Sustainable Organizing 1
Sustainable Organizing: A Multi-paradigm perspective of Organizational
Development and Permaculture Gardening
Graduate Student Submission to MW AOM 2011
Abstract
As organizations focus on survival in an ever-changing environment, principles that lead
to sustainability and resilience are most desired. Discourse on organizations has transcended
adaptation, presented in contingency theory, and moved onto growth, flourishing, and resilience.
Sustainable organizing supports organizational flourishing and yields positive outcomes for a
system of organizations. To support the proposed theory of sustainable organizing, a 120-day
action research case is featured. The findings of the case suggest that the application of
permaculture gardening techniques, applied to human systems, will yield sustainable organizing
which renders a thriving and resilient ecosystem. The primary objective is to contribute a theory
of sustainable organizing that supports organizational flourishing and yields positive outcomes
for a system of organizations.
Keywords: sustainable organizing; high quality connections; flourishing
1. Purpose and Research Questions
The theory of sustainable organizing is built from a multi-paradigm perspective (Gioia &
Pitre, 1990) that draws from scholarship on organizational development and permaculture
gardening. The proposed theory contributes to the practice of organizational development by
providing a point of departure for engaging a system of organizations.
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In the Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), Thomas Kuhn introduced the concept of
a paradigm. From its inception, the concept has been vague and difficult to specify. For the
purpose of this discussion, a paradigm is one of several frames of reference within a field of
practice. It encompasses the set of assumptions and common views informing professional
practice. These commonalities include theorems, proofs, axioms, principles, laws, methodology,
shared agreement on the problems of a field, and scope of the field.
Kuhn concluded that changing paradigms allows people to view their surroundings in
new and different ways. The change in thinking proposed here is that the principles of
permaculture gardening (Mollison & Holmgren, 1978; Mollison & Slay, 1992; Mollison, 1990;
Hart, 1996; Holmgren, 2002; Jacke, 2005; Holmgren, 2007), applied to human systems, can
produce sustainable organizing, which leads to organizational flourishing and yields positive
outcomes in a system of organizations. As the term sustainable has become an elusive buzzword,
we adhere to a definition of enduring.
A 120-day action research case supports the theory. During the implementation of this
case, the authors co-facilitated a plan for a sustainable permaculture garden situated at the
intersection of a number of loosely coupled organizations. As Weick (1976) noted, loose
coupling carries connotations of impermanence, dissolvability, and tacitness, all of which are
potentially crucial properties of the glue that holds organizations together. The challenges of this
loose coupling, along with the commitment to establish a sustainable organization, led to the
primary research question: When faced with a network of organizations, which practices will
best establish and sustain a vibrant garden supported by high quality connections (HQCs)?
From an ontological point of view, we view organizations as complex responsive
processes (CRP) (Trist, 1983; Trist & Bamforth, 1951) that are socially constructed (Berger &
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Luckman, 1966). Because of the emergent nature of reality in CRP, there is a deficit of methods
to support and encourage organizational thriving. Drawing from existing literature and the
featured case, this article fills that gap with a set of tools and processes that support sustainable
organizing. We situate the theory of sustainable organizing in Positive Organizational
Scholarship.
2. Literature Review
Literature from complexity theory is first explored. Second, positive organizing theories
including: high quality connections (Dutton & Heaphy, 2003), positive emotions and upward
spirals in organizations (Fredrickson, 2003), and Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider & Sekerka,
2003) are explored. Finally, as a result of the action research consultation involving the creation
of a garden, the relationship between humans and their natural environment is explored through a
review of selected literature from the fields of ecopsychology and permaculture gardening.
2.1 Complex Responsive Processes
In the past century, the discipline of organizational development has shifted from linear
models (F. A. Taylor, 1911) of planning and control, to processes in constant flux and
transformation (Bohm, 1980; Gleick, 1987; Morgan, 1998). Viewing organizations as complex
responsive processes offers a radically different perspective on the nature of organizations
(Stacey, Griffin & Shaw, 2000, p. 183; Stacey, 2001, p.p. 51-89; Fonseca, 2002; Griffin, 2002;
Griffin & Stacey, 2005; Shaw, 2002; Stacey, 2002, 2005; Streatfield, 2001). The concept of
emergence became prominent in the nineteen nineties with the advent of complexity theory (R.
Lewin, 1993; Waldrop, 1992) and is now recognized as a defining property of complex systems.
Complexity theory suggests that if there is enough connectivity between the actors in a system, a
new order will emerge spontaneously (Goldstein, 1999).
