The River. Not the Bridge

Last episode, Nicola Robins spoke about how a health crisis sent her into four months of training in Ngoma, a South African knowledge system. This episode picks up where that left off: what happened when she tried to bring it home. It took her years. Not because the knowledge wasn't useful, but because divination, the method she found most relevant to business, doesn't come with an obvious way to walk into a boardroom. Bones and shells on a conference table don't translate. It took a detour through complexity science, and a mentor named Dave Snowden, before she found a way to bring the substance of the work without the ceremony. Along the way she says something a lot of well-meaning sustainability people won't say out loud. The popular version of indigenous knowledge, the circular, harmonious, everyone-loves-everyone version, is a romanticized fiction. And when Charlene calls her a bridge between the old way of knowing and the new, Nicola pushes back hard. A bridge implies safe passage. What she's offering isn't safe. It's a river, and you're going to get wet. Nicola Robins offers a radically human approach to sustainability transition in an era of uncertainty and AI. Her work sits at the intersection of sustainability, complexity science, and the indigenous Ngoma tradition, drawing on more than three decades of organisational practice across the continent. She co-founded the Cape Town–based consultancy Incite in 2005 and now works as an independent consultant while remaining part of the Incite network. Nicola teaches at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business. You can find Nicola here. She writes on Substack and is the author of Diviner Mind: How Organisations Can Learn from the Indigenous Science of Uncertainty. The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business. Becausing addressing business stewardship climate risk and leadership together is in the highest good for all. Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.