Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine M. Benyus is the 16th book I read in the Read 30 Books in 30 Days Reading Challenge. If you’re not a joiner, buy my e-book, Read 30 Books in 30 Days Like Francis Bacon instead?
Biomimicry
Read 30 Books in 30 Days Like Francis BaconPatterns in Nature
There’s a personal story behind the book, Biomimicry
. Close to 15 years ago, a friend told me about a Biomicry workshop in Toronto. At the event I liked what I heard. I got the book, tried to read it, and it never happened. I guess the time wasn’t right until now for me to digest the information. There’s a lot that anyone can learn from this book.
Book Bite: Information processing is the crux of all problem solving. Take in information, process it, and pass it on to initiate action. Look for and fix the root cause of a problem. Instead of using one idea, combine two or three to see what happens.
Participating in the read 30 books in 30 day reading challenge has been an interesting experience for me. This reading challenge is about tackling your pile of to-be-read nonfiction books.
I had a list of books that I planned to read during this reading challenge, but I quickly abandoned them. Some of the books I ended up reading I found while searching for books in my Kindle app. Out of the 33 books I’ve read so far, about eight of them are really excellent. And a few of them are off the beaten path.
I’m continuing with this reading challenge because I don’t think I’ve done a good enough job going wide with the topics I’ve been reading about. You need to be inputting new information into your brain and not covering the same information. To get the most from the Read 30 Books in 30 Days Reading Challenge I personally need to go wide.
I want to reiterate that I’m reading these books with the purpose of getting ideas to pivot my business.
What is Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature About?
What can you learn from nature? How can your business evolve solutions the way nature does? In Biomimicry, I was struck by the statement that a species cannot occupy a niche that appropriates all resources – there has to be some sharing. A species that ignores this law destroys its community and expansion. Is that what human beings have been doing? Is that what your business has been doing? If we observe nature, there is enough for everyone, so there’s no reason for people to grab all the resources for themselves.
“There’s a sweet spot between chaos and order, gas and crystal, and wild and tame? In the sweet spot lies a powerful, creative force of self-organization.”
The author says that diversity is the cheapest form of pest control. How much diversity will we need to get functional stability. As I was reading Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine M. Benyus, I was hunting for information that I could apply to business. And there were a few.
Here are my interpretations of Biomimicry as I see it related to business practices or other practices we can adopt.
- What unnecessary business practices can you get rid of? This is about eliminating excess.
- Design with nature’s wisdom. Look at velcro, that design was inspired by nature.
- Ask what the land can offer and not what we can wring from it. Might we interpret this as asking what we can offer as a service instead of how much we can take from others?
- Design a self-supporting system? How does this apply to what you do?
- What are nature’s most stable and productive communities? What can we learn from them?
- Learn how to read nature. Take a walk in nature every week. Contemplate what you observe.
Nature Has at Least 4 Tricks of the Trade
- Life-friendly manufacturing processes: Nature manufactures its materials under life-friendly conditions. No one can yet make materials as finely crafted, as durable, or as environmentally friendly as those of nature. How can we improve manufacturing processes so that they better align with nature?
- An ordered hierarchy of structures: Organisms grow by using structures that work. What are the right structures for your business?
- Self-assembly: Nature grows materials from the bottom up by self-assembling. On the other hand, human beings expend a lot of energy to build things from the top down. People take bulk materials and carve them into shape. If we flipped this around, would what we create be more durable and sustainable?.
- Customize materials through the use of templates: This is very relevant because the most successful businesses have systems in place. They customize systems and procedures with templates they use over and over.
Other Important Lessons from Biomimicry
- Instead of using one idea, combine two or three to see what happens.
- Information processing is the crux of all problem solving.
- Take in information, process it, and pass it on to initiate action.
- Look for and fix the root cause of a problem.
- Optimize instead of maximize.
How to Judge Innovation
- Will it fit in?
- Is there a precedent for this in nature?
- Will it last?
Your answers have to be yes to the following questions.
- Runs on sunlight.
- Uses only the energy it needs.
- Recycles everything.
- Rewards cooperation.
- Banks on diversity.
- Utilizes local expertise.
- Curbs excess from within.
- Taps the power of limits.
- Is beautiful.
Final Thoughts: Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine M. Benyus
This is a short synopsis of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature
by Janine M. Benyus. It’s not easy to read books such as this one, especially when they’re outside your area of expertise.
However that’s why we need to read such books to push us outside of our comfort zone. That’s where creativity will likely happen. As I was reading, I was looking for information and ideas that I could apply. And I found several. When I saw Information processing is the crux of all problem solving, I stopped to think because that’s accurate, though I’d never thought about it that way.
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