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Critchley and Stuelten (2008) describe organizations as dynamic social processes of
communicative interaction. Communication is broadly defined and includes any form of gesture
and response between at least two people, making the quality of relationships and of
communicative processes the key factors in the quality of organizations that emerge. While the
quality of relationships within organizational systems requires deliberate acts of maintenance,
too much stability will result in a loss of vitality. When this happens, it becomes the role of
managers and OD practitioners, as facilitators of CRP, to deliberately disturb the relational
patterns, allowing new patterns to emerge and creating a sense of aliveness.
Stacey (2002) suggests that leaders and OD practitioners operate most effectively by
focusing on ‘what is’ rather than ‘what should be’. He suggests that reflective conversations,
where participants engage with the emerging organization and their perception of it, are a
powerful tool for surfacing the immediate reality. Active engagement in the conversation, Stacey
suggests, will inevitably alter what emerges. CRP is a manifestation of the constructionist
principle, which suggests that as we talk, so we make (Cooperrider & Whitney, 2005, pp. 49-50).
Additionally, CRP draws attention to a shift in the role of the OD practitioner as an
external and objective intervener to a participant. As Critchley and Stuelten (2008) suggest, OD
practitioners come into an organization with their own beliefs and prejudices, which affect the
organization. In return, the perspective of the OD practitioner is also formed by the organization.
Extending this social construction, recent findings from ecopsychology and the authors’
experience during the case suggest that this interactive process also takes place between human
and natural systems.
Critchley and Stuelten (2008) perceive a clear difference between natural phenomena and
social phenomena, the latter emerging as humans interact with one another and with their
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environment. They conclude that unlike natural phenomena, social interaction cannot be reduced
to mathematical formulas. Based on this distinction, they set CRP apart from all other theories
that have offered insight about the nature of human organizing based on examples found in
nature. It is this assumption that the theory of sustainable organizing questions. We contribute an
alternative point of view, one in which emergence can be fostered through high quality
connections between humans and their natural environment.
2.2 High Quality Connections, Positive Emotions and Upward Spirals in Organizations,
and Appreciative Inquiry
The theory of sustainable organizing also draws on three constructs from Positive
Organizational Scholarship: 1) High Quality Connections (Dutton & Heaphy, 2003); 2) Broaden
and Build Theory (Fredrickson, 2001); and, 3) Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider, 1990). These
three constructs are central to understanding the intensity and the quality of the interactions
within a system.
2.2.1 High Quality Connections. Dutton and Heaphy’s (2003) High Quality Connections
construct offers insight on fostering higher levels of connectivity, which is defined by the
number of interactions between agents within a system and the positivity of these interactions.
They describe the quality of a human connection in terms of whether the connective tissue
between individuals is life giving or life depleting. Life giving tissue has three defining
characteristics: a) higher emotional carrying capacity: the capacity to withstand a higher intensity
of emotion and a greater variety of emotional expression; b) greater tensility: the capacity of the
connection to bend and withstand strain, such as occurs during conflict (Dutton & Heaphy,
2003); and, c) a higher degree of “generativity,” the capacity to “dissolve attractors that close
possibilities and evolve attractors that open possibilities” (Losada, 1999, cited in Dutton &
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Heaphy, 2003). Subjectively, HQCs are experienced through feelings of vitality and aliveness, a
heightened sense of positive regard, and the sense that both people in a connection are engaged
and actively participating. These subjective affective experiences are “important barometers of
the quality of the connection between people” (Dutton & Heaphy, 2003, p. 267). While the focus
of the HQC construct is on the quality of the connection, Dutton & Heaphy (2003, at p. 272)
report that scholars who explore human connections for their role in facilitating human growth
have identified a link between the quality of a connection and the frequency of interaction.
The theory of HQC’s offers insight into sustainable organizing by supporting frequent
positive interactions between actors in systems. “[P]sychological growth occurs in mutually
empathic interactions, where both people engage with authentic thoughts, feelings and responses.
Through this process they experience mutual empowerment, greater knowledge, sense of worth,
and a desire for more connection” Dutton & Heaphy (2003).
2.2.2 Broaden and build theory. Recent research on the impact of positive emotions have
shown that they can help people flourish (Fredrickson, 2001, 2003; Staw & Barsade, 1993; Staw,
Sutton, & Pellod, 1994). Frederickson’s “broaden and build” theory explains how positive
emotions broaden people’s modes of thinking and action, which over time builds their resources,
ranging from physical and intellectual to social and psychological (Fredrickson, 2001). Positive
emotion experiences such as joy, interest, pride, contentment, gratitude, and love, can be
transformational and fuel upward spirals toward individual flourishing (Fredrickson, 2003).
Individual upward spirals can, in turn, lead to organizational flourishing (Fredrickson,
2003). Fredrickson suggests that this happens through pathways of emotional contagion (J. M.
