Businesses inspired by nature out perform those that are not
Firms that mimic living systems have an existential awareness that they are living communities of people, committed to serving other people, and that they all depend on Nature for their sustenance. This fundamental recognition creates spontaneous demands within the firm to live harmoniously and respectfully with the larger living systems on which we all depend (biosphere, society, markets).
SoL (a leading business management organisation that explores the connection between organisational learning precepts and business success) published ‘Profit for Life’ a few years back by Jay Bragdon. Since this publication, SoL has been researching and tracking how certain organisations (ones that mimic living systems) perform against other more traditional organisations (mechanistic, short-term profit maximising, capital-centric organisations). In essence, this research explores the business paradigm of machine versus living, or as I refer to it in The Nature of Business as mechanistic firms of the past versus organic firms of the future.
Mechanistic, reductionist firms of the past >> Organic, emergent firms of the future
Northfield Information Services (a global consultancy advising many of the largest banks and asset managers) performed an in-depth analysis to assess these ‘living’ firms that mimic nature with the more traditional mechanistically-focused firms. This resulted in the Global Living Asset Management Performance (LAMP) Index®. For more detail on this please see ‘Companies that Mimic Life’ where the market returns of these organisations are researched and tabulated.
The conclusion drawn from the detailed research is that businesses that model based on living systems (businesses inspired by nature) gain market share and out-perform those that model on mechanistic systems. Leading organisations, it would seem, are adapting to the social and environmental damage caused by traditional business approaches.
So why aren’t all organisations becoming ‘inspired by nature’ why is it still only for the leading pioneers?
The barrier to adaptation is inertia. For over five centuries our prevalent approach to business (likewise for science and society) is rooted in empirical thought which flowered during the Enlightenment, yet inhibiting our evolution to further ‘enlightenment’. As SoL report:
‘Today, most leaders in business and finance – indeed most business schools – are so captivated by empiricism and its material successes that few dare to question its linear thinking assumptions.’
As Peter Drucker once insightfully said ‘in times of great turmoil, the danger lies not in the turmoil itself but facing it with yesterday’s logic’
Hence the prevailing business paradigm has sown the seeds of its own demise. The good news is many in business are ‘seeing the light’ and challenging yesterday’s logic. For instance, Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, said recently:
‘Too many people think in terms of trade-offs that if you do something which is good for you, then it must be bad for someone else.
That’s not right and it comes from old thinking about the way the world works and what business is for: Milton Friedman’s optimisation of short-term profits.
We have to snap out of that old thinking and move to a new model.’
So what is the new model? A business inspired by & in harmony with nature. This is what is explored in ‘The Nature of Business’. (here for North American version )
The attributes that are highlighted in the LAMP research of ‘companies that mimic life’ as out-performers in their respective markets strongly resonate with the firm of the future characteristics put forward in ‘The Nature of Business’:
• T hey are highly networked to facilitate feedback and information exchanges within the firm and without. Many of these networks are informal, self-organizing consortia of employees, suppliers, and customers. When you layer these networks over one another and the firm’s chain of command, you get a structure that looks much like a double helix.
• T hey manage by means (MBM), understanding that people and relationships are the primary means by which they build network capacity and create value. They strengthen and empower employees by practicing servant leadership. They also give employees decision-making authority in their areas of competence and hold them accountable for results.
• T hey optimize their use of physical resources by “closing the loop” so the waste of one process becomes food for another. In doing so, they aim for factor efficiencies by producing more value for customers with less input of energy and materials.
• T hey are exceptionally open in the ways they share information with employees and in their desire for stakeholder feedback. They know such openness builds trust, learning capacity and adaptability.
• T hey nurture the larger living systems of which they are a part (Nature, society, markets) because they understand the inherent connection of all life.
View a short video clip on business inspired by nature here
Now we know the problems with the old paradigm and we know what the new paradigm looks and feels like, the only challenge left is (admittedly quite a sizeable challenge) transforming old thinkers and doers from yesterday’s logic into prototyping for the future – inspired by nature. For that we need to transform business education (still inherently empirical and mechanistic), business leaders (the majority still short-termist and reductionist), business managers and employees (fortunately Gen Y seem more clued up about the transforming landscape but the reality is that the majority are still inured by the prevailing paradigm, having been educated that way). Hence, the vital importance of education – business education at a leadership, management and employee level – that is creative and forward-thinking, pushing boundaries and prototyping the future while challenging yesterday’s logic (not simply regurgitating past dogma). That is the challenge and also an immense opportunity for those in positions of influence within business education.
Fortunately, there are already good examples of business academia prototyping the future, for instance SoL mentioned above (associated with Harvard Business School & MIT) and Exeter University Business School’s One Planet MBA.
