Regenerative Decision-making Process for Reversing the Planet’s Eco-crises
Chapter 10 from We Can Reverse the Planet's Eco-crises
Optionality is the property of asymmetric upside (preferably unlimited)
with correspondingly limited downside (preferably tiny).
– Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Because present-day decision-making is not a process for adopting regenerative options at the exponential rate needed for reversing the planet’s ecological crises, what might a decision-making process look like for adopting regenerative options at the exponential rate needed for reversing the planet’s eco-crises?
Such a decision-making process – usable by decision-makers everywhere – might look like a simple four-step “regenerative decision-making process.”
Through a simple regenerative decision-making process:
First, decision-makers identify options for meeting their human physical needs:
Second, decision-makers evaluate the performance benefits, economic benefits and regeneration benefits of those options:
Third, decision-makers compare those benefits:
Fourth, decision-makers persuade themselves what options they want to adopt and decide to adopt those options:
A simple regenerative decision-making process delivers exponentially faster decisions – for adopting exponentially more regenerative options -- because regenerative decision-making occurs within a simple decision-making & action loop -- called an “Observe – Orient – Decide – Act” loop (an “OODA loop”) – for adopting regenerative options.
What is an OODA loop?
An OODA loop is a decision-making & action loop – developed by US Air Force Lt Colonel John Boyd – for faster and better decision-making during situations of air-to-air combat.
According to Boyd, decision-making & action occur during a recurring cycle of a decision-maker observing a situation …
… orienting to a desired outcome …
… deciding what to do …
… acting on the decision …
… and observing the results of the action to cycle again through the OODA loop …
In a competitive situation (like air-to-air combat), a decision-maker that can process this cycle quickly …
… observing the situation (sighting an enemy fighter) …
… orienting to the desired outcome (defeating the enemy fighter) …
… deciding what to do (deciding what maneuver) …
… and acting more rapidly than an opponent (executing the maneuver) …
… can “get inside” the opponent’s decision-making cycle and gain a winning advantage …
In a cooperative situation (like reversing the planet’s eco-crises), a simple regenerative decision-making process within a simple OODA loop (a “regenerative OODA loop”) delivers:
exponentially faster regenerative decision-making
for adopting exponentially more regenerative options
that deliver exponentially more regeneration benefits
for scaling back the extraction flows & pollution flows of the Human Enterprise and allowing the planet’s regenerated biosphere to reverse the planet’s eco-crises.
Through a decision-maker observing and measuring the delivered benefits from decision-makers’ adopted options …
… then orienting to deciding exponentially faster to adopt exponentially more regenerative options for delivering exponentially more benefits …
… and then deciding exponentially faster to adopt exponentially more regenerative options …
… the decision-maker acts exponentially faster to adopt exponentially more regenerative options and deliver exponentially more benefits …
… and then observes the delivered benefits from the decision-maker’s adopted regenerative options, and cycles again through the simple regenerative OODA loop …
Decision-makers’ exponentially faster decision-making -- using a simple regenerative OODA loop -- creates the adoption of exponentially more regenerative options for delivering exponentially more benefits …
Decision-makers everywhere adopting exponentially more regenerative options delivers exponentially more regeneration benefits for scaling back (or “de-growing”) the extraction flows and pollution flows of the Human Enterprise …
… and, at the same time, keeping intact the Human Enterprise for meeting every human being’s physical needs …
Scaling back the extraction flows and pollution flows of the Human Enterprise allows the planet’s biosphere to regenerate itself …
The planet’s regenerated biosphere reverses the planet’s ecological crises as a whole …
… and allows the planet to heal itself …
Through decision-makers’ exponential adoption of regenerative options, decision-makers everywhere shift themselves and all of us …
… from an unlimited downside of exponentially growing incurred pollution flows …
… to an unlimited upside of exponentially growing avoided pollution flows …
… from an unlimited downside of exponentially growing species extinctions …
… to an unlimited upside of exponentially growing number of species per area …
… and from an unlimited downside of exponentially growing incurred costs due to exponentially growing damage to the biosphere’s regenerative capacity …
… to an unlimited upside of exponentially growing avoided costs delivered by regenerative options that decision-makers want to adopt ...
In the next chapter from We Can Reverse the Planet’s Eco-crises, you will learn how to design, build and use a computer-implemented application (an “app”) – usable by decision-makers everywhere – for exponentially adopting regenerative options and reversing the planet’s ecological crises.
I’m super grateful for your likes, replies and shares.
Thank you for reading and aloha!
P.S. I cross-posted this article on Medium to give it greater reach.