George, 1991; Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1993; Quinn, 2000), increased corporate
citizenship and generally pro-social behaviors (J. M. George, 1991, 1998; Isen, Daubman, &
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Nowicki, 1987), pride (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2001) and gratitude (McCullough, Kilpatrick,
Emmons, & Larson, 2001). They can also be triggered by feelings of elevation (Haidt, 2000,
2003) stimulated by observing helpful behaviors in others, or by the reduction of conflict (Baron,
1993). Fredrickson concludes that positive emotions can transform organizations because they
broaden people’s habitual modes of thinking, and in doing so, make organizational members
more flexible, empathic, creative and so on.
Emotions typically follow appraisal of personal meaning. Thus, if organizations want to
foster positive emotions in individuals, they should create a work context that allows individuals
to derive personal meaning from experiences of “competence, achievement, involvement,
significance and social connection” (Fredrickson, 2003). As described above, HQCs between
humans at work are one way to foster meaning. We suggest that the facilitation of connectivity
with nature at work offers another pathway to elicit physiological, affective and cognitive
positive spirals that broaden the human thought-action repertoire and that the HQCs created with
nature lead to HQ social connections and to greater connectivity within a human system.
2.2.3 Appreciative Inquiry. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is an organizational development
and change process designed to value, prize, and honor. Similar to the theory of organizations as
CRPs, AI assumes that organizations are networks of relatedness, and that these networks are
alive (Cooperrider & Sekerka, 2003, p. 226). Based on the constructionist understanding that
humans systems will evolve in the direction of questions that are asked, AI aims to discover the
positive core of organizations by asking positive questions. In this way, AI directs emergence
towards the desired positive outcome.
AI is a process designed to connect a system with more of itself, a strategy recommended
by Margaret Wheatley (2007, pp. 93 and 106) for pursuing greater health of a human system. AI
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does this by engaging as many people as possible in the process of discovering the organization’s
positive core. This process not only generates connectivity between individuals through shared
exploration of what gives life to an organization, but also imbues these connections with positive
emotions generated as a result of the focus on the live-giving qualities within the organization.
Hope grows and community expands (Cooperrider & Sekerka, 2003, p. 227).
During the second stage of the AI process, the articulation of a shared future vision
creates high levels of connectivity around a passionately shared purpose (Quinn, 2000). The
contribution of AI to the speed of emergence becomes clear in the third phase, the design phase,
of the AI process. When people share a vivid dream of the potential of their organization, they
are far more likely to cooperate in designing a system that might make that dream a reality.
During the final phase of the AI process, the destiny phase, top-down implementation strategies
are abandoned in order to create room for emergence of self-organizing network-like structures.
A convergence zone is created for people to empower one another, to connect, co-operate, and
co-create. Changes never thought possible are suddenly and democratically mobilized when
people constructively appropriate the power of the positive core (Cooperrider & Whitney, 1999:
18).
2.3 Ecopsychology
As was suggested above, positive emotions can also be nurtured through high quality
connections between human beings and natural systems. One of the deliverables of the action
research case was the production of a research paper that touts the benefits of a garden to a
network of organizations associated by physical proximity. This research uncovered pathologies
created as a result of human separation from nature. It also uncovered multiple benefits of
humans close connection with nature. As the authors studied these positive effects, we realized
Sustainable Organizing 9
that we ourselves were experiencing them as a result of our evolving relationship with nature and
the garden we were co-creating. The qualities of these effects felt very similar to the effects
Dutton and Heaphy described as triggered by HQCs between human beings. We believe that the
high quality connection between the co-creators of the garden and the garden itself created a
broad range of positive individual outcomes, which in turn contributed to greater connectivity
between the people in the system and the overall flourishing of the system.
Numerous studies suggest that mere visual exposure to nature can dramatically improve
behavioral and performance outcomes for groups such as prisoners, patients in hospitals, and
children in schools (Hartig, Mang, & G. Evans, 1991; R. Kaplan & S. Kaplan, 1989; S. Kaplan
& Talbot, 1983; Katcher, Freidmann, Beck, & Lynch, 1983; Moore & Wong, 1997; Orians &
Heerwegen, 1992; Ulrich, 1984; Ulrich et al., 1991; Wells & G. Evans, 2003). Of particular
interest is the experience of mutuality as a marker of HQCs. This sense of mutuality is also cited
as an outcome of a deep connection between humans and nature. Humans receive positive
physiological, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual benefits while nature in turn receives the
benefits of human protection and stewardship (Chawla, 2002; Louv, 2008). The pathways by
which these benefits accrue to humans are cognitive, emotional, physiological and social.
