Dear readers,
Today I want to share with you 3 of the principles used by all living organisms to survive and thrive in nature, as identified by the Biomimicry Institute (after studying thousands of plants and animals).
Connecting these principles to my own life and contexts was of immense value for me. My hope is that they will inspire you as well, as you navigate through the uncertainties of life. 🧭💡
Short term: Being locally attuned and responsive
This one is about being active and adapting to all the small changes in your immediate environment, on a short timescale spectrum (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months).
There are 4 sub-principles connected to it:
Leveraging cyclic processes: are there any patterns that you notice?
Using readily available materials and energy: what can you use from the environment to be able to stay in sync with it?
Use feedback loops: what are the dynamics of the systems around you?
Cultivating cooperative relationships: who can you help and who can help you?
In practice:
How aware are you of how the things around you are changing now? (Sense)
How fast and how well do you respond to short term changes? (Change)
Medium term: Adapting to changing conditions
This one is about actively adapting to the bigger changes around you, on a medium timescale spectrum (months, years).
There are 3 sub-principles connected to it:
Incorporating diversity: how diversified is your capability set, for example?
Maintaining integrity through self-renewal: how do you constantly maintain and evolve your identity as you change?
Embodying resilience through variation, redundancy and decentralization: are you exploring multiple things? Do you have fall-backs as you progress? Is your livelihood based on a central mix of things going always right?
In practice:
How aware are you of how the things around you will change in the next few years? (Sense)
What are you doing to prepare and adapt to what you’ll need soon? (Change)
Long term: Evolve to Survive
This one is about constantly adapting and possibly reinventing yourself on a long timescale spectrum (years, decades).
There are 3 sub-principles connected to it:
Replicating strategies that work: what successful approaches can you repeat?
Integrating the unexpected: how can you build on the mistakes or leverage the surprises that you encounter?
Reshuffling information: how can you adjust your information flows to create new (long-term) options?
In practice:
How aware are you of how you evolve? (Sense)
How do you adjust the way you evolve? (Change)
Sense & Change at all timescales, as one of the main lessons from nature is to constantly be active and adapt to what’s changing.
The beauty is that, in nature, all these principles (and some more that I will cover next time) are being followed at the same time, as a whole.
Might be something to think about the next time we face a change.
Thanks for exploring together
I’m Bülent Duagi, a Strategy & Organization professional with a mission to help people address the complex challenges they (will) face.
📽 The intro video about this Personal Strategy exploration
🌱 Let’s connect on LinkedIn
🐚 All the Personal Strategy articles on Medium
✨ Send me a message with your thoughts about Personal Strategy
If you enjoy this newsletter, forward it to a friend 🌿