Applying the Ecological Principle of Recycling

This blog entry continues to explore the application of ecological principles to leadership by considering the principle of recycling.

All organisms in an ecosystem produce waste. What is waste for one species, though, is food for another. The result is a system without waste. This cyclical process differs from a linear operation, which ends with waste being discarded unused.

The principle of recycling applies to the flow of information within a system. Information is a system’s food source. According to organizational consultants Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers writing in their book A Simpler Way, “Information feeds the local explorations that keep a system viable and stable.” The needs of a system are “nourished by Information.” If information is restricted, the life of the system is threatened.

A system takes in data, processes it, and produces outputs. Information that is received and evaluated as irrelevant is discarded. What is rejected is informational waste. What is considered unimportant by one part of a system, however, may be deemed useful by another part of the system. A system’s viability is enhanced when the system improves its capability to notice, process, and apply a broader field of information. One individual within a leadership system may not take notice of a specific piece of information. Someone else, though, may see the relevance of that discarded bit of data and apply it for the good of the system. Each individual within the system brings a different perspective to every situation. Each person’s point of view needs to be respected if it is to benefit the whole.