Rachel and Stephen Kaplan (1989) conducted research in the field of attention-restoration
and found that people concentrate better after spending time in nature, or even looking at scenes
of nature. They describe experiences of regarding clouds moving across the sky, leaves rustling
in a breeze, or water bubbling over rocks in a stream, things a person can reflect upon in
effortless attention (Rachel Kaplan & Stephen Kaplan, 1989). Architect Simon Nicholson’s
loose-parts theory correlates “the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of
discovery, to the number and kind of variables in an environment” (Nicholson, 1971).
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The findings from both physiological and self-report measures of a 1991 study on the
impact of exposure to natural views following a stressful event support the idea that recuperation
from stressors will be faster and more complete when individuals are exposed to natural rather
than various urban environments (Ulrich et al., 1991). Ulrich found that people who watch
images of natural landscape after a stressful experience calm markedly in only five minutes.
Physiologically, their muscle tension, pulse, and skin-conductance readings plummet. In The
Human Relationship with Nature, Peter Kahn (1999) points to the findings of over one hundred
studies confirming that one of the main benefits of spending time in nature is stress reduction.
Leather, et al (1998) have shown that a view of natural elements such as trees, plants, and foliage
buffer the negative impact of job stress. Farley and Veitch (2001) have established a positive
correlation between windows at work and employee well-being. Cetegen, Veitch and Newsham
(2008) isolated view, size, and office luminance as key qualities of windows that contribute to
employee satisfaction.
A study of the impact of indoor plants in a windowless work place revealed that
participants were more productive (12% quicker reaction time on the computer task) and less
stressed (systolic blood pressure readings lowered by one to four units) following the addition of
plants to their workspace. Participants in the room with plants reported feeling more attentive (an
increase of 0.5 on a self-reported scale from one to five) than people in the room with no plants
(Lohr, Pearson-Mims, & Goodwin, 1996).
From the social perspective of connectedness to other human beings, shared gardens offer
a pathway for community development and cohesiveness. They also create bonds that feedback
to support emotional well-being (Capra & Stone, 2010). As Pfeffer (2009) noted, organizations
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are made up of people and thus sustainable initiatives should consider organizational effects on
the social world as well as the physical environment.
2.4 Permaculture Gardening
The contraction of the words “permanent” and “agriculture” is credited to the mid-1970’s
collaboration between Australians David Holmgren and Bill Mollison (1978). Their approach,
merging systems thinking and design, is less their invention than their observation. The
interlocking ecosystem of plants, insects, and animals is a fundamental reality of life on Earth,
sustaining human life while it waits to be discovered as an inspiration for sustainable design of
all sorts. In the theory offered, it is adapted to organizational development processes.
Permaculture gardening is centered on a particular cultivation and design methodology,
one which uses nature as its model and strives to create a designed ecosystem modeled on natural
patterns, maximizing output (food production) while minimizing input (Mollison & Holmgren,
1978; Mollison & Slay, 1992; Mollison, 1990; Hart, 1996; Holmgren, 2002; Jacke, 2005;
Holmgren, 2007). These characteristics are the essence of sustainability in biological ecosystems.
Holmgren extracts the following twelve design principles from his study of natural ecosystems:
1) observe and interact; 2) catch and store energy; 3) obtain a yield; 4) apply self-regulation and
accept feedback; 5) use and value renewable resources and services; 6) produce no waste; 7)
design from patterns to details; 8) integrate rather than segregate; 9) use small and slow
solutions; 10) use and value diversity; 11) use edges and value the marginal; and, 12) creatively
use and respond to change (Holmgren, 2007).
3. Methods
We were aware of the theoretical contributions of Dutton, Cooperrider, and Frederickson
before we embarked on this project. We deliberately employed the practices they suggested that
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lead to flourishing organizations. We organized ourselves in relationship to the client-system
drawing from the theories of these practitioners. When we actually started developing the garden,
we experienced peace, quiet, elevation. These physiological and emotional reactions were the
result of the deep connection with the natural systems, facilitated by HQC, AI, and positive
spirals. A meta-level attention to these theories allowed us to observe the relationship of human
actors involved in the change process with the natural system.
3.1 Setting
This case examines a small community of organizations linked by geographic proximity
and a common purpose. The stakeholder organizations include: a home for the elderly
(corporation), a charter grade school (education system), a center for creative aging (not for
profit), and a center for ecological culture (not for profit). Additionally, the case aligned with the
local urban farming initiative and suggested promising outcomes for the surrounding community.
The leaders of the respective organizations had agreed to develop a part of the shared
campus into a permaculture garden. Their vision was a garden that would produce unique
benefits to each of the stakeholder groups, the community, and the city, as well as link the
organizations in new and unforeseen ways. This, it was thought, would encourage innovation and
inter-organization collaboration. The benefits proposed included curriculum development, food
yield, intergenerational interactions, land beautification, spiritual health, and holistic well-being.
