What role does energy play in nature?
Everything that lives has an energy economy. It takes in energy (sunlight, nutrients), and processes that energy so that it can be stored or utilised for action. Plants process sunlight. Animals eat plants and each other. And humans eat plants and (most also) animals. And together, this forms biomass that has steadily increased over the course of evolution.
A single cell has an energy economy that keeps life processes going. These consist of interaction patterns between diverse components that together ensure that the cell can continue to fulfil its function in the larger whole. You see this division of labour and specialisation at the level of a cell, an individual plant, animal or human, and in larger ecosystems. Similarly, an ant colony or a monkey family as a whole has an energy economy. The same applies to social relationships between people: networks.
Conclusion: the social capital in a network of people is stored energy originating in sunlight.
Energy in evolution
Non-living systems also have an energy economy, think of the weather, for example. The special thing about living systems is that, against the laws of entropy, they do not fall apart. They take in more and more energy and convert it into higher forms of division of labour and specialisation, complexity and beauty. If this were not so, the primordial soup would never have progressed. Humans are newcomers to the evolutionary process and have contributed significantly to increasing complexity. But human networks are also subject to the ordering principles of everything that lives on Earth. If we could bring our behaviour more in line with these principles, our lives would probably become a lot more pleasant for ourselves and healthier for the planet.
Seven organising principles
We identify seven principles that guide everything that is alive.
The first two create conditions for life.
Principles three, four and five ensure growth and reproduction.
You can tell whether the organism is healthy from the last two.
Self-organisationLife organises itself. It consists of components connected by patterns of interaction. This makes division of labour and specialisation possible.
The mechanisms to keep this interplay healthy are in place.
Life thrusts towards ever higher forms of collaboration, with more complexity and beauty.
As humans, we have a natural need for cooperation: it provides meaning and security. We are social creatures. Intuitively, we know what it takes, even though we often form beliefs that go against it.
Consequence: Trust that people intuitively know what it takes to keep their relationships healthy, even if it is not always apparent from the behaviour they show.
IdentityA living system has an identity, with a boundary between inside and outside. That boundary provides a stable inner world in which interaction patterns can do their work.
That boundary is permeable to nutrition, energy, and substances produced by the organism, allowing it to perform its function in a larger whole.
A viable and healthy network of people has an outer boundary. This is necessary for sufficient stability within the identity of the network. But also as an individual, you have a boundary within which you feel safe and where no one else has any business.
Consequence: Make clear what brings people in the network together, and provide sufficient safety in which vital space can grow. Working together always requires giving up some autonomy. On the edge of whether or not to let go of your own protection, the dynamics of a network take place.
Find out more in the Coherence Circle.
CompetitionA living system is always in flux. There is competition among its components. Competition pushes to develop qualities and select the most efficient division of labour.
Competition between people gives energy: people seek challenge and this makes games and sports fun.
Too much competition creates its own limits:
- Exhaustion: The struggle to win makes short-sighted. Resources are depleted.
- Adaptability declines: Those who want to win have to specialise, but can no longer move with it when circumstances change.
- Opposing forces are rising: Anything excluded becomes a counterforce.
In nature, competition is often a matter of eat or be eaten. As humans, if we want to build a level of complexity and beauty in which competition plays a healthy role, this requires the awareness that winning in the sense of dominating and excluding does not contribute to it.
Consequence: Make sure competition remains healthy. Challenging each other fosters trust ("We can apparently disagree with each other too") and a better division of labour. Avoid exclusion and domination. Healthy competition serves complementarity.
ComplementarityA living system is complementary. Its components complement each other through division of labour and specialisation. Competition is healthy as long as it serves complementarity in the system.
Networks of people derive their strength from the way the individuals complement each other. Diversity helps in the ability to find effective responses in changing circumstances. In a healthy system, division of labour and specialisation increases, and with it complexity.
Complementary systems reach their limit when complexity grows faster than the mechanisms to hold the system together.
In the chaos, competitive elements seize their opportunity. Their function is to tear down what is not well-connected, making room for innovation.
Consequence: Find effective ways to complement each other so that together you can achieve more than what you could have imagined beforehand.
Pulsating growthWhen living systems, or parts of them, no longer perform their function, they break down. Degradation mechanisms are built in. This creates space for new life, which feeds on the breakdown products. This is the life cycle of conception, growth, flowering, breakdown, death and new life. Ecosystems also usually develop in fits and starts.
Similarly, collaborative forms of people such as organisations and networks have a life cycle. In the growth phase, there are initiators, creativity, enthusiasm and anything becomes possible. Warm processes prevail. But sooner or later, cold organising takes over: the emphasis is on tasks, duties and accountability. If the relationship between warm and cold is not restored in time, the structure has had its day and it is time for something new.
Consequence: If you notice the energy is off, you have two options:
- Go back to the inspiration that brought the network together, and get the energy flowing again. To do so, use the tools of this site.
- Say goodbye respectfully. Thank each other for everyone's efforts, and look for new networks in which the movement can continue.
If you don't do this, degradation is accompanied by damage.
AbundanceA healthy living system produces abundance. This allows it to survive times of scarcity, providing nourishment for other forms of life. A healthy ecosystem has mechanisms to redistribute abundance.
Healthy organisations and networks create abundance, which gives room for creativity, innovation and contributions to others. A high-energy network can take a punch.
It becomes unhealthy when the surplus accumulates somewhere or is withdrawn from the system.
Truly healthy people are a blessing for those around them.
Consequence: Everything that gets attention grows. Those who assume scarcity create scarcity. Those who think in abundance contribute to abundance, to share.
ResponsivenessA healthy living system is able to renew itself as the environment changes. This keeps it connected and subservient to its environment.
Organisations that are flexible enough to move with the market last the longest. Networks are healthy when signals of imbalance in the environment are spotted early, and used to reinvent themselves when necessary.
Consequence: In everything you do in a network, ask yourself whether this makes the network better able to fulfil its function in a bigger picture, to pick up the signals of change and to find effective responses to them. This is the legitimisation for the free actor.
Read more: free actors