Right Scale, Resilient Watersheds: Managing Complexity through Nodal Networks
02 July 2013 | Article
What does the group of Wall Street traders focused on banks of computer screens have in common with the watershed communities of South America’s Gran Chaco, the second largest ecosystem on the continent; the priests of Bali, where some of the earliest evidence of irrigation used in rice cultivation is found; the Arctic Circle’s indigenous communities of herders and hunters; and National Heritage Areas? A great deal.
They all (1) evaluate information in much the same ways (scale, timeliness, credibility, action, risk, and uncertainty); (2) act both tactically and within a large-scale vision; and (3) serve others outside their own group.
However, the Bali, Arctic, and Gran Chaco groups go further in considering the outcomes of their management practices because any mistake they make will have direct consequences for their individual lives and for the lives of their communities.