Humans have excelled in designing and handling complicated machines, but at the same time are failing miserably to manage complex systems, many of which are living. Whether it is child education, farm animals, communities, or ecosystems – we seem to screw these things up whenever we apply our scientific lens to it. All too often, our plans go wrong and have negative outcomes that nobody expected.
Holistic Management is a planning procedure for managing complex living systems to mutually benefit humans and planet earth. This requires building up natural systems in ways that can support us in the long run. Complex systems can be farms, family businesses, communities, landscapes, or government policies. The Holistic Management process first assesses the context in which a system shall operate –decision makers, the resource base (people, environment, infrastructure, land, etc), and financials. The process then lays out the state how a future resource base needs to be, in order to meet our long-term goals. This present and future state of our system are called “Holistic Context”. Holistic Management then starts by defining HOW a group wants to transform the current situation into the future “Holistic Context”: the values and relationships that this transition shall foster. Finally, it helps participants finding actions and move toward this Holistic Context. Each proposed action is tested against a list of criteria: Does it help the transition from the current situation into the future Holistic Context? Do we maintain our values and relationships, build our resource base, and stay within our financial means? Holistic Management also helps participants to define milestones, monitor progress, and adjust track as deemed desirable.
Holistic Management was originally developed specifically for grazing large herds of animals in dry climates, with the goal of reversing desertification (see Allan Savory’s Ted Talk). However, the method was soon applied by all kinds of farmers successfully. Almost all well-known “regenerative farmers” rely on Holistic Management for their decision making! Furthermore, Holistic Management increasingly is utilized for the design of business strategies and public policies.
Many academic studies have failed to measure the success of Holistic Management, which has ignited a significant debate. In my opinion, one reason is that some of Allan’s followers have overstated the role of grasslands for carbon sequestration (“reversing climate change”). Another reason is that Holistic Management is always a whole-system approach that is very difficult to assess from a disciplinary, reductionist scientific lens and a “one-factor-at-a-time” scientific experimental design. A recent article by Hannah Gosnell attempts a balanced assessment in this polarized debate (Gosnell, Grimm & Goldstein 2020). Allan Savory grew tired of academic attacks and now focuses on practitioners, who successfully apply this method all over the world.
For more information, please visit the Savory Institute’s website https://savory.global/.
Thorsten Arnold was recently appointed as Holistic Management Professional Educator through the Savory Institute, and would gladly support your group in getting started with establishing a Holistic Management framework for your farm endeavors.
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