So what is managing holistically?

What is the essence of your business?  Profit?  Cashflow?  Debt servicing?  Sales?  Chances are none of these is the essence of your business.  The essence of your business will be embedded in what you personally value. 

 Conventionally, we use aims and objectives to move businesses and lifestyles forward.  In fact, as humans there is not a single decision we make that is not toward an objective of some kind.  However, humans are linear thinkers and seldom do we make the connections between multiple objectives because our circumstances are too complex. 

 When people first hear about managing holistically, whether it be with farming or business, they claim it sounds just like common sense.  This is true.  We all believe we think holistically but our actions are seldom holistic.  Humans actually think in a linear way, that is why we are very good at developing cars, computers, weapons, buildings and so on.  Things we can put in an equation to get an answer.  We tend to be less successful at managing things like the environment, economies, diseases, and human relationships and health, situations that involve multiple complexities that are difficult to predict through linear formulas.  The purpose of managing holistically is to improve the management of complex situations like businesses and lifestyles.

 Holistic Management® emerged as a process to regenerate the wild African savannas from desertification.  It is now used in farming, business, and policy to raises the consciousness of decision-makers when making choices about families, businesses, and communities.  Holistic managers develop a holistic goal, a kind of super goal that relates all that you value in life to the circumstances that maintain or generate it, with the how the future has to be to sustain what you value.   This holistic goal acts as true north.  All the objectives and aims of a family or business can then be tested towards their holistic goal to ensure actions are in tune with what the people are about. 

 Sounds messy and complicated?  It is not.  The testing process takes 30 seconds and actually simplifies decision-making.  There are seven guidelines that check your head and heart, social, financial, and environmental factors, for both the present and long term simultaneously.  Instead of rules and regulations, this testing process encourages people to take responsibility and be accountable for their own actions. 

 What emerges from the testing are criteria that indicate whether or not you’ve made the right choice.  What things would you look for to indicate whether or not putting your child in another school was the right thing?  Or operating another enterprise?  Opening another bank account?  Fencing off the stream that runs through your property?  The testing helps people become proactive in reviewing decisions they have made to correct any misalignment rather than just waiting and seeing what happens. 

 Compare this to traditional goal setting practices that tease out wants and needs rather than who you really are and what you deeply desire in life.  Because the management focus is on what people value (rather than what they want to have or do) family members find they have common ground that brings everybody together to have input into family activities and businesses.  As a result, the holistic goal has the power in decision-making, not traditions, customs, hidden agendas, or egos. 

 In addition, the holistic goal ties people’s values to the land on which all human endeavour depends.  Don’t believe me, how much business would you have if everybody in your area starved for a week?  Not much.  The land is the wealth of this nation and how we look after it is of utmost importance.   Many of the weed and pest issues district councils deal with result from a lack of understanding by land managers about how animals, plants, and soils function as whole situations.  Yet our education system still trains us to focus on each component in isolation from one another.

 Over all the process helps people get where they want to go faster because it deals with the very basis of management, decision-making.  It does so by challenging much of what is taught about business, farming, and finances.  It acts as an umbrella over what people are already doing and builds on their previous education and training.  The fact that commercial farmers are the largest body of users shows that it is both practical and profitable.

 There are real benefits for any organisation whether a family, business, corporation, or government.  It helps decision-makers look at themselves and the role of their business and lifestyle in a wider setting.  It helps them consider development and maintenance options regarding the health of their land, bank account, family, and community all at the same time.  As a result it minimises the reactive and negative impacts of projects and enterprises as they develop and grow towards the future the decision-makers desire.

 As a result it builds a sense of community.  When many stakeholders are involved in the struggle to manage limited resources the holistic goal in particular becomes the glue that binds such groups of diverse people together.   As a result, there is better communication, trust, and less financial outlay as stakeholders share a common purpose and use a framework to test the best options for the land and businesses involved. 

 The word holistic puts many people off but those who get involved are genuinely surprised at the impact it makes on their lives and the people they meet.  By getting them to focus on what they truly desire in their lives, many of the pressing problems people face are put into context regarding their business, family, and lifestyle.  As a result, managing holistically simplifies living because it highlights what is truly important for people.