What we have to learn from nature’s living systems
This is a sequel to last week’s segment called, “Survival of the Fittest: Is It The (Only) Way It Is?” That piece, based on Elisabet Sahtouris’ work, described how we have inherited—and swallowed whole—a model of life that says that human economics is rooted in struggle (Darwin) and scarcity (Malthus). This is what now drives us in both our individual and corporate lives to go after as much as we can before someone else gets there before we do. “Eat or be eaten” is the soundbite. Our fascination with mergers and acquisitions as a simple way to “eat” is testimony to that philosophy. What is wrong with this model? If we could find an answer to that question, perhaps it could help explain why 75% of all mergers fail.
Here is a start: there is growing evidence among thinkers that Darwin and Malthus were not entirely correct, that nature, in fact, is not based on scarcity, but on abundance, and things like collaboration are not anomalies, but the way life operates. As Elisabet sees it, instead of providing a rationale for a dog-eat- dog strategy, biology shows us an economic model for what could be called productive sustainability, one that has succeeded for some 40 billion years! “If we take a broad definition of business to be the economy of making a living, transforming resources into useful products that are exchanged, distributed, consumed and/or recycled.”
The Rainforest: A Model Organization?
A rain forest, for instance, using just 6 inches of topsoil, has thrived and supported a myriad of life forms for millions of years. How? By transforming resources into useful products that are exchanged, distributed, consumed and/or recycled. That’s what nature does. Nothing is wasted, everything is involved in the process. It’s fundamental “economics”—which comes from the Greek words for “home”(oikos) and “principles” (nomos). Literally, the rules of the house. (If you are interested in more, google WHAT WE LEARNED IN THE RAINFOREST by Tachi Kiuchi and see his eight steps for creating a sustainable organization.)
Another example of what we need to learn from biology that could help us lead our lives and organizations, is from our own bodies. “The heart cannot exploit the liver,” is how Elisabet puts it. When any part of your body needs something, the whole body responds immediately to rush resources to the needy part. Even St. Paul, not always seen as a champion of the human body, used this metaphor: “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts. . . The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable deserve to be treated with special honor. . . If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (From I Corinthians 21)
This sounds all nice and warm and fuzzy, but what happens to businesses that actually start to emulate nature in this way? Talk with Ray Anderson, CEO of Innerface, the Atlanta-based manufacturer of (petroleum-dependent) carpet tiles about what happened to him and his company. As he told a group of us recently at a World Business Academy conference, “An employee gingerly placed a book on my desk one morning about ten years ago: SILENT SPRING by Rachel Carlson. I went home and read it. Stayed up all night. The next day I gathered our executive team and told them, ‘People, we are highly successful but we are raping the earth. And I am leading the charge. You and I are going to figure out how to turn this whole thing around—and fast.’”
Since then Ray and Innerface have made good on a mission to “Be the first company that, by its deeds, shows the entire industrial world what sustainability is in all its dimensions: People, process, product, place and profits—by 2020—and in doing so, become restorative through the power of influence.” As Innerface’s people put their creative minds to work on this Herculean task, they dramatically reduced emissions, redesigned smokestacks out of existence, virtually eliminated waste, and instituted recycling procedures designed to take all their waste to zero. The bottom line results make Innerface the leader in their industry in sales, profit and market share.
How to get started? Get educated about sustainability. If Ray Anderson and his oil-based carpet production facilities can transform themselves into the poster child for business success based on nature as collaboration and care for the long-haul (rather than Darwin and Malthus’ struggle and scarcity), then anybody can make it work. . .
As Elisabet explains, a good way to start would be to look at how you and your organization currently transforms resources into useful products or services that and how they are
– exchanged,
– distributed,
– consumed and/or
– recycled
Next week I will begin a multi-part series on the amazing Maasai people of Africa and how they can become teachers for us all about this and many other important aspects of individual and corporate life. “Organization as Community: What We Have To Learn From The Maasai About Leadership—and Life.”
I hope these short pieces are helping you. JOHN SCHERER
