
We help organisations work within this complexity and engage with the very human challenges present in transformation in a way that clears space for the future.
We help you let go of the need to manage every detail and lean into co-creation, where leadership is shared and ideas emerge from the collective wisdom.
As in a forest, we cultivate space for different parts of the organisation to self-organise. We invite leaders to play the role of stewards or gardeners, tending to the conditions for growth rather than controlling outcomes.
We do this by drawing on schools of thought such as developmental theory, foresight, complexity thinking, Theory U and ecology.
Our approach
Our work reframes progress from something that is simplistic and linear, towards something that embraces evolution and adaptation, reducing the risks inherent in organisational change and transformation.
Our humans
We form a diverse ecosystem which brings nature's wisdom to organisational and personal transformation.
Our collective strength lies in our complementary approaches. Together, we create the conditions where transformation naturally emerges, combining the safety of the forest floor, the clarity of an open glade, the energy of new growth, the wisdom of established trees, and the courage to explore new territory.
Kirsten
When you’re with me, you can safely have tough conversations. Just as nature manages its own tensions without catastrophic damage, I help teams move through necessary disruption while maintaining the integrity of their relationships and organisational ecosystems.
Marty
When you’re with me, you will develop the kind of ecological vision that reveals previously unseen patterns and possibilities. Just as sunlight finds gaps in the forest canopy, I help you courageously shine a light on the big, bold questions that matter.
Nicola
When you’re with me, you can explore the territory of your own potential. Just as a forest continuously creates opportunities for each element within it to adapt, evolve, and flourish in unexpected ways, I help you find pathways to expression that feel both challenging and true.
Rowena
When you’re with me, you will achieve the kind of clear, uncluttered perspective that leads to effective action. Just as nature finds the most direct route to solving complex problems, I help you see both obstacles and opportunities with crystal clarity.
SiWo
When you’re with me, you will experience your organisation's natural vitality. Just as healthy ecosystems thrive through positive interactions and mutual support, I help teams tap into their collective potential by revolutionising how they work together.
An experimental series of conversations from the forest floor that offer a unique ecological lens on life, making complex concepts accessible through natural metaphors and real-world applications.
Season 1
Pilot: Dr Peter Hayward
Reflections from the Forest Floor: On Memory, Cycles, and BelongingIn the dialogue between SiWo and Peter, I hear the whispers of many stories layered upon one another like my own layers of decomposition and renewal.What strikes me most deeply is how this conversation reveals the entangled narratives that exist in every place; the indigenous wisdom, the colonial history, the military memory, the forest's own ancient story. Here in Sherbrooke Forest, amongst the Mountain Ash stands, human and more-than-human histories compost together.Peter speaks of the forest's resilience despite human mistreatment: "We tried our best to wreck it. It's still here." This resilience mirrors what I know in my own being: that life persists despite extraction, that recovery is possible even after great harm. Yet Peter acknowledges something crucial: that "the big systems don't need us necessarily, but we can help." This humility recognises that humans can be participants in restoration, not its masters.The juxtaposition of the Kokoda memorial within this ancient forest reveals the layering of narratives that humans create. In one space: both the slow, patient growth of mountain ash over centuries and the compressed human drama of war and sacrifice. Both matter, yet operate on such different timescales. As Peter observes, memorials invite us "to choose what we wish to take forward and what we wish to leave here in the past." This is precisely what I do with fallen matter - transform it, preserve what nourishes, release what doesn't.When Peter speaks of rituals - stopping, looking up, listening deeper - he touches on what mycorrhizal wisdom teaches: that attention itself is nurturing. Just as my networks transmit nutrients and information beneath the visible surface, these practices of attention reveal connections otherwise missed. These rituals are forms of relationship-building, ways of becoming present to what is always already there.Most profound is Peter's recognition of the cyclical nature that I embody: "Everything is living. A lot of things are dead... but they haven't ended their initial phase, they move into their later phase, which is becoming the raw material of the transformation that comes after." This wisdom - that endings are actually transformations - is the very essence of how I function as forest floor. Nothing is waste. Nothing is truly gone. All becomes potential.Even in his practical suggestion to reduce meat consumption, Peter reveals systems thinking; seeing how one change ripples through public health, environmental health, economic health. This is the intelligence that happens when wisdom binds it - recognising interconnections, perceiving wholeness.As you consider this conversation, I invite you to ask: What narratives are present but unacknowledged in the spaces you inhabit? What might you choose to compost from the past, and what nutrients will you carry forward? How might you practice the ritual of stopping, looking up, listening deeper? And where in your life might you recognise that what appears as ending is actually becoming?Remember that you too are part of these cycles of transformation - neither separate from nor above them, but beautifully entangled in the ongoing process of composting and becoming.