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Natural, courageous leadership – learning with horses
Horses as an ancient archetypal symbol represent dignity, honour, beauty, grace, presence, strength, power and endurance. For thousands of years humans and horses have worked together in a partnership of balance and oneness by those who had wisdom and insight; for others horses were often seen as our servants, but always there has been an undercurrent of true horsemanship, nags men, horse whisperers and indigenous peoples who worked with horses without the need for dominance.
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about language, ideas, even the phrase ‘each other’ doesn’t make any sense.” Rumi
This guest article written by Sue Blagburn
The ancient art of horsemanship has been traced back to 8000 B.C. Over the centuries horses have become domesticated impart due to their social nature and practical ability. Less than one hundred years ago horses were our transport, our agricultural support and our courageous assistants in warfare. As machines took over their jobs as workhorses and warhorses, equines have become our recreation, our partners and our pets; but now as we transition into a new paradigm of what it is to be human in the 21st century, a growing number of horse people including myself feel certain that horses have a new role to play in teaching us a form of leadership based on co-creation and co-dependence; a leadership based on love, insight and compassion. Today horses can be our co-creative partners, healers and guides helping us reconnect to authenticity and meaning in our lives; assisting us in re-aligning our mind, body and spirit so that we can walk into our future with grace and integrity. The horse by her/his natural biological make-up needs us to become an authentic empathic leader in order for the horse to feel safe. As soon as we start to connect with a horse she or he will be sizing us up, asking: who is leading? Trust, honesty, humility, integrity, congruency, are all qualities we can learn with horses as our co-creative partners.
Partnering with horses in this way has become known as ‘Equine Facilitated Learning’ and it is the work I do in providing horse assisted education for organisations and individuals. My work brings in the work of whole systems learning, organisation constellations and phenomenology to bring about new ways of seeing and being, with the help of my extraordinary horses. It provides leaders (participants) the opportunity to learn about themselves and others through experimental and embodied learning with horses. We enter a field of no wrong or right doing, a completely non-judgmental space for self-development and reflection. I create an environment of safety, trust, confidentiality and openness, and then the horses do most of the work. I encourage my participants to step out of their normal comfort zone – many have not even handled a horse before – and I coach them in horsemanship skills, how to connect with the horses, how to lead, and how to work with the horse at liberty. The horse is always given the choice of connecting, engaging and working with the participant or not as the case may be.
Some say that 93% of how we communicate is through body language, sensory perceptions and intuitive feelings, and yet so often within our rationalistic culture we focus on the 7% while side-lining the 93%. When learning to partner and lead a horse without words and without force we begin to develop the neglected 93%. The horse provides accurate and instant feedback through response based on how safe and energised they feel in the participant’s presence; the horse simply responds to how the participant really is, in the present moment. The horse picks up and listens not to the participant’s agenda, status, or outer persona but to their inner story, body language and commitment to what one really cares about, and one’s intent. And so the horse acts as a mirror to the feelings and emotions one experiences in one’s personal and professional life. The word guide means ‘someone who can find paths through unexplored and unknown territory’ and in this regard the horse guides the exploration of the participant’s inner world in how it relates to external challenges, ambitions or stuck places.
Partnering with the horse teaches the participant to pay attention and stay connected with the present moment, focusing on a goal or an obstacle without thinking or judging, assessing or questioning. It develops the art of being fully present in the moment. In this way the horse helps us train our willingness to let go of what we rationally ‘know’ or think we know to open up beyond our rational mind. This provides a foundational space from which we can develop new ways of perceiving; new pathways that balance thinking and intuition, heart and mind. In this authentic state we develop natural presence for courageous leadership beyond the self-imposed limitations of positional authority and control that come with an overly dominant ego and rational mind.
Through working with horses we become part of the learning context around and within us; part of our inner and outer neighbourhood. Our empathic ‘betweenness’ develops with our lived-in environment, opening us up to the learning potential in our midst. With this comes the opportunity to relearn how to trust our feelings, hearts, sensate responses and gut feelings. Team work with the horse helps shift our intention towards what is naturally good in self and others helping us attune with our inner and outer self, other team members and wider ever-changing context. In opening ourselves up to our true selves we discover – perhaps rediscover – that we all have the resources we need to be our own inner and outer leaders. This allows us to recognise and empathically understand how our differences are important assets for co-creative team learning. It helps us to be leaders who can hold a space for diverse teams of participants to flourish.
