Nature is diverse by nature
Imagine a non-diverse natural ecosystem: you can’t? Well, precisely. Or if you can, it probably conjures up images of death, of desolation – the opposite of a typically thriving ecosystem, full of vitality.
The natural world is, by essence, diverse; it is made up of lots of different elements having lots of diverse relationships with one another, some of which are symbiotic (they help each other, collaborate for the benefit of both), some of which may be predatory – though predation is a natural function of healthy ecosystem, it is a negative feedback loop (see Principle #4).
In the systemic paradigm underpinning our understanding of natural ecosystems, any element needs diverse elements to thrive – they can’t thrive if they relate only to themselves, or to sameness. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his book “The Dignity of Difference”, even argues that God created us incomplete, so that what we cannot do by ourselves we will need to rely on others to help us do it.
Regardless of whether we subscribe to his spiritual explanation or not, we cannot but witness that in the natural world, otherness and diversity enable the development of a complex and extremely rich web of relationships (what Fritjof Kapra calls “The Web of Life”), that not only helps ecosystems thrive, but also increases their resilience. In fact, the more elements in an ecosystem, the ‘thicker’ the web of relationships, and therefore the less likely it is to be destroyed by shocks to its usual living conditions.
For example, whilst it is true that honey-bees are key pollinators for fruiting trees, they are not the only ones – thank God! There are also bumble bees, wasps, hoverflies, solitary bees, moths, butterflies, beetles and many others – so that if one pollinator fails to manifest one year, others can fill in and do the job. The key permacultural concept of “one function, several elements” is directly inspired from observing Nature – just as its counterpart “one element, several functions” (hoverflies eat aphids, honey-bees make honey, etc.).
This keeps the system fairly stable over time, whilst at the same time allows for adaptation to temporary changes. In a particularly wet year, certain bacteria, algae, insects, mushrooms, rodents, fish and other animals might expand their presence due to those favourable conditions for them, where each element is able to feed on the growth of the smaller element is relies on. And then the next year is dry, and it’s a totally different flora and fauna that flourishes. But through time, the system has remained highly productive.
So diversity in Nature is a marker of health, vitality, resilience in a given system. What’s even more interesting, is that diversification is a fundamental driver of natural system’s growth. Life on earth started with bacteria, that grew and diversified into unicellular beings, etc until we got to the ancestor of all primates, who then diversified into primates, then homo erectus, then homo sapiens, etc. Natural then cultural laws encouraged homo sapiens to reproduce with partners who are not part of their direct family, thus increasing the chances of strengthening the species, and at the same time its diversification.
Along the same lines, for a grassland to become a primary forest, it has to host an ever growing diverse variety of plants, shrubs, trees, insects, animals, whose presence attracts and ever growing variety of elements who will thrive on their relationships with them, thus feeding a virtuous cycle of growth, vitality, and resilience.
Using and valuing diversity in Permaculture
Unsurprisingly, since it seeks to mimic natural processes, Permaculture relies heavily on this Principle #10.
In its approach to design, first of all. As we saw with Principle #7, permaculture designers start with principles, with patterns, before zooming in on details. And they start with observing and interacting with the reality they will design with (Principle #1). Therefore one designer will never copy and paste a design from one project to apply it to another, but rather customise each design to the reality s/he is working on.
Diversity is also at the heart of his/her choices for particular solutions: for heating, for example, they might choose passive heating coupled with good insulation, or solar panels, or woodstove if there is an important supply of freely available wood – or a mix of several of those, to compensate when one of them is suddenly unavailable.
For food production too, diversity is essential. Plant several different kinds of salads, some of them perennial, so that slugs might concentrate on a few and leave you with a decent supply still. Choose different variety of tomatoes, not only because some of them might resist better to mildew, but also so that they can fruit at different times, and provide you with continuous supply over 3-4 months, rather than overload you with kilos and kilos of them over 2 weeks in July!
And so it goes with other vegetables, fruits, poultry; with water collecting solutions, composting, etc. Diversity will always be a central principle, because of the stability and the resilience it brings to the system.
Harnessing diversity in organisations
The business case for diversity and inclusion in organisations is quite well known now: gather a socially and cognitively diverse team and make sure everyone is included, and you’ll increase your team’s potential for creativity (not everyone thinking the same things, in the same way, means more chances to enable new ideas to emerge); for resilience (when some might get stuck in one situation, others might be more at ease with it); for knowledge sharing and knowledge management (in particular with a generationally diverse team, where everyone might hold a bit of the story, so that none of it gets lost or forgotten); and for customer and market understanding, as the team will be more representative of the overall society.
However, the reality of it remains a struggle, partly because mental models are difficult to shift, and some people with power have a vested interest in keeping a non-diverse status quo; but also partly because organisations have tended to evolve into monoculture fields, where processes are highly refined to produce similar results year after year at ever decreasing costs, leaving little room for experimenting with different approaches.
Having said that, there are various ways of harnessing the potential of diversity in the workplace (some of which are developed in Principle #3). You could, for example:
- Take it in turns in the team to prepare and chair the team meeting: in this way, you will have different chairing styles, which might yield different results; and you will also increase staff engagement and responsibility taking. Those who might not speak or contribute much with a particular style might blossom with another, so the team will produce ideas it would never have been able to access within a single style approach
- Work on identifying and removing biases in your team/organisation: this could be done in a very fun way, using the Insidiae game for example; and help you remove some of the blocks internal to the team/organisation that is preventing it from accessing all its potential
- Set up a Diversity and Inclusion challenge: to reward best practices and business impact, and make the prize an interesting one for your own company culture. It could be funding to recruit extra staff, or to launch a project that was not in the current funding stream; or tickets to the opera for the whole team, or to a football game; or a couple of days glamping at the Knepp Estate, in Sussex, UK, one of the pioneers of rewilding …
- Create a mentorship network, including reverse mentoring: across generations, cultures or gender, ensuring that what comes up during the mentoring sessions about organisational obstacles to Inclusion can be (confidentially) brought to the exectutive team’s attention, so that it can also be worked on
- Audit and challenge all your HR processes: not as you’ve always done, but inviting those whom the organisational culture does not include to be the ones doing the audit and offering recommandations