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Gavin curtispresentation1
- 1. “The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster.” ― David Hume
- 14. • Environment • Complexity • Competition • Organization • Operations • Performance • Organization • Strategy • Goals • Vision • Individual • Preferences • Desires • Needs I E EI Input/Output Balance External Equilibrium Rights/Responsibilities Balance Internal Equilibrium
Editor's Notes
- Hello and welcome to my presentation and thank you for joining me. This is one of my favorite quotes and tends to keep me quite well grounded. It is from an 18th century British philosopher David Hume. “The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an Oyster”. When we look at the oyster/human comparison from this close perspective shown, it would seem impossible to believe that the oyster is as important as either of the humans we see here.
- But what if we compare as Hume asks from this perspective, how much more important does the human seem from here.
- We find that there is much more in common than one might think. The connection begins at the genetic level They are both at the tips of their genetically connected trees and at least one of them is still evolving to better adapt to it’s environment.
- The oyster shares so much more with the human than just DNA. They have been inexorably connected for over a thousand years through the magical Pearl. It is interwoven through human culture from the adornment of royalty to the traditional sweet sixteen gift
- From the Japanese coast and the enigmatic mermaid diver to…
- The white linen clothed Emerati diver in the Gulf of Arabia
- The pearl farms of Tahiti
- Oysters are also connected to vast and complex non-human ecosystems they have been in fact termed as natural ecosystem engineers. They act as coastal wave attenuators mitigating erosion, can filter more than a gallon of water an hour and their reefs are home to thousands of micro species
- Okay so this is not a commercial for the save the oyster campaign and I don’t believe at any point an oyster will evolve to script an opera. My point with this comparison is to show how it is all connected and interwoven. The sea, the air, the organic and inorganic, all play a part in this ever undulating stream of existence and one does not have greater importance than another. The reason the oyster has survived for so long is that it has understood this flow and has remained in equilibrium with all other interconnected parts of the eco system, well at least until the industrial human arrived.
- Speaking of the industrial human, we see a connection to oysters through the business of Pearls, At the turn of the 20th century, during the Emirati's pearl industry prime, it employed around 80,000 people, and thousands of fleets would set sail from the region between June and September. There are hundreds of thousands of humans currently employed in the Pearl industry that is valued at billions of dollars
- This brings me to my purpose behind this presentation. To introduce the subject of Business Ecosophy. I must apologize for the big bang graphic, but I just could not resist
- Ecosophy is a relatively new branch of integrated philosophy. First coined by a Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess 1973 and more recently highlighted by a post=structuralist philosopher Félix Guattari. In it’s most basic form it is takes any topic and views it through the lens of ecological equilibrium. The understanding that there are no parts of the ecosphere that are considered more or less important, merely individual parts of a grand organization working harmoniously. We know that the entire scope of our living breathing planet is connected, Ecosophy provides the tools to put into perspective this interconnectedness.
- Early organizational structure had highly centralized management and clear delineations between departments, but what we have realized is that all departments within an organization are connected and that solutions to finding opportunities and dealing with problems are connected across many units in a business. For example, if HR hires poorly qualified workers for a production plant, production suffers, finances are affected, managers are put under pressure and senior management is forced to step in to try and sort the problem out. Sometimes even having a small part malfunction can wreak havoc in a large system.
- So, the idea of Business Ecosophy is to find ways to ensure that there is equilibrium within the entire organizational structure, a positive tension that has checks and balances to ensure that all units of an organization are functioning optimally to produce a positive result
- So How can this Business Ecosophy be incorporated into the business environment? It must be interwoven into the organizational fabric starting at the highest level. Creating an organizational vision that embraces the ecological connection. Create an understanding that even the smallest decisions made have an effect such as the material in the clothes that are worn, the cups employees drink out of and the food consumed in the workplace. Every time a decision has to be made, the ecological considerations must be taken into account. This does not mean that a decision must always have ecological benefit, just that it should be considered as an everyday part of thinking. It is impractical to believe that every decision in business could have ecological benefit, but the more that are made the closer we can come to equilibrium
- What is being looked for is more than positive financial outcomes. It also means that all those working within the organization feel valued and appreciated, creating positive and healthy work environments. Pushing even deeper, that the organization itself is in balance with the markets in which it serves and from which it is supplied and finally that it that the business is balance with the natural world.
- So often we hear the cries for radical change, that an entirely new paradigm must be urgently created. This leads to a great deal of dissociative behavior.
- But what if instead, we were to take small steps in the direction to everything we already have. A physical and instinctive link to the natural world, and then from there make decisions that honor that link
- We are a part of a unified cosmos consisting of all modalities of being, from a rock to the heavens. It is very important that business decisions are made that enhance our ecological equilibrium. The changes have already begun and the positive outcomes are all around, so the more focus we place on positively integrating into the natural world, the better the consequences will be and the greater the momentum will shift toward a more sustainable future . Thank you for your time and a happy earth day to you