Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking

The Natural Path to Sustainable Transformation

Josep M. Coll

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000401813
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Sustainable Development
• Index: Economics

Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking explores a radical new conception of business and management. It is grounded on the reconnection of humans with nature as the new competitive advantage for living organizations and entrepreneurs that aspire to regenerate the economy and drive a positive impact on the planet, in the context of the Anthropocene. Organizations today struggle in finding a balance between maximizing profits and generating value for their stakeholders, the environment and the society at large. This happens in a paradigm shift characterized by unprecedented levels of exponential change and the emergence of disruptive technologies. Adaptability, thus, is becoming the new business imperative. How can, then, entrepreneurs and organizations constantly adapt and, at the same time, design the sustainable futures they'd like?

This book uniquely explores the benefits of applying Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking to sustainable management. Grounded in Taoist and Zen Buddhist philosophies, it offers a modern scientific perspective fundamentally based on the concepts of bio-logical adaptability and lifefulness amidst complexity and constant change. The book introduces the new concept of the Gaia organization as a living organism that consciously helps perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet. It is subject to the natural laws of transformation and the principles of oneness, emptiness, impermanence, balance, self-regulation and harmonization. Readers will find applied Eastern systems theories such as the Yin-Yang and the Five Elements operationalized through practical methodologies and tools such as T-Qualia and the Zen Business model. They are aimed at guiding Gaia organizations and entrepreneurs in leading sustainable transformations and qualifying economic growth.

The book offers a vital toolkit for purpose-driven practitioners, management researchers, students, social entrepreneurs, evaluators and change-makers to reinvent, create and mindfully manage sustainable and agile organizations that drive systemic transformation.

Chapter 1

The emergence of the new business paradigm

From the ego-system to the eco-system

A human-made world: how have we ended up here?

Humans are exponentially undermining the planet at unprecedented rates, far faster than the geological speed driven by natural processes. Probably, as World Wildlife Fund Chief Executive Tanya Steel affirms, we are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last one that can do anything about it. Environmental emergencies such as climate change, global warming, biodiversity loss, dying oceans, carbon pollution and food insecurity are evidence that the Earth and its ecosystems are seriously damaged.¹

“Welcome to the Anthropocene”, the human-made geological era.² It was in May 2011 when the Economist chose this title for its cover. A liberal economic magazine, for the first time, warned about the environmental consequences of a nature extractive economic system. Although the concept was not new, the publication was a hallmark that helped in raising public awareness on the economic externalities behind the disconnect between humans and nature.

The fact that nature-shaped humans are, paradoxically, shaping nature is the biggest problem of our time. And it comes with a sense of urgency. Human evolution no longer moves at biological speed but, rather, at much faster technological speed. Exponential impact on the Earth’s ecosystems manifested especially after the Second World War. That time is known as the Great Acceleration.³ It was characterized by intense industrial, technological and commercial activity as a consequence of globalization. The Great Acceleration fuelled hitherto unseen high levels of economic and population growth, democracy, life expectancy, schooling rates, and the birth of the welfare state in times of overall peace and stability. But this process of acceleration also came with a high ecological cost.

The flaw of the Anthropocene as a concept is time. The suffix –cene denotes an epoch, or era, which is normally associated with a long period of time. And timing, nonetheless, is a scarce resource. Through the lens of historical time, the correlation between human agency and ecological degradation is just an event, but one with enormous consequences for the planet. There is a growing scientific stream affirming that the Earth is nearing a point of no return. One study⁴ concludes that the threshold is getting closer unless the use of renewable energies starts growing at a rate of 2% a year before then.

Dealing with this uncertain urgency adds to the increasing complexity of managing adaptive systems that integrate human and natural components. With technology arbitrating between humans and nature, it is almost questionable whether the Anthropocene will last as a geological epoch. But that’s not the main point. The real issue is about change and systems transformation, before time dictates its final verdict.

The Economist precisely pointed to that issue. The British magazine posited that “humans have changed the way the world works. Now they have to change the way they think about it, too”. This statement implicitly raises two related critical questions. First, how did it happen? And second, what kind of new thinking does humankind now require?

Exploring these two questions is the subject of this chapter.

The genesis of the modern economic system: the quest for growth

Our current social system is grounded on free market economics, an idea first conceptualized in the eighteenth century by Adam Smith. The British philosopher believed that a new social organization of work was needed. He proposed an economy focused on efficient cycles of production—supply—and consumption—demand—arbitrated by self-regulatory markets and the division of labour. As a moral philosopher, Smith’s theory of change rested on the idea that an invisible hand would suffice for driving positive unintended social benefits as a result of individuals’ self-interested actions.

Zooming in on this theory of change, we can see how the invisible hand refers to the effects of competition. Free markets incentivize competition in the marketplace, which spurs innovation. Innovation drives entrepreneurs’ interests. Entrepreneurs take risks by allocating and managing resources needed to deliver value to the population—through the offering of new or better products and services or by making processes more efficient—in exchange for a financial profit. Part of this value is captured by the population in the capacity of individuals to act as producers and consumers. As consumers, our choices are expanded by means of reduced prices, increased quantity, access to and variety of offerings, or increased quality.

The reinforcement of the production–consumption cycle generates economic growth. Part of this growth reverts back to the risk-takers in the form of accumulation of capital.⁵ Part of this growth creates jobs and pays for workers’ wages. And part of this growth goes to public administrations in the form of taxes aimed at financing the welfare state (taxes on profits, wages, capital and consumption).

The benefit of economic growth was the promise that growth would improve living conditions globally. Three centuries later, has this prophecy been fulfilled? The answer largely depends on how you scope the term “living conditions globally”. Certainly, during the past two centuries, progress is undeniable. The proportion of people living in extreme poverty has enormously decreased, the global level of literacy has rampantly increased, as well as the proportion of people with basic education. Global health has improved, as measured by the reduction in child mortality and the huge increase in life expectancy. Political freedom has also improved, measured by the size of the population living in state democracies. As a result of all this progress, the world’s population has seen an unprecedented exponential growth. It has increased sevenfold over the past two centuries.⁶

This is a huge success of modern civilization, if we look at it retrospectively, but a success that comes at a price, if we take a forward outlook. The binomial correlation between economic and population growth are two of the root causes that explain the human–nature disconnect and, therefore, the anthropogenic challenges that threaten natural ecosystems today.

The quest for growth has left a huge imprint on the underlying structures of the current capitalist system. Free market economics is a social technology—godfathered by Mr Smith—that has shaped a mental model that believes in economic growth as a way of liberation. A kind of Holy Grail. Growth, as a personal and collective value, is understood as the recipe to solve our problems and the assumed stairway to happiness.

The world of Adam Smith and the Industrial age

The classical economic theories that still underpin the modern socioeconomic system, its patterns, underlying structures and mental models, were built in a much different context than nowadays. Poverty was the main economic status of a large illiterate majority, without access to education, in a sparsely populated planet. Society was structured according to a feudal-based patriarchal system based on land holdings, labour exploitation, and taxation over an agriculture-based economy. Landlords exercised an enormous control over the plebeians. Europe was becoming the global superpower by reaping the benefits of science and colonization. This context shaped the perception of reality, and in that reality the quest for growth was the perceived solution to the problems of that era.

The worldview and values system that characterized the modern industrial age were designed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The industrial revolution ca...