A week at Schumacher

I was lucky enough to be a participant on a week-long course at Schumacher College recently. The course, led by facilitators with links to Atos, Biomimicry and the TYF Group, led us through a course on Transforming Business Through Nature.

The course was a great opportunity for learning and reflection. These are some of the thoughts that I came away with.

99.9% of species which have existed on earth have died out. So what we see around us are those which have proved themselves to be effective responses to the challenges that life has thrown up. This makes them such valuable models.

Nature creates not just life, but the conditions in which life can thrive. So what are the conditions I would like to see around me, which can nurture and sustain me – colleagues, family, networks, lifestyle … They requires as much attention as paying attention to my own development. And, having the right conditions means a shift from having to push things through, to letting opportunities and development flourish naturally.

One organism’s waste is another’s food. Schumacher tries to throw as little as possible away – because there is no ‘away’. Businesses talk of supply chains or value chains. The Dartington Estate, 1400 acres and 75 years’ of innovation in enterprise, the arts and education, is instead exploring the creation of a business ecosystem, in which the waste from one enterprise becomes the input for another. Sawdust, compost, waste food…

How does nature replicate itself? The coconut tree produces a few coconuts each year; dandelion heads, a few hundred seeds; a pine tree, several thousand pine cones each with hundreds of seeds; and mushrooms produce millions of tiny spores. Which is best? That which suits the species and its context. In most cases, many more seeds are produced than germinate and grow to maturity.

Those which die become food for others; and a few may flourish where they have rooted. The analogies to business development are clear – how many seeds, how big, what are my delivery systems, what’s my attitude to those that don’t flourish, do I invest too much in too few chances?

Other nifty techniques from nature: redundancy – several systems existing to do the same job, so the web carries on if one fails; diversity – many ways of meeting the same challenges; resilience – able to cope with disturbance not by fighting but by adapting; efficiency – rich on design, mean on resources.

In learning from nature the starting point is not: can I find an analogy in nature for what I’m already doing? Rather, what can I learn from nature and does any of it translate to my circumstances. Start by being open to anything, to be surprised and delighted.

In aiming for the big picture, what are the characteristics of a 10 out of 10 based on reality. How resilient would it be, does it optimise, is it based in the values, is it adaptive, system focused (able to interact with what’s around it), is it life-supporting.

Schumacher College has a rhythm to the day – meditation at 7.15, breakfast 7.45, community meeting at 8.30 for all staff, students and volunteers, 8.45 daily chores for everyone… The orientation to the week included time in the kitchen to hear from the cook about how food either feeds or depletes us, and the place of food in nurturing us and as part of the flow of energy through the college. We covered so much each day; and yet each day had lots of space in them; the chores anchored oneself in the system and to each other.

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