Recorded live at the ReimaginED Festival on the lands of the Bunurong/Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, this episode features a rich and expansive conversation with regenerative leader and wellbeing strategist Jessica Taylor.

Jessica is the founder of Thrive Well Co and creator of The Wellbeing Farmer. Her work spans schools, global institutions, and professional sport: from the UAE Prime Minister’s Office and the Singapore Ministry of Education to the Geelong Cats AFL Club. Currently a sessional lecturer and doctoral candidate at the University of Melbourne, Jessica’s research explores how reframing responsibility for wellbeing can cultivate the conditions for all to flourish.

In this conversation, Jessica invites us to rethink wellbeing, not as an individual program to implement, but as a living system to tend.

What We Explore in This Episode

• What it means to lead regeneratively in education
• Moving from mechanical systems to living systems
• Why wellbeing cannot be reduced to programs or individual responsibility
• The power of deep listening as a starting point for cultural change
• How Lego Serious Play unlocks authentic dialogue in schools
• The systems thinking “iceberg” and why the aspirational version matters
• Structural narratives in education: competition, control and separation
• Shifting the focus from flowers to soil, cultivating the conditions for flourishing
• Authentic leadership in complex global contexts
• The role of language in shaping wellbeing

Jessica shares a powerful story from her work in the UAE, reflects on the tension between curriculum linearity and human complexity, and challenges educators to examine the narratives quietly shaping our systems.

Jessica’s New Book: Jessica is a contributing author to The Wellbeing Literacy Handbook, edited by Professor Lindsay Oades, Professor Narelle Lemon, Dr Jackie Francis and Dr Tim Lomas.

Her chapter, Cultivating Regenerative Systems of Wellbeing, explores how schools can intentionally develop regenerative conditions and capabilities that move beyond individualistic models toward relational, systemic flourishing.

Find the book here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-48049-0

Connect with Jessica: Jessica is always open to meaningful conversation (and stories about her beloved sheep, Sir Winston).

🌐 Website: https://www.thrivewellco.com.au

📧 Email: [email protected]

You can learn more about her work through Thrive Well Co and her writing and reflections as The Wellbeing Farmer.

A Question to Reflect On

Jessica leaves us with this invitation:

• What does responsibility mean to you?
• What has shaped your understanding of it?
• And what implications does that have for how you approach wellbeing, for yourself and for others?

Hosts:

• Kaz (Host)
• Andy (Director & Producer)

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