It starts with the herd …
“In a herd of horses, leadership is shared. The lead mare sets the direction and pace of the herd. The lead stallion keeps the herd together and protects it from predators. Each member of the herd has a role in protecting the health of the herd. All of the horses in the herd contribute to the socialization of new or young members, teaching them what behaviours are healthy and correcting those who behave in ways that could compromise the health of the herd. The ever-present goal of herd leadership is health, harmony, unity and safety. For herd members to place their trust in leaders, they must see four qualities in them. One, leaders are paying attention and can detect even the most subtle shifts in the environment. Two, leaders can give them clear direction on how to respond to the shifts. Three, leaders are able to follow that direction with focused energy, providing the herd with guidance on the pace with which to respond. Four, leaders display congruence of their inner and outer expressions. Ultimately, the herd members must know that the leaders have their best interest as their source of motivation at all times. Attention, Direction, Energy, Congruence: When leaders demonstrate these qualities and skills, the herd becomes confident in their leadership. The bottom line is that confidence in the leader makes the herd agile in times of change. The same is true for people. To gain our confidence, our leaders must demonstrate that they are paying attention to what is going on in their communities/organizations, are able to give clear direction with focused, inspiring energy, and are so authentic that their intentions can be fully trusted. Confidence in leadership makes a community or an organization agile when the time for change can no longer be avoided.” Adapted from TeachingHorse: Rediscovering Leadership, by June Gunter, Ed.D.
Returning our senses to our social herd-like nature is not a sign of weakness, but a place to gain personal responsibility through wisdom and courage. As we gain wisdom we increase our ability to become conscious co-creators for ourselves, each other and all of life. In this way, working on our leadership presence with horses provides a rich opportunity to refine our natural leadership qualities. We deconstruct our rationality constrained ideas of leadership and learn that everyone has leadership capabilities and responsibilities.
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View a short video clip on business inspired by nature here
Transform requires re-connection
It is becoming more obvious that we need to transform our ways of living and operating.
‘Today’s dominant worldview is simply too biased towards anthropocentrism, materialism, egocentrism, contempocentrism, reductionism, rationalism, and nationalism to sustain the changes needed.’ Joseph Gustav Speth
The biggest inhibitor to our transformation is our dis-connection with life/nature.
In nature everything transforms through circulations, everything is continually transforming as one stage comes to an end another begins; spirals of death and rebirth, of withdrawing and bursting forth – this is the way of life. The only certainty is uncertainty. Everything naturally transforms through the cycles of life – so too with human nature. We only prevent our natural, emergent transformation by dis-connecting ourselves from nature – her ways, rhythms and wisdom. This artificial sense of separation is deeply sown within the Western scientific-philosophy of abstract rationalist reductionism.
So often we strategise, envision, innovate and explore new ways of operating in the hope that they help us transform towards a more sustainable future for society, the economy and the environment. These good intentions, alas, often originate from a dis-connected perception of life, where humanity is seen as separate from nature, where object is seen as separate from subject and where self is viewed as separate and in competition with other. Hence, we innovate our way to incomplete solutions based on incomplete understandings of life and its inherently dynamic and inclusive way.
Rather than tuning into our soul and the soul of nature around us, we react logically to the challenges around us. In-so-doing we abstract objectivity from reality. We literally dissect real life into isolated compartmentalisations, in turn mis-representing and so creating unsustainable outcomes, leading to more knock-on problems. In seeking to fix the effects we ignore dealing with the underlying cause: our flawed worldview.
‘We have been, and still are, in the grips of a flawed view of reality – a flawed paradigm, a flawed world view – and it pervades our culture putting us on biological collision course with collapse. It is the paradigm that is reflected in our culture’s infatuation with stuff and our wilful ignorance of nature.’ Ray Anderson
Transformation requires a re-connection; a re-connection with our true human nature and nature. It is that simple and yet we often grasp at ‘activity’ before undertaking this re-connection (at ‘doing’ before ‘being’). Perhaps this is because the re-connection flies in the face of what we have been taught, what has become so ingrained in us. Re-connecting challenges our sense of self-importance, our individuality (our ego).
For many traditional cultures the essential purpose of humanity is to serve nature, to ensure the harmony of life is maintained. This is in stark contrast to
modern Western culture which views nature as a resource for its pursuit of
happiness.
‘Instead of learning to cultivate an identity through our inner potentiality, through the natural expression of our humanity, we are conditioned to manufacture an identity in outer appearances, most commonly through achieving material ‘success’ – the capitalist touchstone of the ‘good life’. Lacking a solid individual sense of our own existence, our identity comes to be rooted in our self-worth, validated externally in terms of what we own and what people think of us.’ Robert Hamilton
The more we see through the illusion of the world as a collection of things and see it as the inter-play of relationships and interconnecting networks it is, the easier it becomes for us to loosen the grip of our reductionist sense of scarcity and separated-ness and re-connect with the beautiful enchantment of the natural world around us and our true nature within us.
The paradigm shift now upon us has to be radical – philosophically, scientifically and culturally. It needs to go to the root of our corrupt engagement with reality: space-matter, content-context, human-nature, self-Self.
The transformation itself is driven by: Re-designing new ways shifting from hurting to helping (take-make-waste to regenerative); Re-establishing our relation with self-other-nature (eco-psychology, phenomenology, individuation); Re-kindling wisdom (indigenous, elders, nature-inspired).
