Join Biomimicry 3.8 co-founder Dr. Dayna Baumeister and Biomimicry for Social Innovation founder Toby Herzlich for an unforgettable workshop centered around discovering Nature’s genius for social innovation. Embark on a transformative seven-day immersion set against the breathtaking backdrop of an authentic Montana ranch. The fields of social innovation and biomimicry will converge to explore the profound lessons Nature offers for shaping a world characterized by adaptability, resilience, cooperation, and interconnectedness. This innovative approach, employed successfully by diverse organizations, from corporations to nonprofits and government entities, has proven effective in overcoming formidable challenges and revolutionizing how we approach change.
BBar Ranch in Montana offers expansive prairie vistas and rugged landscapes shaped by generations of stewardship and resilience. Here, participants will engage deeply with the rhythms of the land, uncovering the wisdom embedded into its ecosystems and ranching heritage. This immersive experience translates the ranch’s unique environment—it’s native grasses, wildlife corridors, and regenerative practices—into a living blueprint for cultivating resilient organizations and fostering a regenerative society led by innovative, grounded leaders in sustainability. On this immersion, you’ll gain insights that reach beyond ecology into the heart of community, legacy, and renewal. Just as the ranch is committed to restoring and preserving its delicate balance, this workshop aims to inspire change-makers to nurture the interconnected systems that sustain life and leadership.
This workshop is offered in partnership with Biomimicry for Social Innovation. This is our ninth year of collaborating in this space, and we’re excited to bring you the “best of” all we’ve learned and practiced over the years. Join us on this transformative journey as we seek to weave sustainability, culture, and leadership into a harmonious and impactful narrative.
Every immersion workshop is tailored to the local ecosystem, ensuring each day is brimming with content and exploration. You should plan to clear your agenda and fully immerse yourself in the biomimicry experience!
Over the course of the workshop, our expert biomimicry instructors will teach participants to:
In this workshop, we will look at Nature’s strategies in three areas that are most relevant for leaders of social innovation:
Context: becoming attuned to your environment, understanding your context and how it is affected by selection pressure, using feedback loops to adapt as conditions change
Relationships: types of symbiotic relationships, factors for effective collaboration and co-evolution, fostering self-organized networks to advance change
Change: adaptation, resilience in the face of disruption, succession through stages of development
This workshop is open to professional and university-level participants from all backgrounds and levels of experience with biomimicry. The agenda is designed for anyone who is interested in learning from healthy and resilient natural systems and applying those insights to the human systems in which we are working, so that we can create a more regenerative society and world. These lessons are useful for organizations and businesses, but also just as compelling for people working in the public sector, or who are interested in adapting their own leadership practices so they can be more effective change agents.
If your work involves becoming more effective in collaboration, creating robust institutional systems, navigating change in complex conditions or in times of disturbance, communication and adaptation in response to signals …this workshop is for you!
Past participants have come from a wide range of fields: nonprofits, education, public policy, community organizers, faith communities, business and more. The cross-pollination of professional and cultural backgrounds, ideas and experiences will enhance your workshop experience.
For students enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Biomimicry program with Arizona State University and interested in a Biomimicry Specialist Certification, this Immersion Workshop counts as one of two required in-person units. Learn more about the requirements for the Biomimicry Specialist Certification here.
Deposits are non-refundable. Cancellation 6+ weeks prior to the workshop, your deposit will become a credit that you can use at a later date or transfer as a gift. Cancellation 4-6 weeks prior to the workshop, a $500 cancellation fee plus incurred expenses will be deducted from your refund amount unless your seat is filled by someone else. Less than one month from the workshop start date, no refunds are permitted, but partial credit towards a future workshop will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
If the workshop is canceled for any reason by Biomimicry 3.8, workshop fees will be refunded in full.
Dr. Dayna Baumeister | With a devotion to applied natural history and a passion for sharing the genius of Nature, Dr. Dayna Baumeister has worked in the field of biomimicry with business partner Janine Benyus since 1998, traveling the world as a biomimicry thought-leader, business consultant, and professor. Together they founded the Biomimicry Guild consulting practice, The Biomimicry Institute 501c3, and Biomimicry 3.8, a B-Corp social enterprise that helps clients find innovation inspired by Nature and offers the highest level of biomimicry training to professionals worldwide.
Dayna’s foundational work has been critical to the biomimicry movement, establishing it as a fresh and innovative practice, as well as a philosophy to meet the world’s sustainability challenges. As an educator, researcher, and design consultant, Dayna has helped more than 100 companies consult the natural world for elegant and sustainable design solutions, as diverse as Nike, Interface, General Mills, Boeing, Google, Natura, Herman-Miller, Kohler, Seventh Generation and Procter & Gamble. Dayna is a natural systems thinker and brings a unique perspective to her work to help others see Nature as model, measure, and mentor. She designed and continues to teach the world’s first MSc in Biomimicry as a Professor of Practice at ASU and co-founded The Biomimicry Center at ASU. She compiled more than 20 years of experience in the practice of biomimicry into the world’s only textbook for the field: Biomimicry Resource Handbook: A Seed Bank of Knowledge and Best Practices (2014).
Toby Herzlich | Biomimicry for Social Innovation Founder Toby Herzlich is a leadership trainer and ICF-certified coach, master facilitator, and certified Biomimicry Specialist. Toby is committed to the creation of a just, healthy, and regenerative society, and heartfully enthused about the transformative potential of applying Nature’s wisdom to humanity’s sustainability aspirations. With more than 25 years of facilitation experience, she is a Senior Trainer with the Rockwood Leadership Institute, co-founder of Cultivating Women’s Leadership, and a faculty in B3.8’s Biomimicry Professional Certification Program. As a consultant, Toby advances climate solutions initiatives at organizations such as the Sierra Club and the AgroEcology Fund. With a commitment to race equity at the center of her work, Toby finds much of her purpose in catalyzing diverse networks of social change innovators and growing a co-evolving network of leaders using Nature’s intelligence as inspiration and guidance.
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