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I have a client who has become a friend during the past several years. At the start of our bi-weekly meetings, we discuss gardening. We eventually get to agency growth, of course, but we start with growing things. 

You see, she is a Master Gardener and I’m, at best, an amateur. How many of you can lay claim to having the full and undivided attention of a Master Gardener every other week? Not many, I’ll bet. So you can rest assured I take full advantage of being able to talk to her every couple of weeks—so I can work on my green thumb while she works on her business. I’m totally winning in this relationship. 

During a recent conversation she and I had, we discussed a Wall Street Journal article about how to survive the pandemic by taking cues from nature. Naturally, of course. 

What You Can Learn From Nature

As it turns out, wildfires, pine cones, armadillos, geckos, and mantis shrimp hold the key to out coming out of the pandemic with our heads on straight—and a new found passion for our careers. 

The idea that we can innovate by observing and copying nature is a concept popularized by Janine Benyus, an American natural sciences writer, innovation consultant, and author. It applies to new products, such as adhesives inspired by the sticky feet of the gecko and underwater cameras suggested by the eyes of the mantis shrimp. 

But the natural world offers so much more than simply ideas for product design. It can also offer insight into how to keep up with quickly changing markets, cooperating with peers, and fostering resilience—each which are relevant to every one of us, no matter where we are in our career growth.

Many of the roughly eight million species on Earth have weathered times of intense disruption—something human beings are experiencing now. The non-human species have developed strategies to help them not just adapt to harsh conditions, but to thrive. Strategies we can learn from. 

The aforementioned article looked at five ways organisms respond to periods of extreme adversity—and the insights they hold that are valuable to you. And that, my friends, is what we’re going to discuss today: what you can learn from nature to pull yourself—and your career or your business—out of the pandemic.

Links Mentioned In This Episode

• What We Can Learn from Nature
• Janine Benyus
• Marketing In the Round
• Spin Sucks (the book)
• Spin Sucks Academy
• Spin Sucks Community

About Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago-based integrated marketing communications firm. She is the lead blogger at Spin Sucks and is the founder of Spin Sucks Pro. She is the co-author of Marketing in the Round and co-host of Inside PR. Full bio