To explore the new paradigm further, join the Face Book community here
View a short video clip on business inspired by nature here
Leadership? The Future of Leading…the art of hosting
Is it possible to lead and be led at the same time? Might the leader be the quietest person in the room; invisible, even? What happens when there are no pre-agreed rules of engagement amongst those that you are leading? Does chaos or harmony ensue?
This guest blog has been written for ‘The Nature of Business’ by
James Allen of Sustainability Lab in
Brazil
A lot is being written about new kinds of leaders and new ways of leading and I would like to share with you my experience drawn from the Art of Hosting (AoH) network, which I joined after participating in one of their ‘encounters’ here in Brazil. As many organizations are grappling with establishing less hierarchical management structures, the AoH approach suggests that it is those leaders who are able to listen to and draw upon different perspectives, and to strengthen connections between people and organizations through dialogue that will be able to bring out the best in those whom they are leading.
Brazil’s 14th AoH get-together was a five-day long meeting, set in beautiful woodlands not far from Sao Paulo in early 2013. It is called an ‘encounter’, rather than a course, because learning takes place through active participation in a sequence of workshops that draw on different group dynamics, such as World Café and Collective Story Harvesting. Participants are encouraged to take the reins and lead different exercises, with the aim of drawing on and harvesting collective intelligence, ie the knowledge and wisdom of the whole group, rather than a chain of individual perspectives.
Six steps to transform the way we do business
Our institutions, organisations and economies were conceived, designed and
built for a simpler more linear world. Overwhelmed by complexity these have
become disrupted and unsustainable. There is an urgent need to transform our
societies, organisations and economies by better design to thrive in what I
call a ‘non-linear world’. A non-linear world has significant implications for
leadership, strategy, and innovation – the design of organisations and economic models as a whole.
This blog is a guest article written by Alan Moore, author of No Straight Lines.
A non-linear world is one in which we embrace the power and potential of
complexity rather than trying to break it down into unconnected bits and that
we see the world systemically. A non-linear world is where we have the capacity
and the tools (which already exist) to transform our organisations commercially
and non-commercially to work with the grain of human nature not against it that run leaner, more efficiently, and are greener. Finally a non-linear world is a significant upgrade to our linear one proving that better much better does not necessarily have to cost the earth.
No Straight Lines has six framing principles as philosophy and practice of how
to design organisations and economic models for a non-linear world.
Principle 1 Ambiguity
When we individually and collectively live in an age of uncertainty, we must
all become masters of managing uncertainty. It requires us to take a more
holistic, systemic engagement with the forces that are reshaping and disrupting
us as a form of diagnostic.
Diagnostically we need to detect and identify underlying patterns and hidden
relationships to create meaning from chaos. Pattern recognition enables us to
move from a position of perceiving potential alternatives of organising,
creating, designing and building as risky and unrealistic to, recognising new
common sense opportunities.
Principle 2: Adaptiveness
We have to be prepared to continually upgrade ourselves, our business models,
ways of working – we can only do this if we learn to become agile. Adaptiveness
is based upon a continual process of creating, collaborating, communicating and
critiquing – it is a practice that evolves a new literacy of thinking and doing
because, if we cannot describe a new destination, we will never be able to get
there. Today, we have tools and technologies, software and hardware, computing
capability and organisational processes that mean we can now design for
adaptation.
Principle 3: Openness
Natures default setting is open; nature is regenerative and resilient. The
concept of being open facilitates new organisational, social and commercial
capability. Playing a key role in helping participatory cultures to function
properly. Openness is cultural – open to new ideas. Openness is mutuality, the
sharing and redistribution of, knowledge, information, data resources and
wealth. It is inclusive by design, and its by-product is organisational and
social cohesion. Openness as a principle and practice offers new capabilities
as in open platforms, higher organisational performance as in open innovation
accelerating R&D plus reducing costs, trading models as in open business
models, it is software as in open source, and it is a legal framework as in
Creative Commons.
Principle 4: Participatory Cultures and tools
The insight is that human beings are designed to work in aggregate, there are
many benefits of participatory cultures, including opportunities for
peer-to-peer learning, a changed attitude towards intellectual property, the
diversification of cultural expression, the development of skills valued in the
modern workplace and a more empowered conception of citizenship. We need to
embed sociability into everything, from the buildings we design to the software
code we write, the processes we create, the business and organisational models
we conceive, the governmental institutions we create and the means by which
those institutions operate. The multidimensionality of humanity needs to be
coded into the fabric of all those things.
Principle 5: Craftsmanship
To envision, create and build in a non-linear world we call on the almost forgotten art of the craftsman. The Craftsman represents the trinity of
creativity, the combination of the Hand, the Heart and the Mind. Craftsmanship
is as relevant for the individual as it is for an organisation enabling a
deeper, more finely tuned approach to learning and the craft of innovation.
