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The Key to Management is Trust

PIJ #40, June – Aug 1991

Very often ‘management’ is mistaken for control. And control usually leads to friction and so is inefficient – there is wasted energy. Control also stifles creativity, our best management tool. True management then, is a far more subtle relationship in which trust, communication and control intermingle towards common goals. And the key to it all is trust.

Possibly the only way to lasting peace and harmony, whether between states or within communities or even families is the gradual dissolution of the hierarchical approach and the building up of trust.

And so too with the Earth. We try to control the earth as we do people. We call it management. But true management of the earth and its resources is about understanding and trust. If we do not trust the millions of years of development that has brought the earth to today, if we do not trust the ability of the earth and its ecosystems to provide what we need when we manage it (instead of trying to control it) we are doomed to fail.

The ecosystem is in a constant state of change based on a series of cycles. Take the water cycle, for example. Water falls from the sky in some form or another: rain, dew, fog, hail, snow. With a well covered soil it will enter the ground and can be used by plants and transpired back to the atmosphere. Or it can enter the ground water from where it will often move underground to join small streams, bigger streams, rivers and finally the sea. If we could fully understand this very simple process and trust its existence, trust this cycle as being the most effective way to sustain our water supply, we would design our use of the land to catch all that water. We would ensure complete soil cover all the time instead of desperately going to the end of the streamline and building huge dams, often to silt up. Trust the water cycle, cover the soil, sink the water, then streams and rivers will start running again. Then perhaps build small dams, starting high on the watershed.

As another example, take the soil and its mineral cycle. For millions of years trillions of microscopic organisms in the soil have been breaking down dead organic matter into humus, a part of the soil, to hold the soil together with minerals in a form that can again be used by plants. Suddenly we have ceased to trust this complex process and have stopped trying to manage it. Instead, we are attempting to control it with our own supply of minerals in the form of chemical fertilizers. Like in any management setup, control leads to the need for more control, until the situation slips into chaos. With more and more fertilizer the result is a dead soil, easily eroded and unable to sustain much growth without still more fertiliser. Until we trust those trillions of microorganisms to do the work for us and design our use of the land to allow them to do so we will continue to try to control in ever more desperate ways.

Look at pesticides. In natural systems an equilibrium between predators and prey exists. There is no such thing as a pest plague. But we do not trust the ways of natural systems. Instead we create huge areas of one crop, spray deadly poisons around that do far more than just killing the insect they are aimed at. The pests grow resistant, we use more pesticides and make newer and stronger varieties, again in an evermore desperate attempt for absolute control.

Perhaps we should start intelligently managing the Earth again. The key to such management is trust.

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