Permaculture principle 12: Creatively use and respond to change

Permaculture principle 12 is creatively use and respond to change — here’s how it can be used as a practical thinking tool to guide more ethical marketing and business decision-making.

This is Part 13 of a 13-part series: How to Use the 12 Permaculture Principles in Business and Marketing. If you’re new to the principles, start here. Or, you can view the full series here.

What ‘creatively use and respond to change’ means

While the permaculture principles were originally developed to guide the design of farms and gardens, they’re actually universally applicable. Let’s look at the traditional definition, then reimagine what ‘creatively use and respond to change’ means for ethical business and marketing.

Land-based definition

Anticipate and work with natural cycles, while viewing change you can’t control as an opportunity to flexibly adapt and grow more resilient over time.

Marketing definition

Work deliberately and imaginatively with change you can influence in your marketing, while cultivating flexibility and emotional resilience for what lies beyond your control.

Proverb

Vision is not seeing things as they are but as they will be — reminding us that with imagination and active hope, we can have a positive impact on inevitable change.

Translating this principle to marketing

Change is the only constant in life, as they say. And it generally shows up in two ways: things we can control versus things we can’t.

‘Creatively use and respond to change’ encourages us to notice the difference.

Then, we can make deliberate use of change where we have influence, while creatively adapting to larger-scale system change that’s beyond our control.

The key is cultivating flexibility rather than rigidity, helping us absorb shocks and changes without collapsing. This ability to bend, adapt and reorganise in response to change is called dynamic stability, which creates ongoing resilience.

Cultivate flexibility and imagination to increase business resilience

We often have solid influence over our marketing approach: we can adjust our offers, messaging, platforms or structures to spark change. That’s the easy bit, to some extent.

But we also operate within broader systems shaped by technology, culture, economics and the escalating climate crisis. This stuff can be big, hard and distressing, requiring systematic change that often lies well beyond our direct influence.

Yet we can control how we react and respond (more on that below).

Whenever I get the willies about where our world is heading, I try to remember the proverb that accompanies permaculture principle 12: “Vision is not seeing things as they are but as they will be.”

It’s a reminder that today’s imagination, active hope and foresight really do have the power to create tomorrow’s reality.

That idea underscores my Theory of Change — that small business can be part of the revolution toward a brighter, fairer, greener future.

Because there’s actually lots of things within our control as small biz owners. Decisions we can make and values we can uphold that help make our world kinder for all.

And for the billion things that lie beyond our control?

The answer there, I reckon, is cultivating emotional intelligence — possibly the most important skill to help us navigate fear, grief and other Big Feels that can accompany big change, such as the escalating climate crisis.

Take a slow and considered approach, if possible

Whichever type of change you’re dealing with, rushing is generally unhelpful.

A small change can go a long way if you first pause to figure out what’s most likely to be effective within your limited capacity.

Then, implement and wait a bit to ensure it actually works as you intended.

And so, this final principle elegantly loops us back to permaculture principle one, ‘observe and interact’, by encouraging us to observe first and think hard before starting the iterative cycle of design all over again.

How to apply ‘creatively use and respond to change’ in marketing

First, get clear on what’s inside your control versus what’s not.

Consider the Circles of Influence model

Stephen Covey’s Circles of Concern, Influence and Control are a handy systems-thinking tool for figuring out where you might be able to take action versus where you’ll just be spinning your wheels.

Work with change you can influence

• Look for leverage points where you could make a small change for a big impact.
• Avoid excessive intervention. Start with modest marketing experiments rather than massive overhauls and change one thing at a time where possible.
• Go slowly and observe what happens after you make a change, before making more.
• Be aware of entropy, the natural tendency for all systems to decline into disorder without deliberate effort to maintain them. The change needed might simply be maintenance.

Respond creatively to change you can’t control

At times, our only real option is to control the way we react and respond, which is where learning the skill of emotional intelligence and regulation comes into play.

Practical ways to work with this include:

• Building emotional capacity. Therapy can be a powerful support; I’ve personally found the Internal Family Systems approach especially useful.
• Practising self-compassion. Kristin Neff’s work, especially her free guided practices, are favourites of mine.
• Allowing yourself to feel, as emotions can provide important feedback.
• Looking forward rather than backward. Ask yourself what new opportunities or needs are emerging, rather than fixating on returning to the past. Unexpected change can be a chance to innovate.
• Planning for predictable external change. For example, January is typically a slower time in service-based small businesses, so intentionally build financial reserves ahead of time to absorb that seasonal dip.
• Shifting your mindset from ‘why is this happening?’ to ‘how can I creatively work with this or be part of a positive response?’.

What permaculture thinkers say about this principle

“Change is inevitable and often beyond our control, influence and even comprehension – how we deal with it is important. We need to be flexible and adaptable, building skills that enable us to adjust to situations. Instead of resisting change we can consciously observe and explore it, seeking the gifts it brings.” — Looby MacNamara, People and Permaculture

“The most valuable leverage points for change are usually found where our vision of the future overlaps with what’s currently considered acceptable.” — Adam Brock, Change Here Now

“Shocks make a regenerative business better. It rebounds by building the capacity to do and be more than it was before.” — Carol Sanford, The Regenerative Business

“Looking at the world at the moment, we’ve got to tread a very careful fine line between the reality of the bad news of what’s happening to our planet, environment and people, along with spreading hope for change. To be a realist and know what’s going on, it’s hard not to get depressed. But on the other hand, I see the power that permaculture gives people to be effective agents of change.” — Robyn Francis

“[Creatively use and respond to change] invites us to imagine a future world, a world without cheap oil, and a world that necessarily radically reduces its carbon load in the atmosphere. By doing this, we take the first steps towards creating it.” — Maddy Harland

“It’s a challenge to face these issues head on every day and still remain hopeful… [but] the more good things we do in this world, the greater chance we have of creating more good things. The ripples we make will reach others.” — Brenna Quinlan

Other closely connected principles

The 12 permaculture principles work best as a set of interconnected design prompts.

Each offers a different lens, and the combination creates depth, balance and a tempering effect — the holistic approach at the heart of systems thinking.

For example, ‘creatively use and respond to change’ is closely related to:

• Principle 1, ‘observe and interact’, as closely observing your business and the world around you helps you be more aware of coming shifts.
• Principle 4, ‘apply self-regulation and accept feedback’, as learning to emotionally regulate ourselves and others when change causes Big Feels is a key skill.
• Principle 7, ‘design from patterns to details’, as zooming out to consider the bigger picture can help us spot change trends that indicate what action is needed.

Thank you for tuning into this series

We’ve now officially completed the last permaculture principle in this 13-part series exploring how to apply them all to business and marketing.

As my mentor Morag Gamble says: “Permaculture is a practice.“

By that, she means it’s best learned by practice and practical application, by having a go, making mistakes, learning and trying again.

So let’s go forth with it, shall we?

If you’d like to explore more principles, you can browse the full series here.

One last note: this series is adapted from a lesson inside my Permaculture Marketing course, in case you’d like to go deeper.