Comments about the Six Sustainability Ratios
by Dick Knowles

Organizations behave as if they are living systems. All living systems can be characterized by their patterns, processes and structures. The patterns are like our DNA, the processes are like our digestion and the structures are like our bodies, the visible manifestations of these inner patterns and processes. The most healthy and sustainable systems have high levels of communication and coherence among all their patterns, processes and structures.

The deep patterns in organizations are manifest in six ways;

1. The way the people form their structures,

2. The way people see themselves and their relation to needs of the whole,

3. The way they sense their environment and select those pressures and changes they think are most important,

4. The way they decide on how to respond to the changes and how they intend to impact their environment,

5. The way they learn and their ability and willingness to adapt, and

6. The way they are open to and act on future potentials and possibilities.

These manifestations can be set up in the form of Six Sustainability Ratios where the numerator of each ratio leads towards more sustainability and the denominator leads towards less sustainability.

Learning about and paying attention to what these Six Sustainability Ratios teach us will help to build healthier, more sustainable organizations and a healthier, more sustainable world.