Organizational health, transformative change, improved systems communication, and overall resilience are dependent upon how well we can understand and imitate nature's own patterns for ecosystemic sustainability.
Noted cultural ecologist and geo-philosopher, David Abram accompanies us on an astounding odyssey, tracking wild creature-kin migration, including freshwater salmon, sandhill cranes, and monarch butterflies, as their migratory patterns continue to perplex and confound biologists.
Acknowledging centuries of research positing internal technologies such as geospatial mapping, circadian clocks, and inborn compasses, David points to the geo-resonant interface of animal bodies with the animate Earth. "What is this dynamic alliance between an animal and the animate orb that gives it breath? What seasonal tensions and relaxations in the atmosphere, what subtle torsions in the geosphere, help to draw half a million cranes so precisely across the continent? What rolling sequence or succession of blossomings helps summon these millions of butterflies across the belly of the land? What alterations in the olfactory medium, what bursts of solar exuberance through the magnetosphere, what attractions and repulsions . . . ? For surely, really and truly, these migratory creatures are not taking readings from technical instruments nor mathematically calculating angles; they are riding waves of sensation, responding attentively to allurements and gestures in the topographical manifold, reverberating subtle expressions that reach them from afar. These beings are dancing not with themselves but with the animate rondure of the Earth, their wider Flesh."
What might we learn from this interplay of "reading" the Earth's subtle undulations and sensuous rhythmic cadence for such astonishing precision in communication and movement? How might biomimetic hermeneutics assist organizational health and resiliency?
1) Seeing what is before us right now or "presencing" into this moment is prerequisite. Precise movement in a balletic flight pattern depends upon exact calibration to subtle wind pattern, flight mate distance, and created airflow. In human communication, active listening is only the beginning. Our full sensorium must be engaged in order to activate latent patterns of perception, awareness, and collaboration. Emotional intelligence is necessary, yes, for reading our human-kin, but only insofar as we acknowledge and act as though we are a microcosm of a thrumming biosphere that interacts with us, and we with the biosphere as our own skin. How might we activate and hone our full sensorium to perceive and interact with all of creation when sensory pollution inundates us?
2) Broadening our vision toward the wider "We" is essential. The living biosphere is our data sample for overall organizational effectiveness, to help us begin to comprehend our global KPIs. Any strategic plan that focuses solely on market research, or attempts to implement MEL systems devoid of bioregional environmental data is prone to myopic, insular perception and delusion. Thinking and working on the microcosmic level is only effective when the macrocosm - the wider "We" - is in sync. Systems analysis that takes into account wide-sweeping trends in consciousness, communication, and meaning-building will thrive in the evolutionary phases of refounding and sustainable futures. Especially now, in the post-human era, who "We" are becoming is a crucial conversation for organizational resiliency.
3) Aesthetics - a philosophy of beauty - as a basis for organizational health and resilience is key. Environmental ethics depends on preserving what is considered beautiful not just in the eye of the beholder, but mathematically inscribed. If we could put a mathematical number to beauty, it is approximately 1.62, the Golden Ratio of beauty. The Golden Ratio (also known as Phi, or the Fibonacci number) is the mathematical symmetry algorithm that underlies our perception of what is beautiful. Harmonious migratory patterns thrive on the ubiquitous spiral patterns of the universe, that beautiful (golden) ratio. As we co-create effective organizational communication loops, cycles of MEL system integration, and predictors of longevity and resilience, we would be wise to imitate what we observe in nature as beautiful.
Nature provides the primordial language for beauty, meaning-making, health, and resilience. Isn't it time we became more fluent?
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