The leaders of the respective organizations also planned to co-create and co-manage the garden.
3.2 Research design
A team of six researchers, four of whom are the authors of this paper, were invited to
develop a sustainable organization plan for the garden. The researchers collaborated with two
lead clients: the Director of the Center for Creative Aging and the Director of the Center for
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Ecological Culture. The lead clients were accessible, engaged, and passionate project participants.
Their energy was evident from the beginning of the project. The researchers held numerous
meetings with the lead clients during early stages of the project. These meetings established a
shared understanding and purpose which, as Hinrichs (2009) has suggested, led to commitment
and served as a linking and coordinating mechanism through the conclusion of the researchers’
role and beyond. The researchers employed an action research (K. Lewin, 1948) methodology
consisting of iterative stages of diagnosis, planning, action and fact finding.
3.3 Planning
The research team initiated the project with excitement, curiosity and high expectations
for client-system impact. The 120-day engagement was divided into four phases: 1) information
collection and discovery; 2) preparation and data gathering; 3) analysis; and, 4) report delivery.
Each team member was designated to a stakeholder group. A contract that outlined the project
timeline, objective, scoping diagram, deliverables, plan of action, resource list, logistics and
client and OD practitioner responsibilities was submitted and approved by the client.
The researchers leveraged team diversity, which fostered greater learning, growth,
creativity and overall effectiveness. The team consciously played to their strengths, which
improved both team performance and member satisfaction (Buckingham & Clifton, 2001). As
Knippenberg (2007) suggests, diverse groups are likely to possess a broader range of taskrelevant knowledge, skills, and abilities which gives diverse groups a larger pool of resources
that are beneficial in dealing with non-routine problems.
3.4 Data Collection and Analysis
Research was focused on the intersections of education, health, wellness,
intergenerational interaction, and community in the context of the garden. The team was
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dedicated to highlighting these rich and life-giving benefits of the garden that were lying
dormant and waiting to be discovered. As awareness grew, so did the connections and
interactions. Data was collected through literature review, bi-weekly onsite client meetings,
conference calls, interviews and garden events. The researchers worked with stakeholders to
develop a new course of action to help the community improve its work practices. As Peter and
Robinson have suggested, “as human beings become active in constructing social reality, they
can also act to change it for the better” (Peter & Robinson, 1984).
Telephone and on-site interviews with schoolchildren, schoolteachers, parents,
administrators, and elderly home residents were conducted throughout the project. The focus of
the interviews was on meaning making and soliciting future engagement using AI. Questions
such as, “If you were a fruit or vegetable in the garden, what would you be?” and “What is your
greatest hope for the garden in ten years? What will you have done to contribute to this vision?”
The personification of a vegetable or fruit gave insight into what an individual might contribute
or offer to a larger human system. One respondent answered, “I think I would be a lemon,
because they are colorful and bright and give a sense of cheer and joy to people looking at
them.” Another responded, “I would say broccoli, nobody likes broccoli, but it is very healthy
and has a great color”. In addition to meaning making, appreciative questions expanded people’s
sense of what is possible (Cooperrider, Whitney, & Stavros, 2008).
Garden work parties drew attendees from multiple stakeholder groups, who shared an
understanding and conviction to the purpose (Hinrichs, 2009). These events promoted bridge
building and connections between stakeholder groups, as well as between the primary
stakeholders and the research team. The high degree of connectivity fostered an atmosphere of
buoyancy, creating expansive emotional spaces that opened possibilities for action and creativity
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(Dutton & Heaphy, 2003). This connectivity also created social capital (Putnam, 2000), the
collective value of social networks and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do
things for each other. Events were promoted by email, neighborhood canvassing, and a flyer
circulated throughout the stakeholder network. Research team members reached out to their
respective stakeholder group to maximize participation. The experience was meaningful and
enthusiasm was contagious. Enthusiasm also spread when stakeholders shared inspirational
stories from the garden with their respective stakeholder group.
Data gathering also included photo and video documentation that chronicled the
transformation of the garden. Often, visual images spark more intense emotions than words.
These images allowed researchers to see what may not have been seen in the first place (King,
2010) and enhanced the dispersed team process by keeping remote members connected to the
action and progress on the ground. Distant researchers (two members of the research team) were
able to visualize the progress in a deeper way than a shared narrative alone would have allowed.
The project photos and videos were stored on a public project website. The site memorialized
and revealed the transformation as it occurred. It also served to seed further connections and
conversations, as well as a sense of participation in the meaning-making process (King, 2010)
throughout the project and beyond. A second, public website was created to support the client in
sustaining the edible forest garden. This site included the literature review, links to exemplar
sites, and inspiration, as well as the photos and videos recorded throughout the process. This site
served to foster on-going public relations and dialogue for the intersections of education,
intergenerational interaction, health, wellness, and community in the context the garden.