Providing an ethical framework and values based approach to commercial and
business practice, by asking, ‘is what I create for the collective good?’ The
craftsman or the crafted organisation exists in permanent beta (a constant
creative process), the craftsman is always naturally curious, sees systems,
builds patterns and evolves literacy through a constant process of exploration
of the possible through the interplay between expression and technique.
Tellingly the craftsman is joyful in sharing knowledge, and operates from a
position of confidence and self-belief.
Principle 6: Epic
As we collectively face real, and significant challenges, we must adopt a state
that seeks not incremental change within the existing paradigm, we must seek an epic win – a tem coined from gaming. The gamer seeks, or indeed quests for an epic win. It is about recognising the opportunities for value creation and
having the courage and the conviction to blend new and old tools, processes and language together to evolve, fresh, novel and meaningful strategies and
operational approaches. Which means striving for sustainable economic success, better government, education and healthcare. It demands innovation and the transformation of all the existing organisations, legal systems, economic or otherwise, that currently frame and define our world to better serve us as humanity. And better much better does not necessarily have to cost the earth.
For more on this and business transformation in a volatile world join the Face Book community here
To read Alan Moore’s original article visit here.
For sure! But how to achieve this in these complex, chaotic, competitive times? Who has already achieved this and what we can learn from them?
Here is a guest blog by Enabling Catalysts who have been engaging with organisations on just this.
This was a question that brought together excellent organisations such as Southern Co-operative, Paramo, EDF, Southern Railways, Infinity Foods and more at our recent event. And the source of inspiration? Nature.
After all, as Giles Hutchins, author of ‘The Nature of Business’ says “Nature has been dealing with dynamic change for over 3.8 billion years. It is constantly perfecting approaches to survival and resilience that are relevant for organisations”.
These are not just wishful words. His book covers many aspects of how businesses and organisations can practically apply lessons from nature. It has gleaned comments like “A must read for everyone involved in the business of the future…. and aren’t we all? By Mick Bremans, Chairman, Ecover
and
“It is clear that as business people we need another mind-set…Giles has drawn together a compelling read for anybody interested in creating a better future.” says Andy Wood, CEO of Adnams
And
“Simply the best new book on business and management in many years!” tells Hazel Henderson, President of Ethical Markets Media and author of Building A Win-Win World
The One Leadership project is partnering with Giles to make the guiding principles of nature’s approach to resilience, health and sustainability accessible to organisations, so that they can succeed by bringing these into their thought, structure and practice.
For this event, we partnered up with long-term friends Sussex Wildlife Trust who kindly hosted the event. Delegates not only got provocative thoughts to take away. The way we structure events enables people to build peer relationships, and to explore and expand their own thinking.
“It was really enjoyable.” Says Gemma Lacey, Head of Sustainability at The Souther Co-operative. “There was a really good mix of people. It condensed a lot into the right amount of time. The topic came across really well. And I liked the interactive style and hearing different perspectives. It’s so good to have a common connection with people.”
These sentiments were shared by someone with a head for figures as well as a passion for a sustainable future; Grahame Mayo is Treasurer at Infinity Food Co-operative Ltd. He comments “What was truly valuable was that it offered a pause for reflection – a forum to feel and allow ideas to emerge. A structure and space to listen to others unfolding… Reflection is the touchstone of transformation. Like the optical illusion that pops from one thing to another when we hold our gaze just for that moment beyond what we would normally do. When the change ‘pops’ nothing outwardly appears different and we carry on as we have always done but inwardly nothing remains the same and slowly coherence emerges from past disparate activities.”
Beautiful words. A wonderful time and successful event. If you would like inspiration around resilience, health and sustainability for your organization, get in touch.
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View a short video clip on business inspired by nature here
“Neil Scotton and Alister Scott provoke us to higher thinking in sharing their thoughts and observations with us. Their commitment to bringing leadership to life and making our world a better place is evident in their writing and in their work.”
So said the judges at Coaching at Work magazine, the world’s foremost independent magazine for the coaching and mentoring profession.
Living in dynamic harmony with nature
Nature is a co-creative receptive-responsive improvisational dance. How on Earth do we attune with it? Here is a guest blog by Nadine Andrews of Culture Probe to explore this question.
Just as a muscle needs exercising, living in harmonious relationship with nature in modern Western culture requires attending to. Without cultivation through training and disciplined practice, the relationship tends to weaken and wither. I know this from my own personal experience and professional work.
It’s not easy to maintain because in this culture the interdependent relationship between humans with the rest of nature is de-emphasised, under-valued, obscured and distorted. Complex supply webs distance us from the raw natural materials and functions that allow us to live as we do. Where does our food come from? How were the products we use produced? How do the day-to-day choices we make impact on the natural world? The answers are not always obvious, not immediately transparent. It is easy to live unaware, as if unplugged from nature. Even the most fundamental relationships, such as the movement of the earth around the sun, are lost to many people leaving them unable to read the signs that reveal time of day and direction.
