Holistic Decision Making
We are constantly making decisions, and these decisions have an impact on every aspect of life, often far removed from the site of the decision. The choices we, our neighbours, and governments are making, and have made in the past, changes the way we live in often incomprehensible ways, and has led us to where we stand today … economic unpredictability, social instability and environmental degradation (virtually every inch of land on the planet today is managed – the result of human decisions). We need to challenge the way in which we make decisions and be cognisant of the continual greater understanding of how emotions and prior experience (including in utero) shape decision making capacities of people.
Our current decision making tends to focus on a single aim, hoping for a simple solution. We often don’t consider the broader vision we have for our lives or think about the decision against the values we hold. Likewise, the impact of our actions in an environmental, social and economic sense are rarely considered. We seldom assess our daily decisions to make sure they match the quality of life we seek. We are often focused on the symptoms instead of the causes for concern in our life, and are guided simply by our likes and dislikes. We resist change, comfortable in the safety of doing the same old thing, rarely looking at the broader implications of our decisions and actions.
However, holistic decisions making is one way to provide a decision-making framework, and was predated by agroecology, biodynamics, Keyline etc that have their own themes and approaches. Each approach is worth investigating as you discover what works for you.
Managing Holistically1
Nature functions in wholes – The complexity in which we manage means you cannot change or control something in one area without it impacting on something else in another area.
Observe and understand the environment that you manage – Taking an action in one environment may yield a totally different outcome if you took the same action in a different environment.
Define what you are managing – Holistic management requires you to think about what you are managing. Initially, that is done by considering the people, equipment and money that are available as resources. Secondly, you will need to create your Holistic Context, that is why you want to manage holistically. This is considered through:
1. Quality of life: a description of how you want your life to be.
2. Your future resource base: a description of how your resource base must look for you to continuously meet a level of production that will allow you to live the quality of life you stated.
What we are managing, and a covered ground is a key management aim – You need to know about the four ecosystem processes on your land – the mineral cycle, water cycle, solar energy flow and community dynamics.
Play with a full deck – consider all the tools – You need to consider all the tools that may be available to you. They are technology, fire, rest, grazing animal impact and behaviour, and living organisms.
Livestock can be a tool to improve the health of land – Animals are critical to the health of the land, and we mimic that predator prey relationship by using grazing planning.
Check your decisions – Undertake a decision-making process using a relevant tool or framework to step you through the important factors that you need to consider. The decision process allows us to ensure we have considered the Social, Environmental and Economic outcomes and impacts of our decisions. This is ALWAYS with reference to our Context (our ‘why’) to make sure we are progressing to where we want to be.
The Brittleness Scale
The brittleness scale is about the evenness of humidity in the atmosphere over the course of a year. It is not about the quantum of rain that falls. If you have periods of the year when it is very dry, and it does not rain for a prolonged period of time, before returning to a wet season then you have seasonality in rainfall. This is brittle tending. When there is little seasonality, you are non-brittle tending. The bigger the difference is between seasons (the tropics for instance) the more brittle tending your location is. But we also need to be aware that there is variability within seasonality.
First Nations Perspective
Regenerative agriculture is not prescriptive; rather, it is a mindset of conceptualising, investigating, developing, and applying context specific and holistic practices to regenerate the environment, economy, community and develop a culture committed to equity, collaboration, and diversity.
The holistic system is greater than the sum of its parts. This is perhaps why Western science struggles to quantify regenerative agriculture. Conversely, First Nations culture is entirely comfortable in dealing with diverse, complex, and holistic systems.
There are several learnings we can take from First Nations in decision making. First Nations people will make decisions that benefit all First Nations people. Decisions are also made for happiness and well-being; and decisions that align with First Nations values and ethics. For example, water is protected first and foremost because it is not only vital for life, but it is vital for spiritual wellbeing, mental wellbeing, and recreation.
References
1. Summarised by Glen Chapman from the work of the Savory Institute (https://savory.global/)