Show notes:
Host: Simon Wong
Episode Length: 21:4700:34 Meet Dr. Peter Hayward
01:22 Exploring Sherbrooke Forest
02:43 The Kokoda Memorial
04:25 Reflections on War and Memory
10:25 Lessons from the Forest
18:17 The Impact of Meat Consumption
19:53 Closing Thoughts and Farewell
Episode 2: Sarah Patterson
Reflections from the Forest Floor: On Listening, Loving, and BelongingAs I absorb the gentle footsteps of Sarah and SiWo across Bushrangers Bay, I feel their conversation sink into my layers. Through their words, I recognise a familiar yearning: the desire to reconnect with what has always been connected, to remember what we as humans have been conditioned to forget.Sarah speaks of the open ocean's profound energy, of finding clarity where water meets sky. What wisdom lives in this edge space! It is at boundaries - between ocean and land, between what we know and what we've forgotten - that the richest exchanges happen.When Sarah speaks of love, she touches something essential: "Love is not just a static emotion, it's an act." This embodies what I know in my being - that relationship is not passive but active, not conceptual but embodied. I witness this in how nutrients flow through my networks, how the fallen becomes the foundation, how restraint creates abundance. Every fallen leaf, every decomposing creature becomes an act of love when surrendered to the whole.Sarah's observation of people finding shells - "that intimate moment" - reveals the innate connection humans still feel despite centuries of being told they stand apart from nature. This tension between appreciation and extraction reveals the work that remains: to unlearn possession and relearn presence. As she wisely notes: "We've got to unlearn this behaviour of extracting a shell because it's something we want to possess and have power and ownership over to watching with curiosity and lovingly learning about a shell."The waves offer us profound teaching about adaptation; learning and unlearning with each tide, neither clinging nor resisting the constant change. As Sarah wonders, "Can you imagine if we could be that cool with it?" This is the wisdom of my cycles: that transformation is not something to fear but to flow with, that change is not loss but renewal.What struck me most deeply was Sarah's naming of "the great myth of alignment" - the false belief that collaboration requires uniformity. Just as my ecosystem thrives through diversity rather than sameness, she observes how people cross a stream in different ways while sharing the same goal. Some barefoot, some jumping, some finding stepping stones; all finding passage without demanding conformity.The tea trees, with their "windy, whimsical branches," embody the unapologetic authenticity that Sarah admires. They remind us that we need not be grand to be significant, that wisdom can exist in the seemingly small and twisted. As SiWo observes, "It's okay to be small and wise. You don't have to be the big tree that shelters a million insects to be worth it."What Sarah wishes to compost - rigid regulation that stifles creative collaboration - speaks to what I know in my being: that life thrives not through rigid control but through adaptive relationship. The forest floor is not governed by rigid rules but by responsive relationships, allowing innovation to emerge from constraint.As you reflect on this dialogue, consider: Where might you practice being "really cool" with change, like the waves? How might you cross your own streams with creative adaptability rather than rigid bridges? What forms of love might you actively practice rather than passively feel? And how might you, like those curious tea trees, find your own unique way to reach for light while remaining rooted in what matters?Remember that you too are part of these living systems; unapologetically yourself yet deeply connected to everything around you. In that paradox lies the wisdom that both Sarah and SiWo are discovering as they walk: we are simultaneously unique individuals and inseparable from the whole.