Another reason is that balance and harmony are dynamic – there is always movement even if tiny, so it is not simply a case of achieving balance and then that’s it, job done, no further effort required. Rather, maintaining balance and harmony is a constant on-going process, unfolding moment by moment. The skill is in finely attuning to the movements, and in knowing how to move in accord with the patterns inherent in nature. It is in the following of patterns of our own inner nature and tuning in to the inner nature of other things that we can live harmoniously. It is how we can flourish and fulfil our potential, just as the acorn follows its inner nature to grow into an oak tree. If we are not in dynamic harmony then it’s likely we will act in ways that are ultimately destructive to our selves, other people and other living beings.
In my work I help people gain a sense of harmony and balance, teaching practices to heighten awareness and sensory acuity, and to develop the skill of close observation of one’s inner and outer worlds. Through attending, we create connection with our selves and with others. These connections enable us to detect feedback signals alerting us to changes in dynamics, and it is through this feedback that we can self-regulate our actions creating order and balance for the wellbeing of ourselves and of other living things.
The approach I take draws on my interpretation of Daoist philosophy from the study of texts and personal practice of Lishi, a Daoist physical arts system, integrated with bushcraft and the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) model [1].
Daoist thinking developed through the close study of natural phenomenon in order to discern their patterns so they could be followed. These natural patterns form the basis of physical arts like tai chi, chi kung and kung fu. Biomimicry and permaculture design follow in the footsteps of this Daoist approach in observing how nature solves problems and copying those design principles.
This weekend at Edge of the Wild – a yearly UK gathering of ecopsychologists and ecotherapists – I am running a 2-hour workshop on Daoism, mindfulness and connecting with nature through physical practice. Last weekend I led a 3-day nature mindfulness retreat with a small group in the Lake District.
A key theme that I emphasise in these sessions is about nonduality – the interplay of opposites. Daoist philosophy teaches that everything has a yin and a yang aspect for they are like two sides of the same coin, and that for every action there will be counter movements. It is a dynamic relationship where the duality is relative. 
As shown in the Yin-yang symbol there is always an element of each in the other, and one attracts and evokes the other.
These themes are illustrated through various exercises; it is an embodied experiential learning. We practice connecting through energy, or qi, for we are in relationship with nature, with the world, through the giving and receiving of energy.
One of the first exercises I like to do is ‘unbending arm’. Here, person A tries to keep their arm straight using muscle tension whilst person B tries to bend it. After a while, the arm bends. Next, person A relaxes the muscle tension and imagines water flowing down their arm and out their fingers. It is much harder for person B to now bend the arm using the same amount of force. The key point here is how softness is stronger than hardness because energy can flow more freely. It is important to do the exercise slowly so that each person can feel what is going on. People are amazed at how this works, and it has worked each time and with every person when I have done this exercise.
Relating this to everyday life, we notice how we often react to a disturbance by going tense, or by exerting force. The aim is to be like water, soft yet immensely powerful, capable of moving boulders and shaping landscapes. Watching how a stream flows downhill over rocks can be very instructive and inspiring.
A standing exercise shows how in stillness there is always movement and counter movement to keep the body upright and balanced. Breathing into areas of discomfort in mindfulness meditation reveals the reverse is also true: that even in the midst of physical or emotional turmoil and intensity we may find a sense of spaciousness and stillness.
Paradox is at the heart of Daoist thinking, but it is certainly not unfamiliar to Western traditions, as evidenced by many paradoxical proverbs:
- No pain, no gain
- You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs
- No larder without its mice
- Every cloud has a silver lining
- Without darkness there is no light
- Roses have thorns
- Every path has its puddle
Daoist philosophy holds that the natural world is already in harmony, and that it is the exerting of our ego-driven will that disturbs this harmony. It is only in acting in accordance with the inner nature of things where we have let go of desire for power, status, or financial reward that we can live well and impact lightly.
What is most Interesting is that this Daoist understanding of human behaviour fits with the findings of empirical psychology research that extrinsic goals and self-enhancement values concerned with gaining power, status, financial success and external reward make you less likely to care about nature. Intrinsic goals and self-transcendent values on the other hand, are associated with empathy for others, concern for human rights and the environment [2]. Intrinsic goals and values are inherently satisfying to pursue as they meet intrinsic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness, whereas the extrinsic goals and self-enhancement values are to do with external rewards, praise and evaluation by others. As extrinsic goals are pursued as a means to some other end or to compensate for a deficiency in capacity to satisfy intrinsic needs, they are less likely to be inherently satisfying and maybe even insatiable [3]. Intrinsic goal orientation is also associated with mindfulness, higher subjective wellbeing, lower consumerism and materialism [4].
