RETHINKING BUSINESS: WHAT IF IT WERE DESIGNED BY WOMEN?
If you had to imagine your organisation metaphorically, what would you pick?
An oiled machine — clicking, clocking, and predictable?
Or a beehive — ever-changing, ever-buzzing, alive with rhythm and flow?
For years, I’ve been fascinated by the difference between how we imagine business should work and how it actually does. Most organisations, and even the idea of “productivity” itself, were designed by men — around masculine patterns of behaviour: linear, focused, consistent, and predictable. The same energy every day. The same performance every week.
But what happens when women enter this world — a world built on the assumption that we can (and should) perform like machines?
Our reality is cyclical, not linear. Our energy shifts. Our creativity expands and contracts. There are days of high focus and visibility — and days when quiet reflection brings the truest clarity.
What if the business environment was designed to reflect that?
To move like a living system, rather than a machine.
Imagine a rhythm of work that mirrors the feminine cycle:
🌸 Spring (pre-ovulation) — when ideas sprout, creativity returns, and we feel energised to create and connect.
☀️ Summer (ovulation) — when we feel naturally visible, magnetic, and confident. A perfect time for showing up, teaching, and promoting our work.
🍂 Autumn (pre-menstrual) — when discernment deepens. We become sharper, clearer, more attuned to what’s no longer working.
❄️ Winter (menstrual phase) — when stillness invites truth. This is the time for rest, reflection, and strategic clarity.
If workplaces — or our own businesses — were designed with this cyclical wisdom in mind, productivity would no longer mean “the same output every day.”
It would mean flowing with life, creating from fullness, and allowing rest to have its rightful place in the cycle of creation.
The question for women running their own business in a man’s world is — how can we bridge this gap?
How can we honour our natural rhythm while operating within structures that expect constancy?
Perhaps the answer isn’t to reject the system, but to gently redesign it.
To build ways of working that hold both masculine structure and feminine flow.
To recognise that balance — not sameness — is the source of sustainable success.
What if the future of work looked more like a living system — one designed by women, for people — where growth isn’t forced, but allowed to unfold in its natural rhythm?
This blog was inspired by the interview of Alexandra and Sjanie, the co-founders of Red School. Listen to the interview here .