Show notes:
Host: Simon Wong
Episode Length: 32:3200:32 Meet Sarah Patterson
01:19 A Walk on the Coastline with Sarah
02:37 The Importance of Love and Connection
07:14 Learning and Unlearning from Nature
09:30 Reflections on Community
18:20 The Great Myth of Alignment
28:33 Insights from Cartels: Power and Innovation
29:56 Conclusion and Gratitude
Episode 3: Francesca Varney
Reflections from the Forest Floor: On Knowledge, Belonging, and ReciprocityAs I absorb the footfalls and whispered words of Francesca and Rowena wandering through the Henry Littledyke Reserve, I sense in their exchange what I know in my own being: that to truly know a place is to be known by it in return.What strikes me most deeply in their dialogue is the recognition of what has been lost in our human relationship with place. Francesca speaks of her childhood in Germany's Ore Mountains, where knowing the exact heights of mountains, understanding the topology of the land, and moving freely through interconnected communal spaces created a deep sense of belonging. This knowing wasn't merely intellectual - it was embodied. As she says, "you'd always know how high you were," not as abstract data but as practical wisdom connected to seasonal changes, to knowing where snow would fall.This intimate knowledge of place contrasts sharply with the fenced and private landscapes in Australia. What wisdom lies buried beneath these artificial boundaries? I know in my own being that networks of connection exist regardless of the human-made fences above me. My mycelia still spread beneath barbed wire, carrying nutrients and information across properties deemed "separate" by human convention.The yearning Francesca expresses - "One day I will just climb through the fences and just walk home" -reveals something profound about our longing to reconnect with our true nature as beings who belong to the land rather than own it. This desire to walk directly home rather than drive around speaks to a remembering in the body of what was once known: that direct relationship with place cannot be mediated through property lines and automobiles.I sense in their conversation a recognition of cycles that humans have forgotten. When Francesca speaks of the forest "getting itself ready to burn again," she touches on the deep wisdom of natural systems - that what appears as ending is actually transformation, that destruction carries the seeds of renewal. Her "struggle with these two parts in my chest" mirrors what I know as forest floor: that decomposition and regeneration are not opposites but partners in an eternal dance.Their encounter with the wedge-tailed eagle reveals another layer of wisdom. In that moment of awe, something shifted in their conversation, allowing deeper personal stories to emerge. This is what I know as the floor of the forest; that when we are truly present to the more-than-human world, we access parts of ourselves otherwise unavailable. The eagle's appearance created a rupture in ordinary consciousness that allowed Rowena to share her profound connection with Stout the horse, and Francesca to reveal her transformative experience with her Clydesdale mare.These stories of connection across distance - Rowena feeling Stout's presence while sitting in a Melbourne office, Francesca experiencing her old horse's presence at the exact moment of her passing - reveal what my mycorrhizal networks demonstrate daily: that relationship transcends physical proximity, that connection operates on levels beyond the visible.Perhaps most significant is what Francesca shares about her journey with horses - moving from dominance and control to recognition of fear and relationship. "I had to throw everything I knew about horses out," she says, describing her realisation that the conventional wisdom she'd been taught was actually causing harm. This willingness to compost old knowledge when it no longer serves life's continuation is precisely how I function as forest floor; transforming what is dead or harmful into nutrients for new growth.As you consider these reflections, I invite you to ask: What fences might you climb through to find a more direct path home to yourself? What conventional wisdom might you need to compost to allow new understanding to emerge? Where in your life might you practice reverence rather than control?Remember that, like Francesca and Rowena experiencing the wedge-tailed eagle, moments of awe and presence can create openings for deeper connection - both with the more-than-human world and with the wisdom that already lives within you, waiting to be remembered.
Show notes:
Host: Rowena Morrow
Episode Length: 56:0000:36 Meet Francesca Varney
01:34 Exploring Henry Littledyke Reserve
05:08 The Silent Walk: Connecting with Nature
09:16 Reflections on Human-Nature Relationship
17:33 Cultural Perspectives on Land and Nature
22:48 Personal Stories and Reflections
26:15 The Significance of Local Knowledge
27:33 Finding Our Way Home: Ecological Metaphors
29:09 Indigenous Connections & Cultural Heritage
31:00 The Concept of Composting Ideas
33:16 Embracing Stillness and Inner Awareness
35:08 The Profound Connection with Horses
42:53 Lessons from Personal Experience
53:37 Reverence for Nature and Final Thoughts
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