Additionally, the researchers leveraged a workshop at the garden that was conducted by
permaculture expert, Dave Jacke. The team observed the workshop and actively promoted the
Sustainable Organizing 16
high profile event, which served as a powerful project anchor by attracting a wider network of
passionate participants and spreading the word of the garden.
The researchers’ official involvement with the project ended with client-system report
outs on the campus. The entire research team, clients, teachers, parents, elderly home residents,
students and project team family members attended the event. It was a moving day filled with
positivity, optimism, and hope. A successful transfer of responsibility from the researchers to the
client was achieved. The culmination of exhaustive research, digging in the dirt, and the power
of HQCs created during the project was felt and sensed, with lasting implications for all
participants. According to Fredrickson,
“…the personal resources accrued during states of positive emotions are
conceptualized as durable. They outlast the transient state that led to their acquisition. By
consequence, then, the often-incidental effect of experiencing a positive emotion is an
increase in one’s personal resources. These resources function as a reserve that can be
drawn on in subsequent moments and in different emotional states” (Fredrickson, 2001, p.
220)
There was a sense of sustained commitment and energy in the air. The research team and
clients both knew this was much more than a well-executed project. There was no doubt that the
energy would sustain due to the quality of work, extensive data gathering and analysis, project
meaning and the intentional efforts to create transferrable deliverables that would broaden and
build the thought repertoires of all involved (Fredrickson, 2001). The deliverables serve as an
impetus for multifaceted action including further permaculture and intersection research,
establishing community gardens, and local and global attention.
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4. Results and Findings
The results and findings in this study exist at multiple levels. At one level, the literature
review facilitated a simultaneous investigation of complex responsive processes, positive
organizational scholarship, and permaculture gardening. Each of these provided a unique
perspective on the client request to develop sustainable organizing around the garden.
At a deeper level, applying the insight gained through the literature review to an
immediate client need provided an opportunity to test insights in evolving human organizations.
Beyond the rapid learning cycle that this immediate application created, the experience of
participating in the system of organizations while developing this system created an even deeper
learning environment for the researchers. Beyond the learning opportunity, immersion in the
client system gave the researchers a view from both ends of the microscope, studying the
developing organization while being part of the organization that was developing.
The researchers’ uniformly reported personal experiences of aliveness, presence and
buoyancy as a result of being in the garden. Several members of the team described the sense of
calm and serenity experienced through interaction with nature. They also uniformly reported an
experience of high quality connections with one another and with the two lead clients.
Additional evidence in support of the theory exists when comparing researchers’ reports
of their experience with the combination of other life circumstances that existed simultaneously
with the project. In addition to the stress of pursuing graduate education while working full-time,
each member of the team had other life stressors occur during their participation in this case. In
the midst of all the stress arising from life events, the team’s positive reports of their experience
take on even more significance. Reports from researchers about their experience, along with their
ongoing interest in working together, support the theory that sustainable organizing is enabled at
Sustainable Organizing 18
the intersection of complex responsive processes, positive organizational scholarship, and
permaculture design principles.
The key findings of this case are an extension of Holmgren (2007) twelve permaculture
principles. These principles, adapted to human systems, build the theory of sustainable
organizing. While the permaculture and design principles are the work of Holmgren (2007), the
application of these principles to human systems is the work of the authors.
4.1. Observe and Interact
Of this principle, Holmgren says, “Facilitating the generation of independent, even
heretical, long-term thinking needed to design new solutions is more the focus of this principle
than the adoption and replication of a proven solution” (Holmgren, 2007). He further says simply
copying models of land use already existing in our culture will stifle the creativity needed for
real solutions. The techniques that work on one combination of land, plants, and people may not
work with a different combination.
This design principle may be the most important one for sustainable organizing. Without
observation and interaction, even the most perfectly conceived plan will outlive its functionality
and usefulness. Organizations are sustainable because they evolve and adapt. Vigilant
observation and interaction by and with all stakeholders will ensure maturity, growth, evolution,
and adaptation.
4.2. Catch and store energy
Plants collect energy from the sun and store it as biomass, making it available for later
use. In human organizations, the transfer and storage of energy is just as complex, but is likely
more difficult to define. Groups of people, like the individuals in them, find themselves most
vibrant and alive when their activities are most closely aligned with their mission and purpose.
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The application of this design principle is to align each organization’s involvement as
closely as possible to their respective core mission. This requires each stakeholder organization
to be involved as soon as possible in imagining and planning the initial and future states. Beyond
that, it requires communication to develop and be customized for each of the stakeholder groups,
incorporating the language of a given group’s mission, vision, and values into the
communication, and connecting activity to the source of each organization’s energy.