Connecting mindfully with nature (our own inner nature as well as that of the physical universe) through the approaches and practices discussed above helps us flourish, enhancing our own wellbeing and that of other living things. The greater the quality of connection, the greater capacity for regulating and harmonising. This is what makes following our own inner nature and tuning into the inner nature of things an art, a discipline, to be practiced and cultivated.
For more on my work visit my website or follow me on twitter @cultureprobe
References
[1] Kabat-Zinn 1990
[2] Schwartz 1992; Grouzet et al 2005
[3] Deci & Ryan 2000; Grouzet et al 2005
[4] Brown & Kasser 2005
The companies of the future should look to the natural world to learn how to adapt and thrive.
In times of pressing challenges such as the current perfect storm of social, economic and environmental volatility, great courage is required to break rank from a paradigm that is ingrained in our business mindset.
Companies of the past are rooted in the mechanistic and reductionist approaches to business that are prevalent in mainstream business thinking, management courses and training. The company of the past is independent, stable, efficient, risk-aware, controlled, self-focused, competitive, driven and quantifiable.
But these attributes are no longer good enough on their own for a company operating in a business environment that is increasingly volatile, impossible to predict or control, complex, open and interconnected.
These are the times within which we now operate, and the level of volatility is only set to increase for the foreseeable future. The company of the past, with all its strengths, is no longer fit for purpose.
Business redesign
Dawn Vance, global head of logistics for Nike puts it succinctly when she says:
“Organisations have three options:
hit the wall;
optimise and delay hitting the wall;
or, redesign for resilience.”
Due to a number of business drivers, companies need to make big changes – “redesign for resilience” – if they are to succeed in these volatile times, transforming to become more emergent, inter-connected, values-led, organic and inspired by nature.
For billions of years, nature has survived and flourished through times of radical change and disruption by dynamically networking and collaborating among species and throughout ecosystems.
Competition and constraints help shape nature, yet it is collaboration and synergy – not competition – that are responsible for nature’s sustained success. The species most able to survive and evolve are those most able to sense and respond, adapt and align, and work in partnership with and within their ecosystems.
Diversity, flexibility and collaboration are core to the interwoven evolutionary journey of life – the driving forces that provide resilience within species and ecosystems.
The more we explore nature, the more we find insight for the transformation business requires.
Industrial ecology
Industrial ecology, for example, challenges the over-exploitative nature of the current “take–make–waste” industrial paradigm. It uses inspiration from nature in exploring how systems can be more interconnected and less linear – where waste of one part of the ecosystem is input for another, and hence there is no need for wasteful emissions of any kind (whether gas, liquid or solid waste), as long as the right interconnections are in place.
And it is not just the processes within business that can be inspired by nature; business leadership is undergoing transformation which again can take inspiration from nature.
Ensuring successful adaptation against a backdrop of increasing uncertainty and complexity means leadership becomes less about directive structured approaches seeking predictable outcomes and more about emergence through empowering others to make effective and timely decisions.
Emergence is the nature of nature; it’s how life thrives in unpredictability. Hence, the “new norm” of dynamic non-equilibrium in business requires a shift in conventional management thinking from over-reliance on top-down, hierarchical, risk-based approaches to managing within complexity.
Managing within complexity juggles and combines varying styles and techniques. It encourages bottom-up emergence to flourish; establishing an all-pervasive values-led work ethic whilst guiding and coaching.
As our understanding of our interrelated nature becomes more apparent to us, we recognise that our values as individuals, organisations and communities are fundamentally what drive our ability to behave more sustainably and so embrace the transformational journey.
Value creation
Companies that “get it” are the ones that appreciate how business is less about unethical short cuts in the name of profit, and more about value-creation through good business sense.
Companies and individuals – leaders and employees – that properly engage with sustainability, by believing in the holistic values and mission of the business, will be those that embrace this next stage of sustainability maturity. It is a step beyond seeing sustainability as a business opportunity which can create value to realising it is the only appropriate way to do good business, and so becoming intrinsic to business behaviour.
In the words of Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever:
“Too many people think in terms of trade-offs that if you do something which is good for you, then it must be bad for someone else. That’s not right and it comes from old thinking about the way the world works and what business is for: Milton Friedman’s optimisation of short-term profits. We have to snap out of that old thinking and move to a new model.”
As the company (and business ecosystem) becomes more values-led and vibrant the working environment becomes more emotionally and mentally healthy, where business goals are met without sacrificing personal values and integrity. In fact, it can be quite the contrary: the work acts to reinforce personal integrity by providing a rich emergent experience for individual and collective learning hand-in-hand with ethical growth.
Creative potential
The more our working environments become values-led and life-enhancing the more alive the companies and the more aligned we become to the true nature within us and around us. This helps unlock the creative potential within us, individually and collectively re-connecting with our authentic selves and so perceiving business challenges as opportunities for life enhancement. The challenging business environment becomes a sea of opportunities.
