catch and store energy,
and transform disturbance into life.
Diverse,
Collaborative,
Resilient,
Healthy,
and Abundant.
Guidestones
Patterning After Nature
Written into the soil, the forest creek, and the human body, are patterns that represent billions of years of accumulated wisdom. If we take the time to learn from our greatest teacher, we can apply these patterns to our own lives, resulting in more creative, resilient, and self-sufficient homes, neighborhoods, businesses, communities and, someday, society.
Permaculture
Earth Care
People Care
Fair Share
Observe and interact
Catch and store energy
Obtain a yield
Apply self-regulation & accept feedback
Use & value renewable resources & services
Produce no waste
Design from patterns to details
Integrate rather than segregate
use small and slow solutions
Use and value diversity
use edges & value the marginal
Creatively use and respond to change
The Biology of Corporate Survival
Variety in nature means more ways in which energy is used before it leaves the system. Diversity among elements and their connections buffers against environmental shocks, and is the reservoir for adaptation.
Systems pull from their reservoir of diversity to adjust and creatively respond to change.
Though there is overall interconnectedness in nature, everywhere there are subsystems and functional groups. Modularity slows the spread of shocks between components, making the overall system more resilient.
Elements in nature play overlapping roles, each fulfilling multiple needs, and each need being met by multiple elements. This means when one element fails, another can replace it.
Nature is constantly changing. As species A evolves, so too do the organisms they feed on (species B), causing a need for further adaptation by species A. These adaptations in both species influence the larger system, and resulting changes in the larger system prompt further adaptation by species A and B. This process repeats in perpetuity.
It's through feedback loops that systems detect environmental changes, and select for adaptation.
From the root zone of a single plant to the forest at large, ecosystems big and small are nested in their larger environment, allowing for evolution through interaction, emergence, and feedback.
How Change Happens
The tendency for people to misrepresent their opinions, believing their peers wouldn't agree.
Some people require no support at all before they will say what they think or join a movement, some need to see at least one other person acting before they will join, some two, some three, and on into infinity.
The tendency for a group of like-minded individuals to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members.