In the case featured in this article, each stakeholder group was able to pursue an
application of their common activity to accomplish their purpose in the context of the garden.
The school gained a live learning lab for science and social education. The center for creative
aging gained another point of interaction for elders and children. The center for ecological
culture gained an exemplar of multiple stakeholder groups collaborating with one another and
with nature to achieve a self-sustaining environment. As involvement with the garden helped
each organization move closer to its mission, the energy of mutual benefit and accomplishment
accumulated and fed itself.
4.3. Obtain a yield
Beyond simply explaining activities in terms of each organization’s mission, vision, and
values, involvement must produce observable results. The task of obtaining and measuring a
yield is straightforward for garden production. It becomes much more complex to measure the
differential impact of garden participation on health, education, or personal development. Even
with these complexities, sustained participation will most likely occur when garden engagement
is manifesting respective goals of the partner organizations.
Follow-up conversations with the client-system indicate a sustained yield of interest and
involvement. Seven months after the project closed, one of the clients commented “I am in DC at
Sustainable Organizing 20
AARP, EPA and other green organizations literally presenting the garden and related programs
today and the virtual garden and related programs tomorrow… so your efforts are being well
watered and are growing well.” (Whitehouse, 2011)
4.4. Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback
Tied to observe and interact, apply self-regulation and feedback allows a system of
organizations to evolve in a stable way. Self-regulation consists of formal articles of
incorporation, by-laws, and governing principles of the partnership. Possible provisions for
feedback include a rotating board of directors or a system of voting. Less formal feedback loops
include scheduled surveys or interviews of stakeholders and curriculum elements that provide
research opportunities for students to collect feedback from garden participants.
The researchers’ work helped establish the need to cultivate elements of formal
organizing. Rather than define these as part of the outcome of the research, the team worked to
demonstrate the need for these elements and to set a framework in place within which the
organizations could organically pursue them. In doing this, the researchers encouraged cocreation among the stakeholders consistent with the metaphor of the garden. The interview
protocol created as part of the project also established a framework for gathering feedback from
garden participants in the future.
4.5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services
Observation of natural ecosystems reveals that life on Earth is dependent on cycles. The
carbon cycle traces the path of carbon from the atmosphere through the metabolism of organisms.
The water cycle traces the path of water through precipitation from the atmosphere to the ground,
to streams and rivers, collecting in reservoirs and oceans, only to evaporate into the atmosphere
and precipitate again later.
Sustainable Organizing 21
In the organizational sense, the renewable resource is the people involved in sustaining a
network. If the network is thoroughly integrated there will be an ever-renewing source of people.
4.6. Produce no Waste
In a biological ecosystem, this principle relates to the idea that the waste of every
organism is food for another. In the ecosystem of a human organization, waste arrives in the
form of purposeless activity, bureaucracy, or requirements that persist beyond their usefulness.
The concern in biological ecosystems relates more to "how can I use waste." In human
ecosystems, the more important question becomes, "How can I prevent or eliminate waste?"
4.7. Design from Patterns to Details
Patterns in nature are recurring aggregations of details. These exist in human
organizations as well. Dimensions of organizing people include division of labor (patterns
associated with who does what: specializing or generalizing? simultaneous or in shifts?
homogenous or heterogeneous combinations? dimensions of homo- or heterogeneity?)
Combining this principle with observe and interact, along with apply self-regulation and accept
feedback, leads to the conclusion that the selection of an organizational pattern is not static, but
evolving as well. Top-down leadership will be the most effective approach at some times, while
a more organic, grass-roots leadership will accomplish more at other times. The key is to
intentionally choose and implement a pattern, then observe, accept feedback, and interact to
change it when something different will accomplish more.
The pattern applied to the emergence of the garden was to keep the two lead clients at the
center of the action. They provided the vision and energy to drive the project forward, while the
research team helped capture that vision in a way that could easily be shared with others. The
Sustainable Organizing 22
research team’s focus on organizing people (volunteers, students, elders, faculty, and staff) also
helped provide the patterns for organizing described above.
4.8. Integrate Rather Than Segregate
Segregation in systems introduces waste. Biological cycles of life rely on the circulation
of nutrients. Herbivores thrive by consuming plants, while their waste excretions provide
nutrients to other plants that enable plant growth. By integrating living space of complementary
organisms, it reduces the effort (or external intervention) required by both to thrive. Points of
integration in human organizations occur at any point of difference: demographic differences,
activity differences, role differences, responsibility differences, etc. Interdependence is a
fundamental reality of life and integration across organizations, at any point of difference,
provides an opportunity for personal and organizational growth that may not otherwise exist.