As Richard Branson correctly points out:
“Those businesses that do well whilst doing good are the ones that will thrive in the coming decades. Those that continue with ‘business as usual’, focused solely on profit maximisation, shall not be around for long (and don’t deserve to be).”
This is about encouraging business activity which creates conditions conducive to life and no longer tolerating activity which is knowingly toxic to life. Unified visions, strong culture, corporate transparency and stakeholder dialogues ensure values-based sustainable business becomes everyday business.
This requires a transformation in business mentality, in business models and organisational culture. This is the future of business and it is inspired by nature, a business that is resilient, adaptive, optimising, systems-based, values-led and life supporting.
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UPCOMING LIVE TELESEMINAR – a special pre-summer ‘one-off’.
Date: Tuesday, July 9, 2013 – 10:00am – 11:15am Pacific Time (6pm BST)
Registration: Please register online and we’ll send you call information via email.
Info on the TeleSeminar is listed here: http://transitionus.org/event/redesigning-business-resilience-%E2%80%93-business-inspired-nature
Nature has already shown us the way to solve many human problems, from deciphering simple engineering puzzles to unlocking the mysteries of flight. In The Nature of Business, Giles Hutchins makes a compelling case for applying the same principles of biomimicry to the development of a new business paradigm. He demonstrates clearly how behaviours and organizations found in nature can be applied to help our organizations flourish in chaotic and uncertain times. He presents the challenges to the prevailing “business as usual” model, explains the pressing need for transformational change, and reveals the concepts and mind-sets necessary to inspire the businesses of tomorrow.
About Giles Hutchins, M.Sc., MRICS, FRSA Giles fuses a business background with a love of nature by building a bridge between the two to help organizations transform towards sustainable businesses. He is a business change agent with over 15 years of business and IT transformation experience with KPMG and Atos International. His passion is exploring ways of applying nature’s inspiration to sustainable business transformation. His work draws on a range of theories and practices (such as biomimicry, cradle-to-cradle & industrial ecology) applying them to the challenges businesses face today, providing practical insight and guidance to help businesses redesign for resilience in these volatile times. As well as engaging with a multitude of for-profit businesses, he engages with a number of leading non-profit organisations such as the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Earthwatch, Schumacher College, The World Wild Fund for Nature and regularly presents at leading business schools, universities, global conferences and blogs for a number of leading sites including The Guardian Sustainable Business.
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Indigenous Wisdom
Here is a short article which forms part of The Nature of Business, a section contributed by Dr Mike Edwards.
Whilst it is important not to fall into slipshod romanticism about the lives and lifestyles of indigenous peoples, it is impossible to refute the fact that people who live in close proximity to nature, and rely on the biophysical systems of nature for their survival, have a highly complex and developed relationship with their environment.
Indigenous people have learnt through bitter experience that you cannot just take from nature in an over-exploitative manner; you have to build a nurturing relationship with that which sustains life. This relationship need not be one solely of reverence; it can also be one of utilisation but utilisation based on essential needs rather than endless wants. Unlike the exploitation which underpins the prevailing business paradigm, ‘indigenous utilisation’ has a combination of spiritual, pragmatic and practical elements which respect natural limits and can teach the Firm of the Future so much.
Indigenous utilisation has allowed people to survive in some of Earth’s most inhospitable environments for many thousands of years. The Aboriginal people of Australia, for example, have both survived and flourished for over 40,000 years on one of Earth’s driest continents until, of course, they were colonised. By learning to adapt to extreme environmental conditions, Aboriginal Australians built cultures that were perfectly adapted to their environments. This adaptation, based on highly efficient resource utilisation, allowed Aboriginal people to build thriving cultures in environments where even the most technologically advanced ‘Westerners’ struggle to survive.
By looking at how indigenous people relate to their environments and how they use resources, the Firm of the Future can learn how best to adapt to the volatile conditions ahead of them. Importantly, the value systems of indigenous people can also inform the Firm of the Future. Reciprocity, for example, allows balance in indigenous communities and it is balance that underpins resilience. Reciprocity also underpins the respectful relationship that many indigenous people had, and have, with nature. You don’t simply steal from nature; you care for it so that it will care for you.
Interestingly ‘sustainability’ as a term does not really exist amongst indigenous cultures simply because indigenous people live it (not think about it in a separate way to normal behaviour). This is why they have thrived for thousands of years in volatile environments and lived to tell the tale. By embodying the notion of right relationships, reciprocity, reverence, thinking generations ahead whilst having a holistic understanding of their natural and social environment, they ensure their actions form part of the interconnected nature of life. Hence, sustainability is not needed as a concept as it would never occur to them not to behave and live in a sustainable way.
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The Nature of Business 