Ecology Is Simple, But Humans Are Complex
By: Christyl Rivers
Tags: Business, Diversity, Ecology, Business Strategy, Growth

Ecology Is Simple, But Humans Are Complex

What interactive human systems can learn from ecology

Plants work with air, water, sunlight, and diversity Christyl Rivers

Ecology follows a simple script. There are really just four fundamental rules that apply universally to every ecological system.

The ecosystem (microbiome) of your inner elbow follows them. The ecosystem that we call earth follows them.

Everything is everything

The first rule of ecology is that everything is interconnected. In ecopsychology, we say everything has everything to do with everything. This does not sit well with any person who has a priority agenda, project, obsession, or selfish goal.

Human beings, by nature of abstract thought, are just better at competition and undermining. More precisely, we are better at seeing our aims as more important that any other’s aims and efforts.

Mindy may not see why Joe wants to talk about boundaries in the break room and microaggressions upon the community fridge. Mindy wants to talk about how to increase customers by greening the business to attract ethical people aspiring to be better consumers. A tireless warrior for making and keeping rules may find conflict with someone who wants an informal, and organic work development team. Most of the time, people say nothing about their concerns. They cover up their annoyance until it boils over into conflict.

But, in any other system when one organism has a requirement it is very overt. Tree branches will compete equally with other tree branches for access to sunlight. There is no microaggressions for the sunlight. The tree puts forth its energy honestly, and either achieves, or does not.

In a forest ecology, water, soil, air, plants, fungi and every element from mineral to inert matter contributes to the whole. When Mindy, Joe, or anyone else in the workplace fails to honor our interconnection, the reliance that the individual has upon the whole, successful outcomes are jeopardized.

More often than not, we simply wonder why others “don’t get it”. Trying to empathically listen to others and their concerns is crucial. A good manager will make every effort for everyone connected to the whole, to at least be heard. A good team feels safe enough to collaborate, even when vulnerable. Creativity is added to the system this way, to say nothing of social grace.

So, at work, just as in the forest, rule one is that every piece, every person, matters.

There is no away

In ecological systems, there is no waste.

Unfortunately, until human beings perfect the art of efficiency that ecology manages, we have to contend with waste. We waste time. We waste resources. We waste electricity, paper, plastic, transport, and much more. In short, we are wasteful.

We even waste talent, ideas, and human hours. Often, we are distracted. Often, we just feel an undue burden of bureaucracy. Often, we are just bored.

Our modern way of life, as is often pointed out, is unsustainable. Waste will eventually destroy any efforts to meet goals that don’t honor efficiency. We often hear that we would need four more planet Earths to allow our seven billion people to live like western civilizations do. Similarly, we can create waste, garbage, and pollutants in any setting where we do not recognize that there is no “away.”

So how can we honor growth? What does 21st century growth look like? It looks like optimization. It looks like conserving value. It looks like diversity. It looks like innovation.

Everything on earth, or in a business, has to go somewhere. We must choose whether those resources are optimized as nutrients, or wasted.

In an office setting, or retail store, for example, we waste lots of resources and time, but when we make every effort to see the accumulated waste, we can find areas to be more efficient. This doesn’t just mean to recycle or go paperless, although that is a good model on which to build.

In a forest, or coral reef, everything going into the systems supplies nutrients. In human settings, nutrients are anything of value that contributes to a healthier, more robust productivity.

Creatively finding the usefulness of an idea, an employee, or a resource, eliminates the debilitating mental strain of feeling futility and waste.

There is nothing but productivity and abundance in an ecosystem that has no “away,” no trash can, or overflowing landfill, in which to toss what we deem worthless.

The key to having no “away” is to make sure all contributions are valued, even those “useless” ideas that spark an idea for something even greater. Remember that the laboratory slime mold that was to be discarded waste, turned out to be the basis for all penicillin-based medications that have saved millions of lives.

There is no such thing as a free lunch

The idea of no waste is coupled with this idea. It simply means that every bit of resource, matter, energy, or time we put into an effort has a cost. If we are efficient and have discarded the wastefulness of non-productivity, the cost is minimal, but still there.

In a herd of antelope, cattle, or zebra, the cost of protecting the herd means sticking together against the predators. In a business, or even in a household, it means banding together for the protection of the herd. Of course, there are setbacks. A pride of lions will cull young, weak or elderly martyrs to the cause. In true circle of life function, however, there is a cost to the lions, as well.

The lions can be bit, injured, kicked, or culled themselves by farmers, or rangers, protecting other animals.

The point is that a sense of entitlement, “just because” does not exist.

You may be rich, powerful, privileged, or even ruthless and selfish, but these too, will also have a cost. The cost is usually disapproval from all but insincere toadies. Ultimately, the cost is disloyalty, and failure.

Also note that every offer for anything free is usually false. We are offered all kinds of free perks, but the cost is usually our time, our personal information, our loyalty, or any number of things.

I often have to stop and check my confirmation bias, why does this offer, this person, seem to be offering something free, or too good to be true? Take at least 24 hours to examine any such proposal. You won’t regret it.

The economic origins of the adage “no free lunch” came from nineteenth century saloons that offered a free lunch with a nickel beer. But the bar keepers were savvy. They knew that the second beer would be purchased, and more after that. They knew that the cost for the “ free lunch” to the customer was more drinks sold over all by the establishment.

Nature is often called cruel. Or, nature is called benevolent and kind. Both are true in different ways since nature invented love, but requires death.

The actual truth about “no free lunch” is that there is always a cost and a benefit. This is fair. This is neutral. This is natural.

Having something be so reliable, in the long run, is useful. All ecosystems and nature assure you they have no particular bias: you will get no free lunch. Pay your fair share. Your competitor will also get no free lunch, so long as everyone respects the truth that nothing comes from nothing.

If you consistently disregard others who may seem foreign, or of a different mindset remind yourself of the loss, and of the cost. Even if you think you are open-minded to diversity we all have implicit bias to examine.

Mother knows best

The last law of ecology is that nature knows best.

Mother nature, it has been observed from everyone from Socrates to Einstein, holds answers. We can only access those answers by being open to wonder, such as Socrates advised, and having humility as Einstein advised.

Nature can demonstrate to us how to better regard one another. We can learn how to work as one functioning super organism, to be connected to every other useful mind on the planet. We can collaborate, brainstorm, cooperate and innovate.

This is precisely what nature does to maintain ecology.

This law does not mean that anything unnatural, for just one example — let’s say indoor plumbing — is wrong. But it does say that since there is no “away” and no “free lunch.” All we do to redirect water for our purposes does have a cost. We are wise to know that cost. We are wise to note that we need nature for water to be produced, safe, and recycled continuously, and plentiful.

Nature knows best how to interconnect and create effective systems. We do not. This is because for the last 200 years we have largely separated from Nature. But sustainability demands we return to these fundamental laws for our own success in every business, field, household, and enterprise.

There is so much to gain. With biomimicry, with observation, and with respect for nature we can learn the wisdom of ecological laws.