The school in this case study is designed to make the most of age diversity. By creating
intentional opportunities for interaction between elders and grade-school students, the school
provides health benefits for elders while exposing the students to experience and insight that they
might not otherwise access. Health benefits for elders from interacting with children are of
particular interest to The Center for Creative Aging and have been the subject of studies by its
director (D. R. George & Whitehouse, 2010).
4.9. Use Small and Slow Solutions
Relationships between people grow from a collection of singular interactions. Trust is
earned over time. Intentionally pursuing interaction and collaboration among stakeholders is the
small, slow solution that builds relationships between human beings. These relationships are the
organizational analog of the atom or the cell. The one-on-one connection of one person to
another is the fundamental building block of sustainable organizing.
Sustainable Organizing 23
The research team explored this dimension of human organizing through interactions
with the primary client stakeholders. Following an initial face-to-face meeting, the research team
continued to meet with the clients weekly. Local team members met face-to-face while remote
members joined the meeting by telephone. The initial face-to-face meeting enriched the
subsequent remote engagement, while the physical presence of local researchers served to gauge
client reaction to the conversations, proposals, and plans for the project. Garden workday events
provided a point of relational connection for the research team, the volunteers, and the primary
client stakeholders as well. Personal interaction among participants created HQCs.
4.10. Use and Value Diversity
Diversity is a unique characteristic of forest gardens as compared to industrial agriculture
or traditional gardening. It is a fundamental element of the conception of the garden in this case
study, which arose from the participation of multiple organizations. In this endeavor, the need to
intentionally use and value diversity in the organizational sense arises not so much from the
participation in the garden as in the ongoing leadership for the garden. Providing the diverse
representation from each of the stakeholder organizations will be crucial. Ongoing leadership
involvement from each of the stakeholder groups will insure that the garden supports the
respective groups' objectives and will lead to better decisions by bridging multiple perspectives.
The research team modeled the use and value of diversity through its division of labor for
the project, leveraging individuals’ strengths as well as their physical proximity to (or distance
from) the garden. They directly and indirectly facilitated collaboration among the various
stakeholder organizations.
Sustainable Organizing 24
4.11. Use Edges and Value the Marginal
The garden itself is an edge environment because of its conception as the meeting ground
for its constituent organizations' missions. This meeting of young and old, professional and
recreational, therapeutic and educational, learning and teaching, all mirror the pattern of edge
environments where sea meets soil, forest meets meadow, and shade meets sunlight.
The research team modeled these values through the active engagement and inclusion of
remote team members in the work of the garden. The team also actively engaged people in the
neighborhood surrounding the campus by canvassing in preparation for the garden party and by
engaging curious passers-by in conversation about the project.
4.12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change
Change is inherent to living systems. It is a large part of what it means to be alive.
Creatively using and responding to change, however, takes intentional effort. This principle
loops the thought process back to the first design principle, observe and interact. It is through
observation and interaction that change is first perceived, which is a necessary prerequisite to
creative response. In the organizational sense, the influx and outflow of individual people is one
of the most obvious forms of change. Whether a new tenant on the campus, new students in the
school, or new elders in the retirement home, the flow of people through the garden will change
with the seasons. The coming and going of individuals, with their varied perspectives, talents,
and interests, is one of many opportunities to use change for growth and adaptation.
Like the diversity and edge design principles, this principle is part of the fundamental
conception of the garden. The plants of the garden flow through their individual lifecycles,
germinating, maturing, and eventually dying. The different species have different lifecycles and
their interaction over the long-term embodies change. The research team contributed to this
Sustainable Organizing 25
change by connecting the primary clients with multiple stakeholder groups. Their documentation
of the experience through the written report, photography of the site, and the promotional video
can provide a catalyst to draw others into the garden, where they can change the landscape and
be changed in the process.
5. Discussion, Limitations and Future Research
As noted earlier, our research is looking to address the question: When faced with a
network of organizations, rather than a singular organization, which practices lead to the creation
and sustainability of a vibrant garden supported by high quality connections?
The deliverables of this case serve as an impetus for multifaceted action including further
permaculture and intersection research. We proffer that by investigating the intersection of
organizations, we will begin to observe and recognize processes for sustainable organizing. The
case highlighted in this paper evaluates the garden as an intersection. Others should further
evaluate and research whether nature, as an intersection, has unique payoffs to sustainable
human system organizing. It is thought that high quality connections with nature can create
positive cognitive, physical, emotional and spiritual spirals. Other researchers should support this
claim with further empirical evidence. Additionally, other forms of an intersection that produces
unique benefits to each of the stakeholder groups should be researched.
Sustainable Organizing 26
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