transitionnorthfield Mailing List: Permaculture Principles for a Sustainable Business==I really like this.... Christine Sartor

[C S (nugs37]

Permaculture
<http://southwoodsforestgardens.blogspot.com/2010/01/permaculture-principles
-for-sustainable.html>  Principles for a Sustainable Business 


Permaculture Principles for a 
Sustainable Business by Dan Halsey
Adapting Holmgren's Principles to Business

Observe and Interact

*       Assess the Markets
*       Observe the Competition
*       Look for Opportunity
*       Become Part of the Community
*       Build Relationships
*       Build Resources


Catch and Store Energy

*       Identify Sink and Sources
*       Where does your energy come from?
*       Where is your energy lost?
*       What builds your capacity?
*       What reduces your capacity?
*       Do you have a system to Store Energy?


Obtain a Yield

*       Make a profit? 
*       Sustain your business
*       Sustain yourself
*       Sustain your family
*       Sustain your future
*       Build a buffer for change


Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback

*       The Power of Limits
*       Reduced cost is instant profit.
*       Delayed gratification builds appreciation
*       Share the wealth with your community
*       Make comparisons of quality
*       Feedback is all good
*       Toxic feedback is not feedback
*       No feedback is negative


Use and Value Renewable Resources
and Services

*       Use Durable Goods
*       Buy proven equipment (New or Used)
*       Buy outside of ego
*       Internalize your costs
*       Use local resources and talent
*       Recycle within your business
*        

Produce No Waste

*       Waste = Food
*       Everything has a life cycle
*       Look for a second life to all purchases
*       Buy for permanence and capacity


Design from Patterns to Details

*       Make broad decisions of scope
*       Refine the decision based on detailed information
*       Look for patterns, flags, cycles and system adjustments that will
increase capacity with existing resources. 
*       People Patterns


Integrate Rather Than Segregate

*       Don't live in professional isolation
*       Integrate skills, look for smarter people in areas of weakness
*       Be the smart person in a few areas
*       Keep equipment and resources doing multiple tasks. 
*       Accept unrelated options as possibilities


Use Small and Slow Solutions

*       Build systems slowly
*       Make small purchases that have huge effect
*       Build momentum with consistent vision
*       Try many small steps to find the way
*       Experiment with little failures to avoid big one.

 

*       Use and Value Diversity

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood
and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the
endless immensity of the sea" 
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

*       People will come who are like minded.
*       Avoid intellectual incest
*       Look for many sources of information
*       In work, play food, and people
*       Challenge yourself to accept diverse perceptions



Use Edges and Value the Marginal

*       Resources are at the edges
*       Opportunity is at the edges
*       The forgotten and dismissed have energy
*       The Marginalized are clear thinkers
*       Look for the Jazz in the weeds


Creatively Use and Respond to Change

*       Paradigm Shifts mean more opportunity
*       When the rules change, artists increase
*       Change is good and continuous
*       There is no normal, only the ever shifting now


Care for your self and your talent

*       Make decisions based on long term effects and capacity
*       Resist long term liabilities for short term gain
*       Drink plenty of water, Get plenty of sleep.